Welcome Alyssa Gowan to the Blog Today!! Why Osteopathy?

I’ve been interested in pursuing a career in health care from a young age. I participated in a number of sports growing up and unfortunately suffered from sports injuries. As a result, I was exposed to various methods of rehabilitation over the years. I found many of these approaches to be interesting and helpful for me, but osteopathy in particular. I first received osteopathic treatment as a high school student for a low back injury for which I’d already tried multiple forms of therapies. I had never heard of osteopathy but when my physiotherapist referred me I thought it was worth investigating. At that time the profession was not very common so I travelled an hour to receive treatment from an osteopathic student. I was admittedly confused by the different approach initially – he wasn’t just treating by back but also areas such as my head, feet, and abdomen. He explained the relationships and how everything is connected in the body, which I found intriguing. I considered different health professions throughout university; however, I kept coming back to osteopathy. I was advised to study another manual therapy before beginning my osteopathic studies in order to gain clinical experience, so after graduating from McMaster with a Kinesiology degree, I went on to complete diplomas in Massage Therapy and Sports Injury Therapy. This has allowed me to work as a Registered Massage Therapist while pursuing my studies at the Canadian College of Osteopathy. I am currently working on my thesis which is the final requirement to becoming an Osteopathic Manual Practitioner. I love that massage therapy and osteopathy allow me to combine my passions for health, sports, helping, and educating my patients! I also love that osteopathy treats the whole person so each treatment is unique to that individual. I enjoy the challenge since each patient is like a puzzle to solve due to the many factors influencing each of us and the complexity of the human body.