Episodes 1-6 and Episode 12 are FREE and available here or where ever you get your podcasts (Apple, Spotify, Google, etc.). For all other episodes, you will need to subscribe through Patreon for only $5 per month. Thank you for supporting our exploration of the Osteopathic experience.
In this episode we will explore “Osteopathic Palliative Care.” From the earliest phases of Osteopathic history, palliative care has formed a key component of the Osteopathic approach to healthcare. We address the important question: What is Osteopathic Palliative Care?
We start with an Osteopathic Origin Story, the account of A.T. Still caring for Harvey Hildreth who was dying from esophageal cancer in 1886. Harvey was the father of his close student and personal friend: Arthur Hildreth, DO.
We’ll delve into how Osteopathic palliative care is far more inclusive and intimate than palliative care in the prevailing medical culture. Because of the all-inclusive nature of Osteopathic treatment, our approach includes care for people with chronic or even incurable problems, as well as end-of-life care that is most often associated with hospice care.
In this episode we will be simulating an Osteopathic treatment while you work with a practice partner. You will then use the skills presented in these workshops with your patients, in your office.
In this workshop, you will identify “the health” as a perceptual field, treat or remove an obstruction, and then re-engage the health. This back and forth style is a common way to structure an Osteopathic treatment.
We want you to get, out of your head and into your hands. We don’t want you to merely think about health as a cognitive process, we want you to have an experience of health.
In this, and the next workshop, we have created a set of experiential workshops providing an opportunity for you to have a direct experience of health. These episodes provide the foundation for being in the territory of experiencing health, rather than just staying with the map of ideas. We want you to get out of your head and into your hands. We don’t want you to merely think about health as a cognitive process, we want you to have an experience of health.
We are introducing our new podcast educational format—the workshop. Episode #8 will be the first in a series of podcasts that will be experiential, rather than purely didactic. In this episode, Bonnie will be offering a guided meditation for you to explore your perception of health. She will be introducing the phrase, “To Find Health” as a type of osteopathy-based mantra that will help you to find health, in yourself as well as in your patients.
This meditation is an attempt to help set the context for you to experience health and to create a holistic environment for an Osteopathic Treatment to fully unfold. If you are not an Osteopath, then do this meditation regularly, in your daily life. This meditation has the potential to improve the quality of everyone’s life.
All forms of meditation are an inquiry process. This episode, and future workshops will help to create a perceptual container, increasing your ability, “To Find Health.”
In future episodes, we will be developing what we are calling Attention-Based Osteopathic Meditation. This will be a series of guided meditations that will enhance your ability to be present with your patients, or in your personal and professional life.
In 1899, the founder of Osteopathy, Andrew Taylor Still declared, “To find health should be the object of the doctor. Anyone can find disease.” What a radical outlook! This apparently simple statement from Still defines the difference a DO makes. The recognition of health as a reference point and the origin of healing is what makes Osteopathy distinct from all other healing arts and sciences.
Osteopathy did not invent health, we just identified it as a perceptual field and learned how to reliably access it for the benefit of our patients. In this episode we will be exploring the biologic field of health in greater detail based upon the Osteopathic experience.
The most common definition of health is to characterize it in the opposite, “health is the absence of disease.” From an Osteopathic perspective, health is NOT merely the absence of disease. Health has no opposite. It is unequivocally complete and present as long as a person is alive.
We define the concept of health as “a distinctive biologic matrix within a living being that interfaces with every aspect of structure, with all of the physiologic processes, and with the totality of all psychological states (both conscious and unconscious). It is the milieu, the growth medium, and the nutritional source of the therapeutic processes.”
It is health that organizes and manages your response to whatever diseases or dysfunctions challenge you. Without health there is no creative compensation and adaptation, for what has been challenged by aging, disease, dysfunction, or injury, and life ceases.
A. T. Still created a paradigm shift in health care. This radical departure from the use of disease as the exclusive orientation or treatment was the single most important expression of Osteopathic philosophy as it emerged as an enhancement to nineteenth-century American health care. Osteopathy distinguishes itself no less today as an approach based on trust in the ability of the human body to heal itself and self-regulate, given the proper conditions.
This podcast will be the first in a series of episodes exploring key historical components of the Osteopathic experience that we call “Osteopathic Origin Stories.” We will present momentous historical events that shaped the early development of Osteopathy. We know that understanding our traditions will give you a better appreciation of who we are as a healthcare profession and why we are remarkable. Our first episode in this series is this presentation of the epic First Osteopathic Treatment, which took place in Macon, Missouri in the autumn of 1874. Andrew Taylor Still recounted this case history in the “Autobiography of A. T. Still.” At this point, Dr. Still had not fully formulated the principles of Osteopathy. The development of Osteopathy as a healing art took 18 years of empirical experimentation and intense study. Still’s earliest style of manual medicine was based upon the hands-on healing practices of Magnetic Healing combined with traditional art of bonesetting. He blended the metaphysical concepts of Magnetic Healing with the physical principles of biomechanics found in bonesetting. He further developed his technique, evolved his style, integrated precise anatomic diagnosis, created a philosophy of healthcare, and called this system Osteopathy.
In this episode, we explore an innovative approach to enriching your inner life as an Osteopath. The Osteopathic Ways of Being are not formally a part of A. T. Still’s teachings. However, they are congruent with the basic Philosophy of Osteopathy and with the spirit of A. T. Still’s approach to healthcare. The Osteopathic profession has tended to ignore the inner life of the Osteopath. We can apply the Osteopathic approach to our inner life. Our inner life is reflected in the outer expression of the Osteopath, and strongly influences the quality of patient care. Who we are, affects how we treat. Our level of awareness of internal events (us) influences our ability to sense and perceive external events (our patients). By attending to your “Ways of Being” you can become a better Osteopath. Being a better Osteopath, is clinically significant.
This episode will continue to answer the question: “What is Osteopathy?” The Osteopathic approach to healthcare is the clinical application of Osteopathic philosophy. We will explore the “Ten Major Principles of Osteopathic Treatment.” We have thoughtfully organized what we know to be the most important ways in which an Osteopath applies the art and science of Osteopathy.
Osteopathic philosophy forms the foundation of the distinctive Osteopathic approach to healthcare. Andrew Taylor Still did not give us a book of Osteopathic techniques, instead he gave us a rich and detailed philosophy—hidden in plain sight—in his extensive published works. These “Ten Key Concepts” form the basis of the work of our hands, revealed in what we call Osteopathic Manipulation. We as a profession are much more than the undemanding four tenets of Osteopathy outlined by some professional organizations. This podcast explores the extensive philosophy of Osteopathy in an accessible and conversational manner that presents the authenticity of our profession to the world.
This episode starts by asking an important question: What is Osteopathy? Osteopathic Medicine is a healthcare system that uses Osteopathic manipulation and the clinical application of Osteopathic principles in patient care. We discuss the etymology of the word “Osteopathy,” licensing of a DO inside and outside the United States, explain the differences between an Osteopath and Osteopathic Physician as well as the differences between Osteopathy and Osteopathic Medicine, and finally we will delineate key terms and definitions relating to the Osteopathic profession. Most importantly, Osteopathy does not exist without the inclusion of Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine.
We developed this podcast out of our passion for Osteopathy and the recognition that our profession needs a more intimate discussion, or a conversational approach to who we are and what we do.
Join us for a glimpse into what we have in store for you in the coming episodes of Osteopathy Unplugged.
Be well, listen deeply, and stay curious.
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