Advancing Whole Health Through
Osteopathic Education
Enhance your skills in osteopathic medicine.
Osteopathic Manipulation
At Osteopathic Whole Health and Centra Lynchburg Family Medicine Residency, osteopathic manipulative treatment is used to evaluate and address somatic dysfunction, impaired mechanics, restricted motion, autonomic imbalance, respiratory compromise, and lymphatic congestion. Treatment is individualized and may include a broad range of osteopathic modalities used in clinical practice and residency training at LFMR. Our osteopathic program at LFMR teaches over 90 osteopathic techniques and utilizes an innovative sequential approach to osteopathic manipulative therapy.
These hands-on methods are selected based on the patient’s condition, structural findings, tolerance, and clinical goals. The aim is to improve motion, reduce pain, optimize neurologic and circulatory function, improve lymphatic flow, and support the body’s ability to heal.
THE HISTORY OF OSTEOPATHIC MEDICINE
In the United States, there are two fully licensed physician degrees: MD and DO. Both diagnose disease, prescribe medications, perform procedures, and practice across the full range of medical specialties. Historically, formal osteopathic principles and manipulative treatment were core elements of DO education. At Centra Lynchburg Family Medicine Residency, that osteopathic educational framework is also extended to MD residents, who are trained alongside this model of whole-person care and osteopathic manipulative treatment.
Osteopathic medicine was founded by Andrew Taylor Still, who became dissatisfied with many of the ineffective medical practices of his era and developed a philosophy emphasizing the relationship of structure and function, the body’s capacity for self-healing, and rational, patient-centered treatment.
That foundation continues today through osteopathic physicians and through training environments such as Centra Lynchburg Family Medicine Residency, where osteopathic principles, OMT, and complementary office-based musculoskeletal treatment modalities remain active components of education, clinical practice, and whole-person family medicine care.
