Osteopathic palpation as a process of unique interaction between a practitioner and a patient / Workshop 2C

The goal of osteopathic education is to teach students how to “read” the body, to handle it safely and efficiently, to give them a concept, which will be in agreement with their own sensory sphere and will allow adaptation of treatment approaches to each patient. Thus osteopathic education means teaching to hear the body language, to see and feel processes happening within it. That’s why it is impossible to teach palpation with the help of modern computerized equipment and phantoms. It may facilitate finding anatomical landmarks, which is only a foundation for training real osteopathic palpation, because it is the process of unique and irreproducible interaction between a patient and a practitioner with its dynamic (not static!) component being the most important. That’s why the art of osteopathic teaching consists to a large extent in creating a unique atmosphere, an ability of controlling all its components, sensations of each student. It shows the necessity of special workshops in palpatory communication for teachers. It’s insufficient for students to have one or two teachers to understand what palpation means. They need at least four years and a variety of teachers to reach their own understanding of this process. During the workshop it will be demonstrated how osteopathic patterns in the same patient change their behavior with another practitioner or in the presence of observers, etc. It will be shown how to find the osteopathic lesion, which manifests most actively during this very interaction, and being released will give the greatest therapeutic effect with a minimal manual impact

The Principal of the Russian Academy of Osteopathic Medicine. Main medical specialty: pediatrics. In 2000 among the first group of Russian part-time students she graduated from the European School of Osteopathy (UK). Since 2001 she is its official representative in Russia. Took part in many conferences on osteopathy in Russia and abroad, conducted workshops at international osteopathic conferences. WOHO member (Executive Committee member since 2007 ); member of the American Academy of Osteopathy, member of the United National Register of Osteopaths (Russia). The sphere of her scientific interests includes biomechanical aspects of breathing and swallowing in children, osteopathic escort of pregnant women, etc