What do Osteopaths do?

"What do Osteopaths do?"

As an Ottawa Osteopathic Manual Practitioner, this is a frequent question for me. Here are a few facts that might help answer that question:

Osteopaths are trained to diagnose and treat pain originating from your musculoskeletal system. They treat primarily with their hands using gentle manipulations, mobilisations of your joints, muscles and spine. One of the main principles taught osteopaths is that the body has an innate ability to heal itself. So when an osteopath is treating you they are helping your body to help itself. They are expert at identifying physical causes of pain including muscle strains, ligament sprains, joint issues and spinal misalignments.


When assessing your pain issues your osteopath will take into account not only where the pain is located but also your overall health and how that is interacting with your presenting problem. Osteopaths are often trained in diet and nutrition and understand the close link between the health of your musculoskeletal system and the food you eat. They have a truly holistic approach to health.

All Osteopaths are trained in pathology which is the study of disease. They learn this because sometimes physical pain can originate from a disease process which is happening in the body. This knowledge means that they can identify conditions that are not appropriate for osteopathic treatment and in such a case they will refer you to your physician.

Osteopaths also trained to identify and treat non-disease physiological problems which have  a structural origin. For example, stomach or tummy problems can often be caused by restrictions in the spine that can be easily resolved by osteopathic treatment.

Osteopaths are trained in pharmacology, which is the science medication, they have a good understanding of the effects and side effects of drugs this is extremely important as if clients are taking certain medication this can contraindicate them from particular types of osteopathic treatment.

These are just a few of the things what do osteopaths do?