Publisher's Synopsis
Osteopathy, the traditional base for modern osteopathic medicine, relies on a practitioner's analysis of the symptoms of a patient and the application of various means of force with the intent of restoring anatomic balance and natural physiological function. As in any health care profession, there are standards and consensus methods that enhance learning, effectiveness and patient safety.
The founder, Dr. Andrew Still, practiced in a frontier environment and carried this spirit of searching and inventiveness into his investigations and application of medical knowledge. Osteopathic Mastery is written with the intend of encouraging a current generation of practitioners to continue to work in that spirit. One of the key phrases to describe this quest has been the repetition of the admonition of Still to attend to "the physical body, the body of mind, and the spiritual body", a tall order. The current work attempts to continue Still's interdisciplinary approach, integrating a reassessment of diagnosis (through a phenomenological lens), and using both consciousness studies and quantum biology to see the body differently. There is also a heavy emphasis in squaring this conceptual modeling with contemporary neuroscience as it relates to perception and behavior. While sounding heady, the author's forty years of clinical experience and ruminating on these issues bring these diverse dimensions into clinical practice with developmental exercises. With a considerable amount of attention to physical diagnosis, including issues in human perception, the work can be appreciated by a wide field of body workers. However, the intent of this twelve year effort it to assist the mid-level osteopathic practitioner move forward. There is no pretense, despite the title, that any of us ever "arrive". The author began his medical practice in rural family practice. He is now semi-retired from an academic and specialty manipulation practice. Besides prior studies in engineering, theology, psychology and social work, he has published and taught nationally and internationally. At several critical periods, he has contributed to the recogniton of the osteopathic profession in a variety of countries.
