Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment (OMT) is the therapeutic application of manually (hands-on) guided forces by an osteopathic physician. OMT is intended to address restrictions of the tissues, fluids, organs, bones, muscles, and physiologic systems of the body. Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine (OMM) is the application of osteopathic philosophy, structural diagnosis, and the use of OMT in the diagnosis and management of a patient.
DOs who practice with OMT use a highly trained sense of touch to feel subtle changes in tension and tissue quality throughout the whole body and to diagnose and treat areas of strain or dysfunction. Osteopathic practitioners can feel areas in the body that have been affected by past events, including old injuries, accidents, trauma, and/or illness. The body often learns to compensate for these past traumas and injuries, which can lead to current symptom expression (e.g., pain, loss of function, poor healing, etc.) days, weeks, months, or years beyond when the initial event occurred.
Diagnosis and treatment are linked as the osteopathic practitioner works to activate the body’s innate ability to heal by providing gentle and targeted support where needed to return the tissues to a state of balance and allow the body to release strain, trauma, and dysfunction, thereby restoring the system back to health.
What is Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment (OMT) and Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine (OMM)?