Dr. Gentry's Reflection on Osteopathy
The fabric of our being tells a touchable story. Our bodies are sensitive to every action, reaction, and gravitational pull. The body tells the secret of the preferred posture, the forgotten trauma, the decision to choose a flat tummy over a full breath. It records the position, the emotion, the biochemistry, the toxicology, in the fascia, in the bone, in three dimensions.
Each note is voiced in the body of she who puts bow to strings. Her elbow records each flexion, each extension, every shift of momentum momentous. A lyrical whiplash restricts the musician.
The body is connected. Of course that is true, but one wonders, how far are we willing to extend that concept? An awkward gait may compromise a knee, a hip. Yes, that is obvious. It is easy to visualize. A fall resulting in thoracic strain has excited the autonomics, raised panic attacks, quieted the intestines as they try to move. That connection is less visible. The fight or flight nerve centers, hiding deep in the back are ready to spring into action at the first provocation. All the alarm bells sound, no time for bathroom breaks, we are ready for whatever comes next. That is less obvious, less palpable, but no less believable as the anatomy and physiology are clear. The child wears braces that draw his maxilla outward into the arc of the memory wire. However, progress has ceased because of the strain in his pelvic girdle. One ring will not yield its diameter without all the others. The body is that connected, in rings and diaphragms, lines and cross patterns, neurologically, mechanically, functionally connected.
Dr. Andrew Taylor Still saw his allopathic profession lacking in appreciation of the benefits of health. He saw a greater goal than the absence of disease. He saw fluid moments, a blend of past, present, and future movements without pain. He saw bodies with optimal function, in unified condition against disease, against death. His goal is our goal, the purpose and philosophy of osteopathy. “To find health should be the object of the doctor. Anyone can find disease.” A.T. Still, MD, DO.
Osteopathy combines medical knowledge with intelligent hands, trained to seek and understand. A reflection of the natural world, osteopathy mixes quantum physics with common sense. The physician is trained to diagnose, with mind, with touch. Education is imparted experientially, didactically, tangibly. The very basics of touch delivered in layered palpation, divining our human compartments. However, the osteopathic physician knows that the patient is first touched, not with the hand. The doctor touches the patient with her countenance, her intentions, her demeanor. It should be spoken that the patient’s layers do not begin with skin, rather fear, anxiety, traumatic injury, even experience with “sick care” when health care was sought. Touch is not a commodity delivered. It is a give and take. It is a reach and a reception. It is a photon meeting an optic nerve, a vibration caressing the complex translator that we simply call an ear. Communication becomes touch. Every word is soothing or sharp. Every expression and movement loving or dismissive. We touch.
The body is connected. The bodies are connected. Touch is the beginning of interconnectedness. The beginning of everything in life was touch, our first sense engaged. Touch is a message offered by the osteopath with the intention to feel and know. The patient is an active participant, letting the body receive and respond. The beginning is a partnership with a common aspiration - health. The body is a colloid. It receives touch as touch is given. A soft touch practically pushes through, while a hammering touch meets a brick. Touch becomes communication.
Dysfunction is recognized when soft touch meets hard tissue. This is an unnatural state. The body is meant to move with breath, with pulse, with life. The soft hands meet the hard tissue and know that this is not the usual reception. But now, treatment may begin. The body is gently moved, supported, reminded of the position, the motion, the direction of health. Tissues may be softened, restored to natural order, and function, a fluid motion with fluids in motion. The arteries, the veins, the lymphatics channeling the reformation as healing begins.
The blessing in osteopathic treatment is the restoration of normal. There is nothing super human, just human. Osteopathic manipulation is meant to offer the body back its lines and rings, free its diaphragms and fascial tensions. The body heals itself. No intervention is so gentle, so accepted by the body as the invitation to heal itself.
The unbridled wonder of osteopathy is the realization that if the body is connected, truly connected, there is no structure, no cell, no fluid, no current, no component that the osteopath can’t touch, un-restrict, or improve. Touch becomes a journey. The notes of the instrument can be un-played. The effects of the fall, in the tissue, un-made. Headaches deemed impossible to cure by modern means suddenly become seekable, touchable, treatable. Nothing is outside the grasp of the osteopath with a heart to help, a curious mind and well trained hands.
Maria Gentry, D.O.