Let’s talk about the Walk-In clinic. We’ve wrapped up our first two weeks at Original Health and Wellness and what we’ve found out so far is that our big idea to make an appointment free dedicated time for treatment is actually a big success. In the last two weeks on weekday mornings between 9-12 we’ve treated about 50 patients! In our private practices Jill and I treat between 50-60 patients in a week, so that’s 50 more treatments that couldn’t have happened if we didn’t have those walk-in hours. What’s it like coming to the walk-in? Let me tell you.

The Walk-In clinic always has at least 2 practitioners, sometimes 3. That means in 3 hours we can treat between 12-18 patients. So far, we haven’t had to turn anyone away. When you walk in, you just sign your name in the attendance sheet and if it’s your first time you can grab an intake form and fill it out in the waiting area. When you sign your name, you’ll have a good idea how many people are there before you. Between treatments, a practitioner will come out a let you know in about how much time you’ll be treated and from there, depending on the time, you are welcome to chill out in the waiting room or check out the neighbourhood for some great coffee and snacks while you wait.

When it’s your turn, a practitioner will bring you into the beautiful sun-drenched (if the sun ever comes out) semi-private treatment area. We have a couple tables in there. Your practitioner will go over your intake form and a few safety questions before beginning treatment. Since the space has other treatments happening at the same time, it’s a really great place for everyone to be quiet and rest. Some calming music is playing and you can just relax while a practitioner gets you on your way to feeling better.

When treatment is over, your practitioner will give you their opinion on what is causing the discomfort you came in with and will offer their opinion on the best treatment plan. That plan could consist of:

Coming back to the walk-in for a follow up
Booking in with a practitioner for ongoing treatment
No follow up, the problem is completely resolved

So far, we’ve had children, parents and grandparents in there, and everyone is given our very best effort. If you have any hesitations or questions about the process, please free to EMAIL US and we’ll be happy to answer them.

Marc

I want to start this adventure by saying that this blog will be a shared effort between two very dear friends. Marc and I met in 2012 at the Canadian Academy of Osteopathy in Hamilton, where we had both enrolled in a 4-year private college to become Osteopathic Manual Practitioners. (Osteo - what now? I’m going to come back to that.) We had both come from other places for the program and had decided to live in nearby Toronto and commute to school for the whole 4 years. It turned out that we lived about 3 blocks apart and we ended up carpooling for the sometimes 45 minutes, sometimes 3 hours (I hate Toronto traffic), drive to-and-from Hamilton each day for school.

Over those 4 years Marc and I spent countless hours in a car or a classroom together. We have seen each other in every possible mood and through all the ups-and-downs of life happening as we worked our way towards our degrees. In 2014 we opened a student practice together at the Village Healing Center in the west end of Toronto. When we started, we rented a single room from a massage therapist for half a day each because we had no patients and no idea what we were doing. We would go to the Center together and hang out in the empty room doing homework and hoping someone would come by that needed our help. By the time we graduated in 2016, we both had full and thriving Osteopathic Clinical practices. We took on 3 full-time offices in the Center, brought 2 more Osteopaths to our team and had 2 students working part-time as well. We worked our tails off to make that practice grow. And it grew.

On January 1st, 2020 we took on our next tag-team adventure as we opened our own private clinic at 168 Annette Street in “The Junction” neighbourhood of Toronto. This new space will allow us to grow again, and already we’re realizing that it will be another opportunity for us to work our tails off. We have taken on new team members, included other complimentary modalities that we believe are vital to holistic health, run our own clinical practices AND (most exciting of all) we have opened the only Walk-In Acute Care Osteopathic Clinic in Toronto. This idea was a major driving force behind our move and something we have both wanted to do since starting our original practices in 2014. This brings me back to Osteopathy and my career as an Osteopathic Manual Practitioner.

That probably requires some explaining and is part of the reason we are starting this blog. What is Osteopathy? What is it for? What is it not for? And who needs it? This will be an ongoing conversation that we will have over the next few weeks. Be sure to stay tuned each week for a new article!

Jill