Osteopathy is a natural and holistic medicine, which aims to treat the whole patient rather than only his/her presenting symptom.

The goal of an osteopath is to find the root cause of any disturbance and to strengthen the immune system in order to restore balance.

It is therefore a preventative and curative medicine that is complementary to conventional medicine and can treat a wide variety of diseases.

Osteopathy is a manual therapy that acts on all human bodily structures: joints, muscles, visceral structures and organs, membranes or body fluids. Osteopathy is truly meant to be a type of medicine (*1) on its own. Its core principle is to treat the whole person – mind, body and spirit.

Unlike many people may think, osteopathy is not limited to physical manipulations meant to “unblock” a painful joint. Although well known because it is very often effective to relieve joint symptoms, this aspect of osteopathy is only a small part of its scope of practice.

Indeed, the goal of osteopathic medicine is to help the body recover its inherent “vital energy (*2)”, to restore optimal health (*3), by re-energizing and allowing the body to recover its natural movement and harmony between the different body parts (musculoskeletal system, nervous system, visceral system, fluid system). This whole process will lead to an optimal immune system.

The idea is to help patients optimize their innate healing power, which will then help them face external factors (physical shock, disease, virus, bacteria, stress) in an appropriate manner. Thus, osteopathy has a major role in the prevention of health imbalance.

Osteopathy’s final goal isn’t merely to “remove” what’s wrong but rather to stimulate the body’s inner healing power in order to treat existing disease and to prevent new imbalances from arising.

*(1) Medicine: the science and practice (art) that studies the human body organization and its normal functioning, and that works at restoring health (physical, mental and spiritual) by treating and preventing disease.

*(2) Vital energy: we were all born with an inner energy that allows us to be alive. For various reasons, we don’t all have the same intensity energy. Some have great health all of their lives while others keep getting sick from an early age. This energy tends to diminish as we age, but it specifically weakens after physical trauma (whiplash, trauma to the head, back or coccyx, surgery…), emotional trauma or exposure to various types of pollutants (poor quality diet, pesticides, excessive use of vaccines or pharmaceutical drugs…). Our health directly depends on the level of our vital energy, so by stimulating patients’ vital energy to an optimum, we will help them recover health.

*(3) Health: According to the World Health Organization, “health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”.

Osteopaths are primary care providers entitled to treat patients directly without medical referral. They make their own diagnosis and treatment plan for patient care.

Osteopaths are trained in pathology relevant to their scope of practice. For any other condition, they will refer the patient out to the appropriate health specialty.

Indeed, osteopathy does not treat cancer, degenerative, genetic, infectious or mental disease nor does it treat fractures or orthopedic dislocations.

For all the pathologies aforementioned, osteopathy may provide helpful adjunctive treatment to improve your general state of health.

What is an Osteopath D.O. T.O. ?
Although insufficient, French law requires only 3 years of education to become an osteopath. Consequently, osteopathic programs in France vary from 3 to 6 years depending on the school but they all grant a degree in osteopathy (Diplôme d’Ostéopathe D.O.) to their graduates, which does not ensure a good education. The Ministry of Work and Health has created a list of 11 schools (Institut Toulousain d’Ostéopathie is one of them) that teach over 5000-hours programs, including over 1000 hours of practical clinical education, which is much more that the classical requirements by French law. Osteopaths that graduate from one of these schools, not only receive a Diplôme d’Ostéopathe (D.O.), but also a Titre d’Ostéopathe (T.O.), which is a warranty of excellent education.