Reviews & Testimonials
Hear What CAO Students and Graduates Have to Say!
We believe the best reflection of our institution is how our students feel about their learning experience with us. Here you will find what past and current students have to say about our unique osteopathy education program, clinical activities, campus life, and faculty!
Don’t forget to visit our YouTube channel, where you’ll find video testimonials from our students and faculty, as well as more information about our annual events, our not-for-profit student clinic, and much more!
EXCELLENT
Based on 155 reviews
Posted on Google
Margarita MooreTrustindex verifies that the original source of the review is Google.
Excellent education. By the time you finish the four years, you feel confident and well prepared to start working. Everyone at the CAO is very proud of what they do and genuinely cares about the students. It’s not an easy education, but everyone works very hard to make the material clear and easy to understand. I would definitely recommend the CAO!Posted on Google
Imran WardakThank you, CAO, for this opportunity! Before joining, I read a few reviews that made me hesitant, but my experience is completely the opposite. You teach a very difficult course in a way that is simple, clear, and easy to understand. It is a fun and amazing place to study, and I highly recommend it to anyone looking to enrollPosted on Google
Cindy QiAs a healthcare professional with over two decades of clinical experience and degrees from both China and Canada, I thought I had seen it all. I was wrong. Entering the Canadian Academy of Osteopathy (CAO) as a mature student was one of the most humbling and rewarding choices of my life. At CAO, every moment of the four-year journey is necessary. They don’t just hand you information; they plant seeds. In the beginning, you might feel the confusion of "just one point," but over four years, those points expand into a complete, interconnected system. It’s like watching a painting come to life. But more importantly, it redefined my relationship with healthcare. It taught me how to truly treat a patient with dignity and deep understanding. The values CAO instills in its students are a gift that you can't put a price on. If you are looking for an education that touches both the mind and the heart, this is it.Posted on Google
Matthew NadlerExcellent teaching staff and program. Very much enjoyed learning from experienced clinicians in the profession.Posted on Google
AJ PellandI am in loving my education here! The instructors are extremely personal and very open. If you like a challenge I highly recommend!Posted on Google
Connor DeanI’m currently in my third year at the CAO, and it’s truly changed my life. Coming from a trades background, most schools wouldn’t have even given me the chance to attend because I didn’t go to college or university first. The professors and staff here create an environment focused on constant improvement — everyone in the building is kind, supportive, and genuinely invested in each other’s journey. Having Mr. Johnston teach every day is incredible, he has a way of painting a picture in your mind that makes complex concepts easy to grasp. The school emphasizes thinking critically and independently, which has helped me grow not only as a student but as a person. What stands out most is how the education continues to evolve to support our success on the table, not just on paper. The longer I’m here, the more I appreciate the level of depth, care, and professionalism this program offers. I can’t say enough about how high-level and transformative this education is.Posted on Google
Cheyenne BurnhamI am a current 2.5 student, and I am loving the education that I receive from this school. I am challenged in ways I never imagined, and every day I am gaining more and more confidence that I need to help others, for years to come. I am excited to continue my education with the CAO and take the principles that I'm learning through to my career.
I actually started at McMaster with my kinesiology degree, spent some time working with some physios. I just really wasn’t liking some of the answers I was getting, so I spent some time with an osteopath, and I really just appreciated the thought process and the principle-based understanding of osteopathy, and I, for the first time, started to see patients getting better, and to me, that spoke volumes.
Before I went to school here, I did kinesiology for my undergraduate. And then, for post-grad, I did athletic therapy at Zurich University. All of those seemed very, there was a sort of segmental approach to each methodology of thinking, and, from that, when I came to this school, I started to see how you can look from the bigger picture to a smaller picture and go out to the bigger picture and treat it in a whole different way. It’s almost like engineering of the human body. Looking at the biomechanics of how things actually move in a functional way.
