What to expect from your first treatment 

Have you never had an osteopathic treatment before? I get it, it can be intimidating. Especially because whoever referred you to their DOMP probably said, "It's a combination of chiro and massage" which gave you less than no detail about what to expect! Well, allow me to clear that up. 

First, please do your research. It doesn’t matter who you are seeing, your first job is to make sure they are reputable and that your insurance will cover their treatment. When I am able to treat as a DOMP (December 2018), my association will be the Ontario Association of Osteopathic Manual Practitioners (OAO). Insurance companies in Ontario cover this association under extended benefits. 

When you walk into the clinic you will be asked to fill out a health history form. This is mandatory for any manual therapy, and includes contact information for you and your doctor, current medications, and ongoing complaints. For some treatments, additional forms may be required at that time, and will be discussed with you by your practitioner. 

Your first treatment will be a lot of talking and assessing. This is to ensure the absolute highest and efficient quality of care. Your practitioner will use this time to determine where your primary issues are and what an appropriate treatment progression would look like. It is in your best interest to provide as much detail as possible at this point to help the assessment be as accurate as possible, even if it initially sounds unrelated to your primary complaint. An osteopathic manual practitioner is always looking at the big picture. If you have additional documents – such as medication lists, injury timelines, or medical/imaging reports – please bring those too. A copy will be kept in your file with your permission. 

Once the assessment is completed, the DOMP should have a good idea of where to start and what the treatment progressions could look like. This is highly subjective and will vary from person to person. For example, five people could come in complaining of headaches and they would each receive a different treatment. Some of the common osteopathic technique approaches include (but are not limited to):

  • Strain-Counterstrain

  • Muscle energy techniques

  • cranial-sacral therapy

  • visceral normalization

  • soft tissue and fascial normalization

  • stretching and strengthening

  • induction

  • General Osteopathic Techniques (oscillation)

  • Reciprocal Membranous Tension

These are gentle, noninvasive techniques that are usually applied over clothing. So to summarize, here is what you need for your first appointment:

  • Health history form

  • list of current medications

  • other medical documents

  • wear loose comfortable clothing

  • any relevant medical devices such as orthotics, mouth guards, canes, crutches, braces, etc.