Blog Posts

  • Mindful Movement

    Mindful Movement: Feldenkrais, Awareness Through Movement, and the Osteopathic Path to Healing Body Work. Mind Work. Spirit Work. The Stillness Beneath Movement. A Different Kind of Movement When patients present with chronic pain, trauma histories, or patterns of addiction, the reflex of modern medicine is often: And yet, many remain unchanged. The question persists: What…

  • Whole Health Circle

    The VA Whole Health Circle: When Medicine Starts With “Me” The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) developed the Whole Health Circle to answer a deceptively simple question: What really matters to you? Instead of starting with disease, diagnosis, or utilization metrics, the Circle of Health begins with the individual—placing “Me” at the center—and radiates outward into…

  • Before Osteopathy Had a Name: A.T. Still, the Shawnee, and the Origins of a Different Medicine

    Who created osteopathy? The traditional answer is clear: Andrew Taylor Still (1828–1917) founded osteopathy in 1874 and established the American School of Osteopathy in Kirksville, Missouri, in 1892. Both statements are true. The fuller story, however, is more complex. Osteopathy emerged from Still’s study of anatomy, frontier medical practice, personal loss, Civil War-era medicine, and…

  • Common Fascial Compensation Patterns

    Gordon Zink and the Common Fascial Compensation Patterns Gordon J. Zink, DO (1913–1994), a Nobel-trained osteopathic physician from Pennsylvania who practiced in Iowa, developed a foundational model of fascial compensation that remains essential in biomechanical reasoning. Rather than mistake compensatory changes for pathology, Zink recognized them as intelligent adaptations—especially important when working with patients affected…