We treat more than the symptoms - we treat the whole patient.

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From Pain to Possibilities!
Escaping the Trap of Long Lasting Pain

Tuning the Body, Turning On the Mind: An Integrative Approach

Target Group

High functioning or those who desire to return to high function
Motivated to change: I want my old self back
Has structural/injury/illness based source of pain
Want to limit dependence on medications
Wish to restore or gain a new level of wellness
Open to a coaching/educational/alternative therapies approach

Nature of the Program

Establish Personal Goals
15 Weeks (September 14 - December 21, 2009)
5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Located at Center for Health
615 E. 8th Street, Traverse City, MI

Small group session (limit of 6 participants)
8 group sessions (2 hour)
7 individual coaching or tutorial sessions
Self assessment tools
Learn specific techniques

Presenters

John Schneider, Ph.D. is a medical psychologist who is a retired professor of psychiatry from Michigan State University. He specializes in working with people who have life-threatening illnesses or suffer from chronic conditions of pain or poor health. He also utilizes a combination of psychosocial techniques, which include educational approaches as well as mental imagery.

Deb Curtis, MA, is a patient advocate and is a Masters candidate in medical psychology. She also has a B.A. in business with a medical office emphasis. Deb has considerable background in patient affairs and is dedicated to helping patients get the care and services they need.

Cost

$250 payable in full by second meeting
($20 rebate for attending all eight group sessions)
Includes: Workbook, journal, free vibroacoustic therapy
session, tutoring.

Potential Benefits

Increase quality of life
Increased awareness of the limits/side effect/s/long term
hazards of pain medication dependency
Development of health habits for coping effectively with pain
Increased knowledge of alternative ways to alleviate pain
(palliative care techniques)
Learned techniques to reduce the stressfulness of the
pain experience
Peer learning opportunities

Contact Information

Center for Health (Deb) 231 929-2900
Partners in Prevention ( John) 231 642-6707

The Osteopathic Choice for Your Health Care
Sharon Olson, Ph.D., APRN

"To find health should be the object of the doctor. Anyone can find disease."

—Andrew T. Still, M.D. D.O.

These are difficult times for you to make health care decisions. It is critical to find a physician who is a good fit. Many physicians in private practice are closing their doors or merging with larger medical practices. What are your choices? One promising option is to explore an osteopathic medical practice.

I have worked within the health care field for more than 40 years. The past ten years involved collaborating with osteopathic physicians in daily practice. I'm often asked, "What exactly is osteopathy?"

Osteopathy is an approach to healthcare that emphasizes the role of the musculoskeletal system in health and disease. It is a form of medical practice that emphasizes the skilled use of a range of manual and physical treatment interventions (osteopathic manipulative medicine, or OMM) in prevention and treatment. This most commonly relates to musculoskeletal problems that result in pain and loss of function.

Osteopathic students are taught the philosophy, science and art of traditional medical profession in tandem with various models of osteopathic manual techniques. While allopathic (M.D.) medical students are taught to assume that suffering or illness emanate from an underlying disease process which can be most effectively treated with medications and surgery, osteopathic students (D.O.) will first focus on bodily structure and function as the main source of "dis-ease."

Pain, for example, would be most likely treated as a symptom of an underlying illness by an MD, with medication or surgery used to correct or suppress it. A DO would be more likely to examine how an injury, structural dysfunction or repetitive motion might be the real culprit. In this case, a DO would be more likely to use manual medicine techniques that are designed to increase body harmony and function, thereby reducing the source of the pain. All DOs concern themselves with patients' overall health and well-being in this holistic medical model of caring. While many DOs practice in the whole range of modern medical specialties, some choose to focus only on manual medicine.

The Osteopathic Philosophy of Health

Fundamental concepts of osteopathic medical practice involve this triad:

Health is a natural state of harmony. The body is created for health when normal physiologic activity is balanced with unrestricted structural motion.
Disease results from disturbance in physiologic, environmental, social, emotional and behavioral factors. A guiding premise: identify the pain – look deeper and holistically for the problem.
Personalized Care is integrally linked with cultural, social, emotional, spiritual, and behavioral factors. Discover what "wellness" and "illness" mean from the patient's perspective for successful outcomes. Osteopathic treatment tends to be person focused, rather than disease centered.

How did the Osteopathic Medical Field Begin?

Andrew Taylor Still (1828-1917) was a frontier medical doctor. Following the death of three of his children to spinal meningitis in 1864, Dr. Still immersed himself in the study of the nature of illness and health. He drew from his strong religious belief in God's divine plan of harmony and balance within the body to sustain wellness. Still's studies integrated his philosophy with an in-depth knowledge of anatomy, chemistry, physics and biology.

Dr. Still created a key link between mind, matter and motion to create wellness. He realized that physicians rarely cure disease. Rather, a physician's role is to restore harmony and balance. By correcting somatic structural disturbances, the body could regain normal function. He developed the first principles of manual medicine that are still valid today.

The popularity and success of his approach led to the establishment of the first college of osteopathic medicine at Kirksville, Missouri in 1892. There are now 25 colleges that offer the Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (D.O.) degree. Michigan has the only university based medical education programs training both osteopaths and allopaths at Michigan State University.

What Dr. Still originated remains valid and necessary today for those seeking long-term, personalized and expert health care.

Sharon Olson, a nurse practitioner, collaborates with Sam P Copeland, D.O., and psychologist John M Schneider, Ph.D. at the Center for Health in Traverse City in an interdisciplinary practice. She is also offering a Holistic "Be Well" workout program on the Old Mission Peninsula.

Resources:
Michigan Osteopathic Association:  www.mi-osteopathic.org
American Academy of Osteopathy:  www.academyofosteopathy.org
American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine:  www.aacom.org