Frequently Asked Questions

Osteopathy was first practiced in the U.S. in the early 1900s by doctors who noticed that structural corrections with their hands led to functional improvements in their patients without the use of drugs. In the late 1900s osteopaths diverged into two paths: in the U.S. osteopaths decided to make their training similar to that of Medical Doctors. Currently US trained osteopaths tend to do very little hands on work, preferring to work within the mainstream medical model. osteopaths everywhere else in the world decided to specialize in treating people with their hands and this is the manual osteopathic therapy that is available in the U.K., Europe, Australasia and Canada. For more information click here: http://www.osteopathyalberta.com/AAOMT/What_is_Manual_Osteopathy.html

“To find health should be the object of the practitioner.  Anyone can find disease.”

~ A. T. Still, founder of Osteopathy

The premise that we take – the principle that is at the core of our osteopathic manual therapy practice is that we appreciate your body as a whole. We understand the interconnected nature of every structure within the body: the ligaments, the muscles, the fascia, the organs, the nervous system, the blood flow and how each area has been affected by the way you live, the way you move and the work that you do. Using this knowledge is at the heart of our practice so that when we diagnose and treat we are looking at more than the symptomatic area.

All of our osteopathic manual therapists have attended a college or university that provides a minimum of 4 years full time with at least 1000 hours of clinical training for students with no prior training in health care or five years part time and at least 150 hours supervised clinical training. In addition all of our osteopaths have to complete a minimum of 30 hours continued education each year. At our office we exceed this by far as, in addition to external seminars that each osteopath attends, we have continued education each week in the form of two tutorials: anatomy time tutorials and practical hands on tutorials. All of our osteopathic therapists have trained at a school that specialises in manual treatment.

http://www.osteopathyalberta.com/AAOMT/Find_a_Therapist.html

Please note that we are not osteopathic physicians, we are trained at schools that specialize in osteopathic manual therapy. For more information on the differences please click here.

First we will ask you some questions, one on one, that will allow us to get a better understanding of your injury or illness and how best to treat you (we prefer to ask you the questions rather than have you fill out a long intake form because we like to get the details from you). Then we will have you do some gentle movements and will use our hands to feel for restrictions. After we’ve seen how you move, and felt what’s not working as it should we’ll chat to you about what we’ve found and if you’re comfortable we’ll continue with the treatment. The treatment is never the same for any two people – our training and experience allows us to figure out what type of hands on work your body needs.

We generally find that most people can be examined and treated within an hour in the first session. For follow up sessions we allow 45 minutes. Again this is the time that we find works for most people, but your session could be slightly shorter or slightly longer. Osteopathic therapy is different from other therapists, in that more is not necessarily better. If your treatment is booked for 45 minutes but what you need to be treated for is completed in 30 minutes your practitioner will wrap up early and you are welcome to use the extra time to chat to your practitioner about osteopathic therapy and about any home exercises you might need to do.

First of all, complete recovery is not always possible. We wish it was. But we will be honest with you about the possibilities and limitations of what we can do with your particular condition.

On average we see our patients 6 – 8 times over a period of 2-3 months in order to address both the obvious and the hidden causes that have stopped them from being well.

After that our patients often come to see us periodically because they find it helps them stay healthy and feel good in themselves. With chronic conditions the amount we see our patient often rises above 6-8 treatments and can be anywhere from 10 – 20 treatments or ongoing treatments in some special cases.

Usually our patients know this is going to be the case even before they see us. We are trained to understand the way that the body heals and we will be able to give you a time frame for recovery and come to a plan that suits you.

The first consultation for adults (16 & over) is $137, subsequent sessions are $105

Children under 16: $97 first consultation, $85 subsequent sessions.

We are committed to creating a healthy environment at our clinic.

• We’ve painted our walls using zero emission (No VOC) mythic paints on our walls.
• We buy our electricity from Bullfrog Power – a company that pumps renewable sources (mainly wind) of energy back into the grid based on the amount that we use each month
• We recycle and buy recycled stationary including pens, paper and ink cartridges
• Our cleaning products are free from any harmful chemicals. We source cleaning products that meet high standards of production, reduce waste and are healthy for us and for you.
• We serve medicinal grade organic teas in reusable china cups.
• Our website is hosted by a company that uses wind power to energize their servers.
• We use an online booking system rather than a paper system.
• Our hand soaps and moisturisers are all organic.
• Our massage lotion is organic and paraben free.
• And we’re constantly looking at how we can become more environmentally friendly and community minded so that the fabric of our clinic is in line with our values.

Because we take a unique look at the human body the initial consultation is a good time for us to gather as much information about your health as possible. We prefer to ask you the questions rather than you filling out a form before the appointment. We find there is so much detail that comes in discussing how your problem started and what else is going on for you now and in your past. Seemingly trivial incidents in the past can have a profound effect on your present state of health. It doesn’t matter if you can’t remember everything, but these are the types of questions you may be asked:

• What is the nature of your complaint? If you are complaining of pain then it is helpful to know about the type of pain you are feeling. For example is it:  Focal or general; sharp or achey; burning or tingling?
• When did your problem/condition start?
• Have you had anything like this before? And if so how long were the previous episodes?
• Are you taking any medications?
• What helps your condition and what makes it feel worse?
• Does your condition have a specific pattern: e.g. worse when you get out of bed, worse last thing at night, better at certain times of the month….. ?
• What physical or emotional injuries have you had over the years, for example: Car crashes, broken bones, sprains or concussions, and major times of stress?
• Depending on your initial complaint we may ask you questions about your digestive system, cardiovascular system, respiratory systems and other body systems. This is because we find that there is often a cross over between problems in the musculoskeletal system and in the organs. For example a lot of people who have low back pain have digestive issues or menstrual pain and many people with upper back tension breathe shallowly which can be an influence on respiratory problems like frequent colds or long lasting bronchitis.

We have treated patients who have fibromyalgia.  As osteopaths we are always looking for the cause of someone’s pain or illness, and believe the most effective treatments remove the cause allowing the body to be able to return to health.  With fibromyalgia there is no agreed upon cause, with most authorities citing multifactorial causes.  The same goes for the symtoms, they tend to be varied, ranging from the physical to the emotional.  We find the best outcomes usually occur when we work with a team of people who all have the patients health at the heart of their treatments.  For example working with a naturopath, psychologist and a fitness trainer seem to make the effectiveness of the individual treatments stronger.  The focus of the osteopathic treatments would be to help the correct functioning of the joints, muscles, nerves and internal organs to allow the person to be pain free as much as possible.