History of Osteopathy & the Canadian Ostepathic College

Traditional Osteopathy, as presented by the Canadian College of Osteopathy, is defined as:

“A natural manual therapy which aims to restore function in the body by treating the causes of pain and imbalance. To achieve this goal the Osteopathic Manual Practitioner relies on the quality and finesse of his/her palpation and works with the position, mobility and quality of the tissues.”

The osteopathic philosophy embraces the notion that the body is naturally capable of healing itself. The practitioner of traditional Osteopathy works with the body to enhance this natural ability to self-regulate and self-heal.

Palpation (sometimes referred to as listening) is a diagnostic skill that the Osteopathic Manual Practitioner uses to feel or sense the state of the tissues or systems being examined. This sense encompasses the many sensory aspects of touch, such as the ability to detect moisture, texture, temperature differential, and subtle motion. The ability to detect almost imperceptible motion provides the Osteopathic Manual Practitioner with the capability of perceiving the inherent motion present in all living organisms. This palpatory ability is not a gift—rather, it is a trained skill that takes years to develop.

Osteopathic Manual Practitioners palpate by gently yet intentionally touching the tissues or systems under examination. With experience, Osteopathic Manual Practitioners learn to palpate not just superficially, but also very deeply within the body. Sensory information is received through touch receptors in the fingertips and palms, as well as through the proprioceptors (motion and position sensors) embedded deep in the joints of the hands, wrists, arms, and even the shoulders.

The ability to detect minute modifications in the quality of the tissues is the assessment skill that allows the Osteopathic Manual Practitioner to prioritize a patient's course of treatment. These tissue qualities include congestion, dehydration, scarring, stiffness, density, and loss of resilience, as well as motility, which is an infinitesimal movement inherent to all living tissues. It is this sensing of the quality of the tissue—in combination with the position, mobility, and vitality of the tissue—that allows the Osteopathic Manual Practitioner to determine the tissues or systems that need immediate attention.

The profession of Osteopathy was founded single-handedly in 1874 by an American physician, with a mechanical background, named Andrew Taylor Still (1828-1917). Still was the third son of a pioneer doctor, under whom he apprenticed at the close of the Jacksonian era (1829-1837). It was a time that encouraged independent thought and the development of new disciplines to improve the lot of mankind. Following Still's participation in the American Civil War, he began an empirical study of the human body under the premise that by studying “God's work” he would have a greater understanding of his “Creator.”

Still disdained the common practices of physicians in the 1800s, such as venesection, emesis, and sedation with narcotics. He believed, instead, that everything necessary to sustain human life was already present within the human body. Still sought to find non-medicinal and non-surgical avenues to enhance the body's innate ability to heal itself.

Still focused on mechanical removal of the impediments to the free circulation of fluids and the elements carried within those fluids. He believed that once these “mechanical blockages” to the free flow of fluids were removed, the free circulation of all the fluids of the body would naturally return. The free flow of fluids was Still's key to the self-regulation and self-healing processes of the body. Still's application of this philosophy and methodology proved successful in treating musculoskeletal problems, as well as the major diseases of his era, such as tuberculosis, pneumonia, dysentery, and typhoid fever.

Still's work was transmitted through writings that were primarily philosophical in nature. However, he also described two main practical techniques. One focused on restoring the “position” of the bones in relation to one another. The other restored the “place” of the organs in relation to the major vessels and neural centers of the body's cavities. These two systems are now known as osteo-articular adjustments and visceral normalization.

The first school of osteopathy was opened by Still in Kirksville, Missouri in 1892. Several of his original students later enhanced the profession through the introduction of other manual techniques, such as cranial-sacral therapy and fascial release.

By 1910, it was recommended, through sponsored reports, that osteopathic colleges within the United States adopt a system of higher education, licensing, and regulation. By 1930, through a staggered transition, the American osteopathic profession adopted a medical model of osteopathic education that incorporated all conventional diagnostic and therapeutic practices of medicine, including pharmacology, surgery, and obstetrics. For this reason, all graduates from osteopathic colleges and universities in the United States are fully licensed medical physicians and are recognized internationally as Osteopathic Physicians.

The rest of the world—including Europe, Asia, Canada, and the countries of the Southern Hemisphere—has not adopted this medical model of Osteopathy. Instead, their curricula focus primarily on the manual application of traditional osteopathic philosophy and principles.

In 1917, Osteopathy took root in Europe thanks to Martin Littlejohn, DO, a student of Dr. Still and a professor at the Kirksville osteopathic school. Littlejohn founded the British School of Osteopathy, which remains active today under the name. In France, the origin of Osteopathy has been traced to Major Stirling in 1913.

The Collège d’Études Ostéopathiques (CEO) was founded on March 11th, 1981 in Montreal by Philippe Druelle, D.O., an osteopath trained in France, assisted by Dr. Jean-Guy Sicotte, MD, D.O. This college was the first of its kind in Canada to offer a comprehensive program and teach traditional manual osteopathy.

In 1991, The Canadian College of Osteopathy (CCO) was founded by Philippe Druelle with the help of Marie Colford, D.O. The lineage of Traditional Osteopaths can be followed directly to the faculty of the CCO. In particular, such renowned Osteopaths as Thomas Schooley, DO; Denis Brooks, DO; Anne Wales, DO; and Viola Frymann, DO, have all either been instructors in the college's faculty or guest lecturers at symposium held by the CEO and CCO. These Osteopaths were all students of William Garner Sutherland, who was a student of A.T. Still's 1900 graduating class. Fred Mitchell, Jr., has been an instructor of the CCO's course titled, Muscle Energy, which was a concept developed by his father, Fred Mitchell, Dr. Harold Magoun, Sr., wrote one of the CCO's most relied-upon textbooks, Osteopathy in the Cranial Field. Magoun's son, Harold Magoun, Jr., an Osteopath with more than 50 years of experience, was a regular guest lecturer at our college.

The direct lineage from the founding predecessors of traditional Osteopathy distinguishes the education program offered by CCO from all other osteopathic colleges in Canada.