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Dr. Still was an American physician and inventor who founded the American School of Osteopathy in 1892; the first school of osteopathy opened its doors in Kirksville Missouri, and continues to operate today. After practicing medicine for a time Dr. Still realized that the traditional approach to medicine often caused more harm then good to his patients. So, using his understanding of mechanics and anatomy he started to observe and treat the body in a manner similar to how a mechanic would assess a car - ensuring all parts are assessed, aligned, and in working order. Dr. Still was able to relate physiological dysfunction to malalignments found within the body framework and musculoskeletal system of his patients based on his understanding of functional anatomy and physiology. He was able to discern that when structural dysfunctions were addressed and returned to normal, the body was better able to combat illness, disease, and injury on its own accord, and his patients symptoms gradually reduced over time.
The classical osteopathic approach aims to put your body in a position that promotes health, guiding structures back into alignment, improving the body's natural ability to heal and function on its own. I am not technically doing the work, I am just facilitating the body's innate ability to heal by realigning the structure, allowing all body systems to operate more efficiently with the least amount of stress. Then, your body takes care of the rest! Osteopathic care serves to understand the relationship between different systems of the body (immune, musculoskeletal, respiratory, nervous etc.) and create a treatment that restores communication between them, encouraging health throughout the body.
Andrew Taylor Still,
Founder of Osteopathy 1874
" To find health should be the objective of the physician, anyone can find disease"
- A.T. Still
Thorough assessment of the body guides the practitioner to areas of restriction that are contributing to the root cause of your issue. Manual techniques are used to gently adjust the skeletal framework and restore function within the fascial, muscular, and connective soft tissues encouraging healthy circulation and nerve supply to all parts of the body.
As the body responds to treatment, time between our visits will gradually expand. The final goal of treatment is to improve overall functioning of your body and its systems, so you can live day-to-day without relying on treatment.
What is Osteopathy?
Osteopathy focuses on facilitating the health of joints and muscles through gentle, non-invasive manual therapy to help realign and strengthen the structural framework in order to create stability and restore healthy communication between all systems within the body: Endocrine, respiratory, digestive, eliminatory, neurovascular, circulatory, musculoskeletal etc.