Osteopathy is a form of manual therapy which seeks to find and treat the physical obstacles that are principally responsible for preventing a person's body from feeling and functioning at an optimal level. Osteopathic medicine is a distinctive form of medical care founded on the philosophy that all body systems are interrelated and dependent upon one another for good health. This philosophy was developed in 1874 by Andrew Taylor Still, MD, who pioneered the concept of "wellness" and recognized the importance of treating illness within the context of the whole body.
Dr. Still was born in Virginia in 1828, and at an early age he decided to follow in his father's footsteps and become a physician. After the Civil War and following the death of three of his children from spinal meningitis in 1864, Dr. Still concluded that the conventional medical practices of his day were frequently ineffective, and sometimes harmful. He devoted the next ten years of his life to studying the human body and finding better ways to treat disease. His research and clinical observations led him to believe that the musculoskeletal system played a vital role in health and disease. He concluded that the body contained all of the elements needed to maintain health, if properly stimulated.
Dr. Still believed that by correcting problems in the body's structure, through the use of manual techniques now known as osteopathic manipulative medicine (OMM), the body's ability to function and to heal itself could be greatly improved. He also promoted the idea of preventive medicine and endorsed the philosophy that physicians should focus on treating the whole patient, rather than just the symptom and /or disease. These beliefs formed the basis of a new medical approach, Osteopathic Medicine.
An Osteopathic treatment is surprisingly gentle as only the hands of the practitioner are used in the evaluation and therapeutic process. Osteopathy is unlike Chiropractic treatment, Massage Therapy, or Physiotherapy and is best understood through experiencing it, as the sensation is unique.
“Simply put, Osteopathy is the art of using one's hands to engage a therapeutic process governed by the Health of the patient.”
Dr. James Jealous~ An Osteopathic Odyssey pg. 140.
Osteopathic philosophy recognizes that a person’s symptoms (with the exception of acute trauma) can take a long time to develop. A number of convoluted and interacting factors, such as previous injuries, surgeries, illnesses, pregnancies, or even major dental work, may be preventing the person from improving as rapidly as anticipated. Poor posture and undue stress can also contribute to the state of the condition.
By combining the patient’s history with the use of the hands in detecting areas of diminished mobility, the osteopathic assessment focuses on finding the cause of the symptoms, whether near to or distant from the person’s area of complaint. The treatment attempts to help the body normalize any areas of dysfunction. Thus, it is actually the patient who heals himself or herself; the practitioner's role is to facilitate the initiation and guidance of the process.
