Thinking Hands

Canadians are increasingly turning to practitioners of osteopathy for help regarding their acute and chronic pains as well as their general physical functioning that directly affects their levels of fatigue, emotional state, memory and thinking, and social relationships. Many patients who have used this alternate health-care approach are often surprised at--and ecstatic about-- the success they experience. Yet millions of Canadians are totally unaware of this health-care service that is available. Thinking Hands illustrates to the uninitiated what osteopathy does by providing accounts of the experience of 14 patients treated by the author over the past few years. The medical conditions of the patients range from a child with a lingering nightmare disorder to a boy who, for many years, couldn't eat pizza and other foods that tweens love having, to a woman who had an unenviable incontinence problem. The book will also appeal to osteopathic students and professional practitioners in the various manual therapy fields because it details a fairly comprehensive history of the osteopathic profession in Canada and sheds light on the practice without getting into the techniques of therapy details. The science of osteopathy was developed by an American medical doctor and the first practitioner of this therapy arrived in Canada in 1898. Today, there are some 2,000 practitioners--both medical and manual types--from coast-to-coast-to-coast, who are represented by advocacy groups at the provincial and national levels. The last chapter chronicles the challenges facing these practitioners in obtaining government-recognized status as a health profession in Canada's provinces and territories.