Is there something I should be doing at home to support my treatment?
Usually the answer to this question is no in our books.  Not other than using your body for everyday use, avoiding problematic positions, postures and activities and oftentimes getting in a gentle walk (without a heavy bag or a load of groceries in your hands) to let your body integrate the changes we made in the office.  

People are often desperate for the stretch or exercise or strength move they need to do to get themselves out of their body-trouble.  But in our experience, if any of that stuff was going to work, it would have by now and usually it’s a lot of those “trying to fix it” activities that are keeping things from getting better.  

You won’t get much in the way of stretches or exercises from us in the office.   But once you’re doing better, reintroducing movement is something we love to do! 

Is Osteopathy covered under my insurance?
OHIP does not cover Osteopathy. 

Most extended health care plans do provide some amount of coverage for Osteopathic Care for the year.  Have a look at the details of your plan, as they are all different.  

Our practitioners are all members of the Ontario Osteopathic Association which is in good standing with all Canadian insurance companies.  So if you DO have coverage, it will work here.  

Do you do direct billing to my insurance?
We do not.

We do provide a receipt at each treatment that you can use to run your claim through your insurance.  

Do you crack bones?
Cracking things is never the goal of Osteopathic treatment.  We do move your body around. And we do adjust tension and compression in joints, to address structural asymmetries or restrictions in motion.  Sometimes as we do this work, joints do crack and make that “pop” sound; this is never the goal of the treatment and it’s never done in an aggressive, forceful or painful way.  

What do I wear?
Our entire time together is spent with you wearing, whatever you’re wearing.  So the more loose and non-restrictive your clothing is, the easier it is for us to figure out what’s happening with your body, without your clothes being the limiting factor to movement.  

Stretchy, soft, minimal buttons and zippers.  Sweatpants, yoga pants, cotton shirts etc. work best.  

That being said, we’ve never turned anyone away because of their outfit!  We can make it work with whatever you’re in.  

How long do I need to come to treatment for?
This is a really common question.  “How many treatments is this going to take?”

Sometimes it comes from a sense of urgency to solve an intense or long-standing problem.  But it also comes from a need to not be taken advantage of.

We don’t intend to keep any patients here longer than they need to be.  You don’t have to keep coming in forever for the same treatment if you’re feeling better, or if you’re not seeing any results.

Usually a good rule of thumb would be to say that after 4 treatments, we’re both going to know if this is working out, and if it’s going to take a lot longer to fix, or if it’s pretty much better.  

Isn’t this adjustment just going to go back to the way it was before?
Human bodies don’t really “adjust” in the way most people imagine.  We don’t take your body parts, rearrange them and hope they stay that way forever.  

Our job is to remove restrictions to your body working well and moving well.  So we are adjusting the body’s ability to access tiny movements. A glide of a collar bone over a rib, or the ability of your hip to rotate both inward and outward for example.  We remove restricted movement patterns in small subtle motions between joint surfaces. And with these new “adjustments” to the way your body can move, health is restored to an area.  Maybe because one muscle isn’t stuck doing all the work there anymore, or because a nerve has space to pass by, or a blood vessel has less pressure on it.  

Sometimes these changes in motion capacity take some time to integrate and accomplish and often it means breaking some of your own bad habits in posture or activity choice.  

But it’s not the case where we “adjust” one thing from one position to another and expect it to stay that way.  We’re getting things moving properly and your body sorts out the rest on its own. Bodies are amazing like that. 

Should I wear orthotics?
Orthotics are great when you’ve really run out of other options.  The Osteopathic perspective on orthotics is that you’re “applying an immobile structure to a mobile arch,” meaning that the arch of your foot is designed to move, absorb shock, bounce and respond to different loads.  If you put an orthotic under that arch, you brace it into one position and the purpose of the arch of the foot is lost. The foot usually feels better. But most things on our body stop hurting if you stop moving them (like when you get a cast on your arm).  The problem is that by bracing the foot, the job of shock absorption has to be taken on by other parts of the body, likely not as well designed to deal with the load (like your knees or hips or back).  

So orthotics as a last resort are really really helpful.  But we’re in favour of trying to get your feet working better on their own first.  

What position should I sleep in?
The first rule of sleep in our clinical experience is that, it’s best if you do it.  So most importantly, you need to be getting good sleep. Trying to adjust your sleeping position at the cost of being able to sleep won’t do any good.

The second rule is, NOT ON YOUR STOMACH!  If there is any position we should all avoid sleeping in, it’s on our stomachs.  It requires the neck to be turned fully to one side for hours, often strains the shoulders and jaw and usually winds up with the person tucking one knee up to one side and straining the pelvis and low back as well.  

One of the main reasons stomach sleepers love that position is that putting weight on the nerve centers in the front of your stomach helps calm or “down-regulate” the nervous system which makes it easier for us to pass out.  If you’re trying to wean yourself from stomach sleeping, a good trick is to get a heavy bean bag or something warm like a hot water bottle and putting it on your stomach as you are on your back or your side. It will help do the same trick for your nervous system without all the strain on your neck and low back.  

Side sleeping is sometimes a problem for people with persistent shoulder and neck problems and we might have to explore switching that up at some point as we try trouble-shoot issues, but usually side sleeping and back sleeping are totally fine.  And once again, SLEEPING is more important than the position you’re in. 

Is Osteopathy good for babies?
YES!  We’ve treated infants who were just days old.  Osteopathy is gentle and safe for babies and it’s a great route to go if your baby had a long, slow, traumatic, cesarean, complicated or malpositioned birth.  We often see babies who are having trouble latching, digesting, turning their head both ways, sleeping well, having bowel movements or dealing with lots of mucus and congestion.  

Can you treat kids?
YES!  This is a totally kid friendly place.  We often work with infants, toddlers, young children and their parents to solve a variety of health or body issues.  Parents are encouraged to bring books, snacks, screens, toys, soothers or whatever they think might work to keep the child happy and occupied while we do our work together.  

Your child does not have to be able to lay still on a table for half an hour in order to get treatment.  Kid treatments work WITH the kid and we take breaks for snacks and wiggle time. We fully expect work with kids to include the creative challenge of how to get them to let us help!

Can you treat pets?
YES!  Osteopathy is a philosophy about living things and how they work.  That philosophy could technically be applied to any animal body. There are practitioners out there treating farm animals, horses, household pets and who knows what else.  At our office we get the occasional dog or cat in need, but right now it’s not the focus of our clinic. Ask your practitioner if pet treatment is something you need access to.  

Does it hurt?
No.  Osteopathic Treatment is not painful by design.  The movements are slow, gentle and rhythmic for the most part.  But we’d be lying if we said it was all comfortable. Sometimes things are pretty tender in the areas giving your the most trouble, and we have to get in there and do our job anyways.  Often people find that the treatments that are most uncomfortable, make them feel the most improvement afterwards. It’s not the goal for treatment to feel good or bad, it’s the goal for it to work.  So we do that in the most gentle way we can.