What is Osteopathy?
Osteopathy is a gentle, hands-on manual therapy that seeks to remove obstructions or imbalances in the body. The goal of osteopathic treatment is to establish an environment in the body where it is able to self heal and self regulate. The job of an osteopathic manual practitioner (OMP) is to find and treat the areas of restriction that are holding back the body’s ability to do this.
Whole Body Treatment
At your appointment, I will be motion testing your body, looking for asymmetries and motion restrictions. Osteopathy views the body as a whole from top to bottom, but also takes into consideration tissue layers from superficial to deep. There is often a pattern that develops with areas of restricted mobility and compensations for those areas of reduced motion. Therefore what is happening in one part of your body may be the result of what is happening somewhere else. There may also be compensations between layers of tissue. I may be treating fascia, muscles, ligaments and/or bones, depending on what is needed.
Individualized Treatment
Everyone’s body has a different history and different daily influences, so your treatment will be tailored to your specific presentation of restrictions. Following nerve and blood pathways from your symptoms to their origin, treatment is directed at finding the cause and understanding the relationships that exist between the altered structures and the altered functions in your body. Treatment aims to restore proper distribution of forces through the body so that all the parts can work together in a connected and integrated way, as a whole dynamic body.
Improve Mobility and Function
By freeing up restrictions in the body, this allows for enhanced drainage of lymph and venous pathways, optimization of the healing capacities of arterial blood (bringing nutrients, oxygen and hormones) to the areas of restriction, and improving nervous system communication and balance. All of this helps to increase the resources available to your body to self heal and better self regulate after the treatment. The better your body moves and the more coordinated the different parts of your body, the better the internal workings of your body function. Better sleep and less pain are also great goals in the therapeutic process.
How Osteopathy Can Help You
Osteopathy offers many benefits in helping people to overcome different health challenges.
When the structure of your body is out of its normal alignment, how the body functions will be influenced. Symptoms are an effect of this disequilibrium. In my search for alleviating your symptoms, I will be looking for the connection between the altered structure and altered function. When I am able to open areas that are restricted, these areas gain better access to resources that will help them to heal.
The longer an area has been obstructed, the longer the therapeutic process will take. I cannot undo permanent damage, but enhancing circulation has benefits in maintenance care of reducing the symptoms from the areas of dis-ease. It takes a few days for the changes made on the treatment table to have an effect on your overall body.
Some of the main benefits of osteopathic care are:
Pain Relief
Relieve pain and discomfort caused from various conditions such as back pain, neck pain, headaches and joint pain.
Range of Motion
Improved joint range of motion and general body mobility.
Better posture
Through improved alignment, the body is better able to load gravity so that force is more evenly distributed, which contributes to body system disharmony.
Maintenance care
Although you may have a condition that is not going away, osteopathic care can help to improve circulation and reduce symptoms to help you better manage day to day living between treatments.
Prevention care
Often times the ground work had been laid for disease or injury to occur. The areas of restriction that OMPs find that you may not have noticed (yet), are that ground work.
Equilibrium
Improve overall health and well being by addressing imbalances in body systems that work together in unity to create equilibrium and balance in the body.
Reduction of stress
By reducing compression and tension in body tissues and reducing nervous system tone, this also promotes relaxation.
Improved organ function
Through enhancing lymphatic and venous system drainage, enhancing arterial blood flow and improving nerve communication, organs are better able to carry out their jobs with normal function.
Why Choose Osteopathic Care
You may choose Osteopathic care for a variety of reasons including recovery from an injury, alleviating aches and pains, preventive or maintenance care, help to reduce stimulation of the stress part of your nervous system, or freeing up restrictions in the body that are reducing the energy you have for the things you really want to do in your day.