What is Functional Indirect Osteopathy?

The word osteopathy comes from the Greek words “osteo” meaning tissue and “pathos” meaning feeling – essentially feeling the motion of the tissue. In this practice, the body is viewed as a functional and holistic unit that requires a smooth flow throughout for optimal health. Sofie has received training in Indirect Functional Osteopathy from Tom Mayes of Integrated Equine Bodywork. Unlike direct techniques that use force to move tissue through their restrictive barriers, indirect techniques help the body use energy to move its way through restrictions. Bringing the areas of the body into a position of ease a practitioner can facilitate the body’s intrinsic forces and corrective mechanisms to achieve homeostasis.

Physical and emotional releases during a session typically can look like yawning, chewing, stomach gurgling, and urinating/bowel movements but can also present in other ways. Because your animal is releasing a lot during a session, it can experience an array of emotions during and after. Their body will continue to process and realign for the next couple of days and deeper releases can initiate changes for potentially weeks after. This can show up as being far more peaceful and even-keeled, having a lot of energy, or having a bit of irritation and restlessness while they are unwinding and releasing. It’s not recommended to go riding or working hard right after a session and ideally give them 1-3 days of rest before integrating them back into their working routine.

Using one’s hands, functional indirect osteopathy can be applied to and engage any tissue or organ with precision which is important in healing the body as a whole and not just as a symptom. For example, an imbalanced or toxic organ will eventually create a lameness or disease. Organs do this by restricting vertebrae, creating nerve impingement, and weakening associated muscles and meridians causing spinal, pelvic, and thoracic alignment issues. This always leads to gait restrictions, weakness, illness, lack of flexion and pain-related attitude issues, and more. As layers of pathology are released in the animal’s body, healing progresses to either ease existing conditions, discourage future injuries or diseases, or be applied to older clients to increase their quality of life. This is an empowering approach to tissue and full-body health for animals and their people.