What is Osteopathy?

This post is meant to serve as an introduction to Osteopathy while providing a little more depth beyond recognizing it as a manual rehabilitative practice. It has a rich history and deep potential that if given the time and patience to explore, can be rewarding both as a patient and a practitioner. It’s a tall order to give full credence to this profession in words alone but this attempt will be nothing but honest and sincere, thank you for reading!

Osteopathy has a very important place in medical history as a profession that sought to consider the body and all of its systems as a functional unit first and foremost. It placed no hierarchy in the individual parts and systems of the body because Osteopathy understands that without a single part or system, the body cannot operate to its fullest capacity; the sum total is greater than its parts. In this way Osteopathy began as a philosophy- a way to think about health and healing.

Its second understanding was that the interactions of the parts and systems within the body, if maintained, would result in health; no organism in nature strives for disease if it has an alternative. Based on this idea, Osteopathy developed as a structural science emphasizing the importance of anatomy and its influence on the physiological processes that accompany the structures (and their functions) within the body. The status of these structures are responsible for function and coordination of broader systems within the body that influence your health overall.

Lastly, Osteopathy is an art form of sorts in terms of its application. There is more than just the mechanical motion of techniques at play in treatment. The nuances that exist in the patient and practitioner play a significant role through the treatment process. These three areas, the philosophy, science, and art are what make Osteopathy unique as a profession and is where it finds success in treating the human body.