Services Offered at Boston Osteopathic Health

What to expect at your osteopathic visit

After a thorough history and an osteopathic physical exam, the patient, preferably dressed in loose comfortable clothing, lies down on the treatment table. Typically, your osteopath will place his or her hands underneath or over some part of the body to evaluate tissue function and structural dynamics.

A thorough diagnosis connects the patient’s history and physical exam to the structural evaluation. Treatment involves a gentle hands-on approach to free the areas of the body in which motion has become restricted. By cradling the head, the sacrum (tailbone), or other areas of the body, gentle pressures and repositioning movements are applied to free the bones, tissues, and fluids that have become restricted. During treatments, some patients only sense a gentle touch while others feel their body change immediately. Some simply feel a deep sense of relaxation, and others feel nothing at all.

On occasion, different techniques or modalities may be used, based on what the osteopath feels is most appropriate for you at that time. These may include gentle soft tissue techniques, such as counterstrain or myofascial release, or thrusting techniques, which DO’s call “high velocity-low amplitude” technique. All of these modalities are performed with very little force. Whatever techniques are used, the principles upon which the treatment is based do not change. We are still looking for the health within our patients and are working to support the innate capacity for healing within them. Therefore, we will always discuss what we are going to do with you before we apply any new modality of treatment and we will apply it with respect for your comfort and for the needs of your system. There are rarely, if ever, contraindications to the use of Osteopathic treatment, even though there may be a particular technique that might not be appropriate for an individual patient based upon their condition or their preferences.

An initial osteopathic consultation is 60 minutes with follow up visits scheduled for 30 minutes. The osteopathic manipulative treatment itself is usually 20 minutes in duration.

The treatment of infants and children

Osteopathic treatment of children is safe and effective for infants through adolescents for a variety of conditions. Accommodations are made to make your baby or child as comfortable as possible with the treatment process, but it is not uncommon for babies to cry at some point during a session. It has been our experience that this is often a physiologic response which enhances the effects of the treatment. We may ask for your help in engaging your child with soothing music, toys, books and stories, which can be effective ways of helping them to gain the most benefit. Babies may fall asleep during the treatment process and are generally more relaxed following OMT, often sleeping more soundly that evening.

It is important to realize that even the “normal” processes of labor and delivery and of growth and development are stressful events for infants and children. We believe that it is valuable, therefore, to treat babies as soon as possible after birth, even if the birthing process was not considered to be “traumatic”. We also recommend osteopathic treatments every 6 months throughout childhood, when their bodies are changing rapidly and dramatically.