Broad View Health: About Osteopathy

Broad View Health uses safe, gentle, precise manual techniques to assess and treat the causes of your discomfort so it can help you do the things you do - better or more comfortably.

History and Overview:

Osteopathy was developed by A. T. Still in the United States in the 1870’s and the first school of Osteopathy opened in Missouri in 1892. Osteopathy is a medical profession in the U.S. – Osteopaths are physicians. The downside to such medicalization has been a shift away from the manual techniques that make Osteopathy effective at alleviating causes of discomfort and dysfunction. Medications and surgeries are part of this medicalization process.

In Canada and elsewhere, Osteopathy has maintained its focus on Osteopathic manual treatments. The premiere Canadian training institution, the Canadian College of Osteopathy, requires that all incoming students are already licensed, certified or registered health care providers as a pre-requisite to entry. Osteopathy is recognized by most insurers in Ontario.

How it works:

Osteopathic palpation is a set of diagnostic skills and precise treatment techniques that allows practitioners to detect and to affect the state of tissues. With highly trained hands, Osteopaths can sense congestion, restriction, scarring, tissue density, movement, hydration and general tissue quality. Osteopathic palpation is a skill that takes years of practice to develop.

Osteopathy is wholistic, meaning it treats the whole person. Symptoms may be experienced locally but the causes of those symptoms may be far from the site of the complaint. Osteopaths find and treat the causes of symptoms without medications or surgeries
Osteopathy is complementary to mainstream medical practice and your Osteopath may refer you to a physician for attention
Osteopathy is efficient, reducing the number of treatments you may require

Osteopathic treatments include soft tissue manipulation (muscles, fluids, connective tissues), gentle osteo-articular techniques (joints including vertebrae), craniosacral techniques (the bones and tissues of the skull, spine and sacrum), and visceral manipulations (improving organ function).