The Heart of Osteopathic Medicine
Though medicines and surgery are a part of current osteopathic medical practice, traditional osteopathy - use of hands-on methods of coaxing the body back to health - remain at the heart of osteopathy. These methods have been passed on through oral tradition and physical demonstration from osteopath to osteopath since 1874. Many insights into the condition of health have been revealed to osteopathic physicians through deep study of anatomy and physiology and its animation through mind and spirit. Chief among the pioneers is Dr. Andrew Taylor Still, the founder of osteopathy. His insights and devotion to understanding health and subsequent success in treatment through hands-on work have lead to a worldwide osteopathic movement that approaches the art of healing not by fighting disease but rather by finding and supporting the source of health.
The Cranial Concept
Dr. A.T. Still was captivated by the body’s innate capacity to heal and recognized the importance of free fluid flow to and from areas of incapacitation or lesion. These fluids include arterial and venous blood, lymphatic and interstitial fluid, cerebral spinal fluid and the electrical impulses of nerves. A student of A.T. Still, Dr. Willam Garner Sutherland, began his lifelong study of cranial motion within this context, gaining insight not only on the mechanical nature of the fluctuations of the skull, but also the fluid dynamic rhythms and patterns that underpinned those motions throughout the body and their revelation of both areas of disease and of health. Cranial osteopathic treatment relies on a broad understanding of “normal” fluctuation patterns and the subsequent patient-specific shifts from that norm lending insight and guidance to the gentle hands-on treatment to encourage restoration of robust motion throughout the body, and thereby allowing health to flourish unimpeded.
Initial Evaluation
To see Dr. Peternell for the first time on Maui please click on the link below.