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What is osteopathy?

Walking along Trail Bay, the biggest concern I have on my way to Sechelt's Gibvey Clinic (gibvey.com) for my first osteopathy appointment is my lack of a serious ailment.

Walking along Trail Bay, the biggest concern I have on my way to Sechelt's Gibvey Clinic (gibvey.com) for my first osteopathy appointment is my lack of a serious ailment.

The best I can come up with is an ongoing computer-related wrist ache, which has recently morphed to include my right middle finger turning white and going numb occasionally. That last fact is more freakishly embarrassing than painful, frankly.

But no matter the magnitude of pain, as I am about to learn, the practice of osteopathy still has lots to offer me. For the focus of this treatment is to get to the root cause of any condition, however complex or simple on the surface.

Research tells us that the body is ever compensating, right from the cellular level to adapting whole tissue structures, while it tries to heal itself. By honing in on possible sources of pain or discovering an original injury, osteopathic practitioners assist in guiding the body's natural responses through what is sometimes called manual medicine (treatment via the hands).

"Osteopaths will treat anything attaching to a bone, surrounding a bone or within a bone cavity," Bonnie Gibbon, Gibvey Clinic co-owner explains.

"We will treat pain that is due to an imbalance in your structure or dynamic and static postures," adds Richard Gibbon, osteopathic practitioner, husband of Bonnie.

Oftentimes, it isn't your low back that is causing the pain, he notes for example. That's why your first appointment with an osteopath usually includes a global and local structural, postural and functional analysis. The body is treated as an integrated, whole unit rather than a bunch of parts.

The most common types of ailments treated by osteopaths are musculoskeletal in nature, such as low back pain, neck pain, tendonitis, headaches. But osteopaths also readily treat visceral and organ pain and malfunctions originating in the liver, gall bladder, uterus, ovaries, etc, Richard explains. As holistic practitioners, they simultaneously address underlying emotional and/or spiritual systems to enhance healing too.

And so, my first osteopathic session begins like this:

Seated across from me, Richard patiently explains the many facets and benefits of his holistic approach to healing and bodywork. He's extremely intuitive and gently asks about my nutrition, work and habits relating to my health, emotions and happiness. We also touch on sugar and coffee consumption, drinking, anger, fear and sadness!

Then there is the structural/postural analysis (standing front, back, sides), which reveals a great deal of imbalance, starting with my head. Let's just say if I were a marionette puppet, there would be a lot of strings to untangle and realign before I could perform properly.

After that, as soon as I am up on the treatment table, Richard hones in on a potential trouble spot high on the back of my neck at the base of my skull. Just as I am about to remind him that it's my wrist, not my neck that is bothering me, I notice a warm sensation running down my spine and arm, through my hand, to the tip of my tingly middle finger, which is now bending involuntarily as if on cue.

He works on my neck, shoulder and arm (in a massage style) for quite some time and I am left feeling a great sense of release and lightness in my wrist (with no numbness in my finger) afterwards.

Richard explains that osteopathy treatments are designed to reveal the true source of pain and optimize healing in three to 10 sessions (After the $120 first consult, cost is $100 per session).

Even after just a brief demo, as I wave goodbye, that ambitious treatment schedule feels quite probable.