There is a famous quote by Dr Andrew Taylor Still – “Find It, Fix It, and Leave It Alone”.  Put another way, the Osteopath seeks to find the cause of disease, remove any obstruction to health and then let the natural healing mechanism do the rest. Osteopaths are students of anatomy and nature, they observe the body to find the keystone intervention that allows the health to flourish in the individual. This is what osteopathic treatment is all about.

Samantha was seen for her migraine headaches which have been troubling her for the last 20 years. A history of her headaches is taken, any injuries that can be recalled are noted. Any medical or life events and the timeline of the headaches are noted. The quality, frequency and triggers of the headaches are noted. Previous treatments, interventions and responses are all important as well.

Next, an osteopath, we will put hands somewhere on the body – often the sacrum and base of the cranium, but this does not have to be. We scan the system to feel where the attention should be – this is the “find it”. Now, you may be thinking – the head of course!! But that is not always the case, as everything is connected and when we are palpating to feel where our attention should focus, we keep the location of the pain in mind but that may not be the most important area at that moment in time. Then an intervention is applied in alignment and with permission of the body tissues. This may feel like pressure or may feel like light touch or sometimes even involve more forceful action all while monitoring the response to the intervention. Sometimes, we may ask the patient to move or to adjust their body to help facilitate the treatment.

At the end of the treatment, the goal is to feel that the body is moving and communicating better as a whole. Then, we allow for that process to continue improving the health of the person. In a way, the body has become “stuck” structurally in a maladaptive pattern – this may be from any number of events and osteopathy works to get the body “unstuck” so it can function better.

Back to our case with Samantha, perhaps we noted that there was lack of motion of the sacrum / tailbone and subsequently the bones at the base of the skull – called the occiput. Some pressure was placed to alleviate that lack of movement and once motion was restored, again scanning for other areas involved, we focused on the parietal and temporal bone of the skull which was affecting the middle meningeal artery. After the treatment, care is taken to make sure that Samantha feels well, and she goes home. A few months later she returns to report that her headaches have lessened in frequency and intensity. The process is then repeated and perhaps, this time, there are other findings and treatments given. If we have fidelity to the principle of allowing the patient’s body to guide the treatment, we are trusting in that natural healing mechanism which is foundational to osteopathic treatment and it allows for the goal, in this case, of improved migraine headaches.

Typically, treatments are monthly for a period of time and then can become less frequent as the issue is resolved. Some patients come periodically for treatments as part of their whole health wellness strategy without a specific medical problem.