Here's why I refuse to be just an Osteopath

In my role as marketing director for our wellness centre I have recently taken my first tentative steps into the world of business networking. One of the first questions I get asked by people is what do you do. My answer in the past would of course be "I'm an osteopath". I would never really be comfortable with answer because although I have a degree in Osteopathic Medicine my scope of practice when I see clients goes way outside of that.

A very basic description of what a typical osteopath does is a mixture between chiropractic and massage therapy. When I left osteopathic college my main treatment methods were a combination of adjustments and massage. When treating people this approach would be very effective for treating acute physical conditions but less for long standing problems. While my chronic clients would feel somewhat better after treatments they would regularly need follow up treatments to keep their symptoms at a manageable level. This, of course, is good for business but it was not enough as I wanted to find a longer term solution.

To help me with my networking endeavours I recently attended a free seminar at Invest Ottawa called Networking for people who hate networking by Majeed Mogharreban. One of the key things I picked up from the talk was when answering the question about what do you do say what you do not what you are? The was an interesting new concept for me and made total sense for many people especially in Ottawa know little about osteopaths. Using language that people could relate to we had to describe what I did.

Here is what I came up with:

"Do you know when you take you car to the mechanic and they plug it into a computer and it tells you what's wrong with it. Well, I'm a bit like that computer. Through what you tell me and through my testing I can hopefully get to the root of the symptoms you want me to help you with. While some times I can find a temporary solution to your symptoms through physical therapy more often than not that problem is going to re occur at some point in the future."

Sometimes going to an Osteopath or any other physical therapist is a bit like taking your dirty car to the carwash. You leave all shiny clean but at some point you'll get dirty again. Most of the time you have to look under hood and see how well you have looked after your body.

I just cannot resist looking underneath that hood and so that's why I refuse to be just an Osteopath.