PROVIDED BY DANIELLE WOODS, DipOMP/DOMP

In our quest to gain knowledge of each body area, we have created a world of specialists and yet forgotten how the body’s systems interrelate and affect one another. We are a whole unit, and tensions and pressures are transmitted and balanced throughout our very adaptable body. Once our body can’t adapt anymore, pain and dysfunction results somewhere, be that in muscle or joint, or organ dysfunction, or weak areas prone to repeated injury, or in the inability to get a good sleep.

You may just feel that you aren’t ‘well’, that something isn’t right but you or your doctor can’t diagnose anything wrong. You aren’t yet in that ‘disease state’ that can be treated medically and yet you know something isn’t right. Sometimes you have been given a diagnosis but you aren’t comfortable with the treatment options that have been offered to you, often either drugs or surgery, and would like to try something else to compliment the treatments you’ve been recommended to pursue.

What is Osteopathy?

An osteopathic approach analyses the complete structure of your body. This includes not only the soft tissues (muscles, ligaments, tendons) and the bones and joints, but also the tensions that are occurring in your body and distributed via the fascial system, possibly affecting organs, bones, arteries and nerves.

“Osteopathy is the knowledge of the structure, relation and function of each part of the human body applied to the correction of whatever interferes with its harmonious operation.”
– George V. Webster, D.O., 1921

What Can Osteopathy Help With?

Osteopaths use their extremely sensitive palpatory skill to identify areas of the body that are restricted (not moving normally) or constricted (strangled or squeezed). These areas can be in any of these systems:

• musculoskeletal
• respiratory
• cardiovascular
• digestive
• reproductive
• nervous

Osteopaths identify and then gently ease the restrictions or constrictions so the body can function normally again.

Osteopathy is based on four main principles:

• Each structure in the body supports the body’s functions. If a structure is damaged, out of place, or otherwise not working properly, the body will not function at its best.
• The natural flow of the body’s fluids – lymphatic, vascular, and neurological – must be preserved and maintained.
• The human body is the sum of its parts. Its physical, emotional, social, spiritual, and cognitive systems don’t work independently -they work in harmony.
• When the body has no restrictions, it has the inherent ability to heal itself.

Osteopaths recognize that a patient is an integrated whole. When all the body’s components are in balance, a person is complete and in total health.

Much of the above information is from www.osteopathy.ca, see their website for more information

About Danielle

Danielle is an Osteopathic Manual Practitioner (DOMP), a designation accepted by most extended health care plans.