What is Health? My Reflections on Biodynamic Osteopathy
In this post, I hope to be able to put words together to tangibly describe the premise of Biodynamic Osteopathy and why this approach to practicing Osteopathy makes all the difference in the success of a treatment.
When people ask me what an Osteopathic adjustment is like, I tell them that there is a wide spectrum that you will experience between practitioners. Some Osteopathic adjustments are like going to the chiropractor. They may be fast and focusing on alignment of the bones and muscles. Then, there are longer Osteopathic treatments that are so gentle it feels like nothing is happening, besides feeling progressively more relaxed.
At the end of the day, the goal of every bodywork treatment is for the patient to feel better. Right? While this is true, there is another more profound goal of the Biodynamic Osteopath.
Our aim is to help the patient find their source of health so they become more resourced to handle our world and everything life throws at us.
In order to accomplish this goal, while a bodywork treatment may seem relatively similar to other practitioners in terms of motions, there is a different focus, and therefore a different result.
Where attention goes,
energy flows
Osteopaths commonly use the analogy of the ocean to describe their philosophy and work. It’s necessary to create an analogy because when working at this energetic level, vocabulary breaks down. Apart from poetry, words cannot possibly begin to describe the magic that occurs when doing this type of work. Relating Biodynamic Osteopathy to the power of the ocean is the closest we can come to comprehending what is going on under our hands.
In Biodynamic Osteopathy, we believe that everything in the universe is one homogeneous substance – think of it like ocean water (remember I’m using an analogy here and the homogeneous substance of the universe is energetic not elemental). Think of our body as a house at the bottom of the ocean. We may be closed off to what is around us, or we may have all the windows and doors open, completely attuned to the nature around us.
Life is the movement of the ocean.
Then there is life. Life is the movement of the ocean. Sometimes there are storms with crashing waves or little white caps. Sometimes the water is still and beautiful. Sometimes it is beautiful and scary at the same time. Then there is the rhythm of the Earth and how it affects our life. The tide changes directions twice a day, which reflects the changing of the day to night and vice versa. The waves that crash up to the shore many times a minute represent our day to day lives. There are some people who have tons of energy, which could be likened to big waves crashing violently onto the shore (can you picture someone you know who might fit this description). Then there are the people who are calm and tranquil in their nature, and I would think of their ocean waves more like those in the Puget Sound, or perhaps the Caribbean.
When we leave the shore and go way out to sea, or conversely, we go down under the sea the energy totally changes. This is synonymous to how we feel completely different when we leave our normal day to day and do a recharge out in nature or on a vacation. When we change our perspective from this viewpoint vs the shoreline, we see the world differently, and things change….
Now, how on Earth - or maybe I should say, how in the Ocean - does this relate to an Osteopath cracking your neck?
Philosophers like to discuss the difference between Truth and truth. For example, Truth is a T represents unwaveringly objective Truths, things that are not subjective and true when you are considering the whole of something. On the converse, truth with a lower case t represent things that are definitely true, but the opposite may also be true, or it is only true from a subjective perspective.
Example- it is a true statement that our physical world is ruled by Newton’s principles. However, when attempting to use these principles to describe everything in the universe, the laws break down and that statement is no longer true. Quantum mechanics, on the other hand, is a philosophy that is able to accurately describe everything in the universe. It is a set of laws that hold up on a micro and macro scale and therefore is a True.
It’s helpful to take this same concept into consideration when describing Biodynamic Osteopathy.
Allopathic medicine describes health as the lack of physical pain or disease. In Biodynamic Osteopathy, we like to define Health and have that be the goal, not just health with a lower case, though that is nice too. Dr. Friedman is an Osteopath whom I respect greatly and has written on this concept. He describes Health as when structure and function work reciprocally together to allow an individual to fulfill the potential laid for them in their perfect blueprint during conception (1.). Another definition I enjoy for Health is to live in alignment with their true authentic self. And finally, Osteopaths would describe Health as wholeness.
In a Biodynamic Osteopathic treatment, we do share the goal of the allopathic physician to help relieve pain or to alter the course of a disease process to relieve suffering. We are doing this AND we are trying to help the patient’s body find that wholeness or Health.
To understand this,
let’s go back to the ocean analogy.
While there are currents and tides constantly swirling and whirling around the ocean all the time, bringing life to the waters, the ocean also contains a deep profound stillness. There is a potency found deep within the water that harbors potential energy. This same phenomenon is present within the ocean within our bodies (the makeup of the water in our body is the same as that in the ocean).
The job of the Osteopath is to attempt to ignore all the swirling whirling energy and find the stillness deep in the ocean.
It is within that stillness that we find the potency, the blueprint of perfection, the Health.
It is within that stillness that we find the potency, the blueprint of perfection, the Health. When we can help the patient’s body recognize the stillness, this is like opening all the windows and doors of their house at the bottom of the ocean. The body, mind and spirit of the individual become more permeable to the homogenous substance all around us, which contains an innate wisdom. We call this “getting hooked up back with the Health.”
Hopefully now it is more clear, that while an Osteopathic adjustment may look and feel a lot of different ways. Any time an Osteopath is practicing Biodynamically, know that there are deeper levels being affected. It just takes a little slowing down, often time in the patient’s mind, to realize the profound implications this type of treatment may have on the patient’s body, life, and their relation to the natural world.
All of life is a journey back towards wholeness, and Biodynamic Osteopathy is one roadmap on how to do it.
If you’re a patient of All Ages Osteopathy and haven’t seen me since I took a recent Biodynamic course in Sedona, AZ, schedule your session today and enjoy a journey into the depths of the ocean within.
Friedman, Mel Where Freedom Touches Matter, A Journey Towards Wholeness. Torchflame Books. 2022. Pg 143
