About Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine

Osteopathic Manual Treatment (OMT) integrates engineering analysis with an appreciation of the forces animating our structure and fluid movements. The origin of these forces remains unknown. Osteopathic medicine acknowledges this as a marriage of science and vitalism providing a powerful sub-current to the practice of medicine. The effect of this sub-current is best noted by its absence. The lack of regard for the function and wellbeing of patients, and the arrogance often characterizing our current mode of medical practice. While our bodies can be likened to a machine no one likes to be treated mechanically! The thought process provides a bulwark against the forces attacking the sacred nature of the role of the physician. To practice medicine with your hands, relying almost entirely upon the patients intrinsic healing capacities is a humbling but awe-inspiring experience. This is a tradition that has proved difficult to maintain within medicine. It requires a great deal of training and dedication. We have succeeded in spreading the ideas and practices of OMM around the world and spawned many branching disciplines. However, when the practice is no longer provided by physicians, patients, and the medical profession, lose a great deal.

 

Many possess a sense of how their body works on this level. The sense that something is off, as if the hub in the wheel of our physical health has been displaced. Osteopathic care supplements the medical or surgical management of many conditions. Sometimes it is adjunctive in nature. At other times it may be the most important part of a multi-faceted treatment plan. It often meets patients’ needs as a stand-alone intervention. In the vast majority of cases it is a pleasant and extremely safe approach. Patients feel lighter, breathe easier and pain is usually relieved at the conclusion of treatment. Osteopathic treatment is nothing like chiropractic or massage. Words cannot convey the experience of being treated by an experienced osteopath. As stated by William Sutherland, DO, “When one understands the problem, the treatment is simple”.  After many years of practice my treatments appear exceedingly simple. The key is that you can feel it when I am working with you.