I had a really bad injury while I was working. I’ve been everywhere, seen everyone, done everything. But a year and a half in, I finally found an osteopath who was a graduate of this school, and he was the only one who was able to help me, and, again, with the kin background, I’d always been interested but didn’t really think it was gonna take me anywhere, and as soon as I was treated and got better, I decided to come have a look at the school.
I did a five-year undergrad at Western University in kinesiology. I loved the idea of the manual therapies, healing, helping people, that whole aspect. I had a friend of mine who introduced me to the osteopathic world and kind of told me to search it up. So obviously I searched up this one and the one in Toronto. I went on both websites and this one kind of jumped off the page. The student portal’s good, there’s videos, there’s Powerpoints. It’s got all your lecture slides, you know, from your anatomy and physiology, history, all your courses, so you can study in advance before the next mod. And you can obviously go back and study previous mods. It’s a good tool to have, definitely help your knowledge base. They set you up to succeed. The CAO to me is challenging but extremely rewarding.
My experience at The Canadian Academy of Osteopathy has been incredibly rewarding. I’m honored to be part of the program that is principle-based instead of technique-driven. The passionate faculty demonstrates the highest level of integrity by teaching the core insights of osteopathy as originally intended by Dr. Still. They’re truly committed to shaping the critical thinking skills of their students rather than producing mediocre graduates who don’t really have a solid grasp of human physiology and functional anatomy. If you’re looking for a fulfilling career in alternative health care and understand the value of helping others in your community, this is the place you should be.
They really emphasize that you learn the best when you have a thought process and you have to think through the problem yourself. If you’re just given the answers, then it’s not gonna stick as well. The CAO is the most amazing, unique, and motivating learning environment that I could ever imagine.
I made a switch from nuclear engineering to osteopathy … this is engineering of the human body. The CAO really stood apart from different schools. The well thought out, systematic approach to how the program was put together. This place is just full of passion, full of history, and it’s a really great environment to be part of to kind of drive your own further fire in osteopathy and also find other people that feel the same way that you do.
The Canadian Academy of Osteopathy has a unique learning environment where a challenging curriculum is coupled with educators who are intent on seeing you succeed in the field of classical osteopathy. The emphasis on the roots of the profession gives the curriculum substance and depth unlike the majority of other programs which are technique-driven. Anyone can be taught technique, but the art is integrating all the techniques, understanding why you’re applying them and taking into consideration the entire physiologic effect of treatment according to the principles of osteopathy. I chose this program because I feel that higher learning and enlightenment only comes with getting a true grasp of all fundamental components, not just throwing pieces of information together haphazardly. The Canadian Academy of Osteopathy has helped me understand how to do that.
The inductions process was appropriate to prepare me for my first year with the CAO. Coming from a personal training background, I had some understanding of components of what we were gonna be doing at school, but the inductions really set me up for the course load and the level of demand that it’s gonna take for me to be successful as an osteopath. By and large, it was ahead of the rest. It’s the best program I have been part of.
The Inductions Program was a great introductory course. It just kind of refreshed and solidified those basic principles that you need to be successful throughout the school and that needs to stick with you. You could go into the portal whenever you wanted to and you could watch any videos if you needed help and then answer the questions.
I was really interested in the CAO because the education it offered and how the professors and even the students just go above and beyond to help everyone in the environment. It gives that sense of being involved in a community where people actually wanna see you succeed and care about you and want the best out of you
I wasn’t going to go back to school for no reason. They gave me the most direct entry into what I knew I already wanted to pursue.
The CAO is a place where you grow, you grow in your intelligence, you grow in maturity, you also grow in personal strength, and work ethic, and endurance. This school really brought out my best qualities.
The Canadian Academy of Osteopathy is like no other academic institution I’ve come across. The faculty to student ratio is impressively high which allows each student to have constant feedback and personalized support. The program is intensive, yet more rewarding than any other learning experience I’ve had to date. I’ve experienced tremendous growth as an individual and as a practitioner. There’s something truly special about the program and its commitment to the roots of classical osteopathy. I would highly recommend it to any prospective student pursuing a career in this field.