Osteopathy is a system of assessment and treatment that focuses on restoring proper movement & function to the entire body. Osteopathic manual therapy uses non-medicinal and non-surgical avenues to enhance your body’s innate healing ability.
It is a very safe and gentle hands-on therapy that includes structural (bones and joints), myofascial (muscles and fascia), cranial (membranes and fluids) and visceral (organs) approaches. The ultimate goal is to re-establish synchronous, harmonious relationships amongst your body’s systems to allow the natural manifestation of health!
Osteopathy. Four key principles.
Founded by an American medical doctor, Andrew Taylor Still, in 1874, traditional osteopathy is a philosophy of healthcare based on four key principles:
- Your body is an integrated functional unit. Fascia, fibrous connective tissue, is the uniting substance.
- Structure and function are reciprocally interrelated; therefore any abnormality of structure – position, mobility – may create dysfunction either locally or elsewhere in your body.
- The movement of body fluids (cerebrospinal, blood, lymphatic) is essential for your health.
- Your body has inherent auto-regulation, defence and healing mechanisms. Treatment facilitates these natural processes by removing obstacles.
Osteopathic treatment applies these principles, grounded in an extensive knowledge of anatomy, physiology, and biomechanics, to restore freedom to the tissues, enhance fluid flow throughout the body, and create the optimal environment for healing.
The whole person. Body, mind, spirit.
Osteopaths consider the whole person – body, mind and spirit – and view disease as the inability to further adapt to stressors. Rather than focus on the symptoms, we look for the underlying causes of dysfunction – physical injury, poor posture, emotional stress…
Helping the body heal itself.
Osteopathic manual practitioners use an extremely refined sense of touch to identify alterations of position, mobility and vitality in the body. We then use a variety of gentle techniques to release the physical strains in the tissue and normalize body mechanics.
Our overall emphasis is on restoring structural and functional integrity to enhance your innate self-healing capacity.
Let me know what you think!