Osteopathy

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Being a DO, or a doctor of Osteopathy is one of the two ways to practice medicine and surgery in the United States. Everyone knows about MDs, but DOs are equally qualified and fully licensed to practice all aspects of mainstream medical care, as well as offering a hands-on treatment approach we call Osteopathic Manipulation. We are trained in all the ways MDs are, and in addition, we study the structure or the anatomy of the body as a way to diagnose and treat the way the body functions. Our treatments create an environment that favors the self-healing abilities of the body. 

Osteopathy often uses the musculoskeletal system as a gateway to treating the whole body. We don’t only take care of problems with bones, joints, muscles, and other connective tissues. We also address all the systems and functions of the body through our hands-on treatment.

What makes Osteopathy unique is our acknowledgment that freedom of motion is the key to health, wholeness, and the ability to heal or creatively adapt to illness, injury, or the effects of aging. My concerns have always been with the movements of all tissues, organs and systems, fluids, spaces, thoughts, and emotions. 

Osteopathic philosophy, more than specific treatment techniques guide the way that Osteopaths evaluate and treat their patients. Practicing Osteopathy becomes a worldview as well as an approach to treatment. This worldview has health as the ultimate reference point, which is radically different than having the eradication of disease as the guiding reference point of caring for people.