A Unique Treatment for your unique body
What Is This Osteopathy Stuff?
Osteopathy is a manual therapy for the whole body (nope, it's not a 'bone specialty'). It's unique because we try to find the cause(s) of symptoms whether they may be from the fascia, organs, brain, dura, tissue fluids, muscles, and yes, the bones and joints.
When we treat, we try to restore position (literally put parts back where they were or where they should be), restore mobility (make sure parts are gliding around in all directions), and restore vitality (make sure juices are flowing in/out for optimal energy flow). This is what manual osteopaths do to help your body with its recovery process......it's way more than just the bones!
How it Works
We are always asked how does osteopathy work? Well, the body actually wants to go back to normal after an injury! So, if you still have symptoms after a period of time, this usually means that something can't resolve by itself or adapt to the new changes. The trick is to find what is stuck or what else is holding up the natural healing process.
In most patients with persistent symptoms, there are places in the body which have already shifted, adapted, or stiffened up from older injuries over time. Anatomists can actually see these changes in the fascia - they call it, "fuzz". These parts have already reached maximal ability to adapt to injury or absorb impacts and stressors. Symptoms which, 'come and go', or 'move around' usually means these older injuries are influencing your recovery.
The body works as a functional unit, and whether it was one big hit or an accumulation of smaller traumas from years before (even things such as emotional life events, infections, pneumonias and birth traumas), osteopathy looks at the big picture and tries to figure what part(s) are holding your body back from returning to a more normal, balanced state. So whatever treatment you choose -unless your condition is degenerative in nature, if your symptoms keep coming back in the exact same way after treatment, it may not be fixing the real problem.
Cranial Osteopathy
There are many kinds of therapies that can help with the musculoskeletal system like the neck and back, but the body is much more than the musculoskeletal system. Osteopathic manual practitioners are also trained to work on all the different parts of the body, including the head and brain, viscera (organs), fascia, fluids, energy systems individually and in relationship to the rest of the body (body/mind/spirit or energy balance).
It may sound obvious; however, there are very many (expensive) therapies that don't actually treat the injured head. The vast majority of conventional therapies only use distal forms of treatment (meaning they treat other areas like the neck and spine in hopes to have an effect on the head itself).
Cranial osteopathy is direct, hands-on manual treatment of the head. It is one of the key components used in osteopathy to counteract the cascade of imbalances that can occur after head trauma. Balances within the head, and then the head -in relationship to the rest of the body, is what sets osteopathy apart from conventional therapies.
Although basic cranial osteopathy is taught in most all osteopathic colleges, not all schools are the same. Additional courses and advanced postgraduate training in head and brain injury are important if looking for a practitioner specifically for a concussion.
Osteopath or Osteopathic Manual Practitioner?
Osteopathy was founded in the United States in the late 1800s by Dr. Andrew Taylor Still. Since then, osteopathy has flourished and evolved very differently in many different countries, so the type of osteopathy practiced can vary greatly between practitioners and countries. 'Osteopaths' (DO's) are medical doctors from the U.S., who might also practice manual osteopathy. 'Osteopathic Manual Practitioners' (DOMP's) from Canada, Europe and elsewhere only practice manual forms of treatment and are not physicians.
One of the main differences is that DOs study medicine and then take courses in manual therapy, while DOMPs study manual therapy and take courses in medicine. Manual practitioners cannot prescribe medicine, diagnose, or refer for medical imaging unless they are also physicians. They do, however, require a degree in health science such as a: physiotherapist, chiropractor, RMT, kinesiologist, or athletic therapist before they can enter into the additional 4-7+ year osteopathy program.
So here, you can see how there can be differences in treatment approaches. The majority of medical osteopaths (DOs) in the U.S. have veered away from traditional osteopathy to practice more conventional pharmaceutical medicine, while osteopathic manual therapists (DOMP's), along with a small number of DO's practice manual osteopathy.
Traditional osteopathy is a natural, manual (and less lucrative) form of care, therefore challenges in research funding, regulation and recognition exist -similar to other non-pharma and alternative therapies. However patient awareness and demand for more pure and natural forms of care continues to challenge conventional or primarily pharmaceutical approaches.