What is Osteopathy?

Osteopathy is a type of manual therapy that focuses on the whole person, with the goal of dissociating adjacent tissue that has become adhered or restricted, potentially causing pain, a lack of mobility, and/or impaired function.

Osteopathy treats every kind of tissue in the body, including skin, muscles, joints, bones, organs, blood vessels and nerves, and all the fascia that contains and connects them. If an organ is adhered to the body wall, it will prevent the body from moving into full rotation, side-bending, or forward or backward bending. The body-cylinder should be able to move around the contents, and if it can’t, range of motion will be reduced, and pain might result.

All tissues in the body are connected to each other via a three-dimensional fascial web, and despite being connected loosely, each tissue should be able to move independently from its neighbours.

If you hold your shirt down tightly onto your thigh and try to lift your other arm over your head, you may discover your shirt is restricting your arm movement. Similarly, if tissue is adhered in your lower belly or legs, perhaps due to a caesarian, hernia or hip scar, that restriction may be the reason you have difficulty reaching. Although the fascial web connects them, there should be adequate slack to allow for full arm range of motion. In this scenario, treating the restriction in the lower abdomen would resolve the shoulder issue with greater success than treating the shoulder alone.

If you have a health problem, and you feel you have tried "everything", consider osteopathy, a gentle, holistic approach to addressing functional movement, pain and health issues.

To set up a complimentary consultation, please text me (604.728.1203) or email me (vreni@movementforliving.ca) and I would be happy to help you out.