The Difference Between Osteopathy and Other Professions
When people first learn about osteopathy, they are often curious about its similarities and differences with other common health professions, such as massage therapy, athletic therapy, physiotherapy, or chiropractic. They all have a place in medicine, but osteopathy is unique in the way of thinking, assessment and treatment.
Osteopathy vs. Massage Therapy
The focus of massage therapy is the soft tissues and muscles of the body. A massage therapist treats tension, stress, circulation, and helps with relaxation. It’s a good option for fast muscle relief and overall well-being.
Osteopathy looks beyond the muscles, to include the bones, joints, fascia, circulation, even organs and considers their mobility and function. It looks at the actual mechanical cause of the dysfunction. Where a massage therapist may address a sore back muscle, an osteopath will want to know why that muscle is on tension in the first place — maybe because of a rotated pelvis, restricted rib motion, or postural imbalance — and the osteopathy will correct the deeper problem.
Osteopathy vs. Athletic Therapy
Athletic therapists focus primarily on musculoskeletal injuries, particularly those related to sports and exercise. They are skilled at managing acute injury, rehabilitation and exercise prescription to get athletes back to competition optimally.Athletic therapists focus primarily on musculoskeletal injuries, particularly those related to sports and exercise. They are skilled at managing acute injury, rehabilitation and exercise prescription to get athletes back to competition optimally.
Osteopathy gets involved in sports injuries too, but they would take a different approach. Osteopathy practitioners diagnose and treat using manual therapeutic techniques to restore balance in the body and allowing for improvements in movement patterns that can decrease strain on the body, preventing future injuries. For instance, while a sports therapist may develop strength and conditioning exercises for a knee injury, an osteopath may find that hip mobility or pelvic alignment is the cause of the knee being over-stressed, and fix it with their hands-on approach.
Osteopathy vs. Physiotherapy
Physiotherapy is a popular career choice that primarily deals with rehabilitation after injury, surgery or illness. They commonly utilize exercise prescription, modality (such as ultrasound, heat, or electrical stimulation), and stretching/strengthening programs to treat dysfunction. They are experts at aiding patients in regaining strength and mobility after trauma or surgery.
Unlike physiotherapy, osteopathy does not use machinery, exercises, devices or configured modalities. Instead, osteopaths manually assess and treat the body’s mechanics in the moment through hands-on examination and therapy. Where a physiotherapist may design a workout plan to repair a shoulder, an osteopath would treat what they find in the moment, and address the cause, be it rib mechanics or circulation to the shoulder, to restore the injury and allow the natural movement to return.
Osteopathy vs. Chiropractic
Chiropractic is most known for spinal adjustments and manipulation, which are specifically aimed at improving the alignment of the spine and the function of the nervous system. Chiropractors are known for focusing on the spine and nervous system as the root of many concerns.
Osteopathy is broader in scope. Whereas it too acknowledges the significance of the spine, osteopathy focuses on the whole picture: that of musculoskeletal, visceral, circulatory, and even fluid mechanics working in harmony. Osteopaths employ many gentle hands-on techniques which are suitable for all ages. While chiropractic adjustments may work at realigning the spine through high-velocity, low-amplitude (HVLA) thrusts, osteopathy more commonly works at a more gentle and subtle level to affect not only the spine, but also the local tissues, joints, and organs.
Why Choose Osteopathy?
What tenets set osteopathy apart from other professions is its distinct approach:
The body is a unit
All of these pieces are linked and need to be joined together.
Form follows function
Movement and mechanics affect health.
The body is self-healing
Osteopathy is working with, not against, nature.
For this reason, osteopathy is not confined to only one type of injury, system or method. It’s inclusive, malleable and aimed at curing the root of the problem, not just treating symptoms. It’s a career where one can provide very personalized therapy, and therapy that may, in fact, work well for the specific client. The diagnostic and treatment accuracy and skill of an osteopath depend mainly on the competence of their training.