What is Osteopathy?

The Canadian College of Osteopathy defines Osteopathy as,

The osteopathic philosophy embraces the notion that the body is naturally capable of healing itself and the whole body must function together for optimal health. If one part of the body is compromised with an injury, then the rest of the body must adapt and compensate for this.  The practitioner of Osteopathy works with the body to detect these compensations and enhance this natural ability to self-regulate and self-heal.

What Do Osteopathic Manual Practitioners Do?

The Osteopathic Manual Practitioner uses palpation to feel or sense the state of the tissues or systems being examined. This sense encompasses the many sensory aspects of touch, such as the ability to detect moisture, texture, temperature differential, and subtle motion.

Osteopathic Manual Practitioners palpate by gently yet intentionally touching the tissues or systems under examination.  Osteopathic manual practitioners use non-invasive manual therapies that focus on achieving total body health by treating and strengthening the joints, muscles and spine as well as the body’s nervous, circulatory and lymphatic systems.  This helps to balance all the systems of the body to provide optimal health and wellbeing leading to reduced pain and greater mobility which allows the body to heal itself.

The ability to detect minute modifications in the quality of the tissues is the assessment skill that allows the Osteopathic Manual Practitioner to prioritize a patient’s course of treatment. These tissue qualities include congestion, dehydration, scarring, stiffness, density, and loss of resilience, as well as motility, which is an infinitesimal movement inherent to all living tissues. It is this sensing of the quality of the tissue—in combination with the position, mobility, and vitality of the tissue—that allows the Osteopathic Manual Practitioner to determine the tissues or systems that need immediate attention.