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Writer's pictureMarinus van Aarle, DOMP

Manual Osteopath, Massage, Physiotherapy or Chiropractor.What is Different and What is Similar?

Updated: Jan 19, 2023

Manual Osteopath Treatment focuses on the fact that every part of the body is interconnected.

Manual Osteopath Treatment gives a gentle hands-on treatment of pain.

Mobilizing and stretching the entire body is a excellent way of locating the areas that have a restriction in range of motion and treating the underlying causes to the pain.


Massage Therapy compared to Manual Osteopath Treatment:


Massage Therapy focuses on treating the soft tissue using kneading and stroking techniques.

A massage treatment increases the flow of blood and lymph and relaxes the tight areas of the body.


Manual Osteopath Treatment focuses more on stretching the muscles that form the underlying cause to the tight areas.


Both Massage Therapy and Manual Osteopath Treatment are hands-on.


Physiotherapy compared to Manual Osteopath Treatment:


Physiotherapy uses exercise as the main focus to treat pain.

With Manual Osteopath Treatment the therapist does the stretching for the client (gentle mobilization techniques).

Physiotherapy makes more use gadgets like a tensor-machine and has less focus on hands on mobilizations of tight areas.

Chiropractor compared to Manual Osteopath Treatment:


Chiropractor and Osteopathy Treatment share some of the same origins and often apply similar techniques but with some key differences.


A Chiropractor uses High-Velocity Low-Amplitude (HVLA)-Techniques to perform Chiropractic Adjustments.

This means that the Chiropractor applies his/her techniques very fast (High-Velocity).

Because the Chiropractic Adjustments are more forcefull they cannot be applied over a longer period of time (Low-Amplitude).

Because of this a Chiropractor typically spends 15 minutes per treatment compared to

60 minutes for an Osteopathy Treatment.


A chiropractor also makes more use of gadgets (like a 'Thumper') while an Manual Osteopath Treatment is 100% hand-on.

Come see us for Manual Osteopath Treatment in Downtown Ottawa.


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