Osteopathy is an approach to health that looks at the body as a completely integrated unit.  All the different systems of the body - circulatory, lymphatic, musculoskeletal, digestive, etc. - work in unison to regulate our health and well being.

Like many other professions, Osteopathy believes that the body has an inherent ability to heal itself, but sometimes changes in mobility or tissue tension can limit the body's ability to heal.  These restrictions can be due to previous injuries, stress, inflammation, repetitive movement and postures, or even emotional traumas.  As a result the body no longer functions as an integrated whole; which can lead to pain and dysfunction.

Restrictions in the mobility of the body's systems (muscles, joints, digestive, neurological) have the potential to affect nerve and blood flow to different areas of the body, and may not seem to be related to the area where an individual experiences pain.  An Osteopathic Manual Practitioner will assess the position, mobility, and quality of different areas of the body to find the cause of pain or dysfunction.  Hands-on manual techniques are utilized to release the various restrictions and tensions to bring the body back into balance, and provide it with the ability heal itself once again.

Physiotherapy helps to get people moving.  It is treatment to maximize a patient’s mobility, and function.  Physiotherapists study the science of movement using this knowledge to diagnose the root causes of a patient’s complaints whether it was caused by injury, disease or disability. 

There are many different systems in a person’s body – circulatory, neurological, musculoskeletal, myofascial, etc. that can affect how a person moves and functions.  Alterations in mobility and tissue tension can cause restrictions and pressures due to past injuries, traumas, stress, postures, and movement patterns.  Over time, the body slowly changes to accommodate the limitations leading to vulnerability in other areas of the body and increasing the risks for injuries or the development of dysfunction and pain. 

Our physiotherapist will perform a comprehensive assessment looking at posture, movement, joint mobility, tissue tension, strength, and neurological function.  This will help determine what is required to restore mobility and function while reducing symptoms.  In clinic treatment will often include joint mobilizations or manipulations, myofascial releases, neurodynamic movements and education.  An exercise program will be prescribed to help reduce the tissue tightness, strengthen weak and underactive muscles, and functional movements to restore proper biomechanics.

Naturopathic medicine helps improve your symptoms by finding and addressing what is causing them. In order to find the root cause of your symptoms, initial appointments are approximately 1-1.5 hours in length and include a thorough history intake and any relevant physical exams. While some treatments may be initiated during the first visit, the majority of the treatment will be carried out in subsequent follow-up visits.  

Treatments are aimed at addressing you as a whole person, the root cause of your symptoms and work to best support your body's natural healing ability. They can include nutritional and lifestyle counseling, homeopathy, Traditional Chinese Medicine, botanical medicine, massage and hydrotherapy. Each treatment plan is individualized to you as a person. It's all about what works best for you to help you be the best, most healthy version of yourself.

Life Coaching is a form of counselling. A life coach supports clients in
meeting their personal and professional goals, like a sports coach training
an athlete. The coaching process includes examining what is going on in a
person’s life right now, discovering what the challenges and blocks are, and
using different processes to release what is holding the person back from
reaching their dreams and goals.

Belief Change Coaching is a specific form of life coaching which aims to
change subconscious belief programs that are in the way of living a
healthy, happy and fulfilling life. Through different processes, the belief
change coach can help you to get deeper into your mind and gently, yet
efficiently, change limiting beliefs into supportive ones, so that you can
manifest the life you want.

Relationship Coaching is another form of life coaching. Loving or well-
functioning relationships can be a source of joy and wellbeing, or they can
cause great stress or pain. A relationship coach helps individuals and
couples to work through their relationship challenges, to heal old wounds
and to learn to interact more successfully with each other.

Coaching is not therapy, even though your coach will hold a non-
judgemental space for you to share your thoughts and feelings. Coaching is
a designed alliance between coach and client in which the coach is simply
a supportive guide who knows the right questions to ask and has the tools
to empower you to make the changes you want to make. Transitions from
one stage in life to another can leave us confused and struggling to
manage the experience of loss and grief. Your coach is your mentor who
assists you in releasing the past and finding new footing in the present, so
that you can look forward to the future with joy and confidence.

Athletic Therapy is a health care discipline that focuses on injury assessment and rehabilitation in the active population.  While all Athletic Therapists are trained in the acute assessment of injuries suffered during activity or competition, the majority of ATs work in clinical settings.  They will assess and treat musculoskeletal disorders by using manual therapy techniques, rehabilitation modalities, and exercise prescription to return an injured individual back to activity as quickly as possible.  Taping and bracing techniques may also be utilized to prevent re-injury to an area following return to activity.

The literal translation for yoga is "union", meaning the union of the body, mind, and spirit.  Yoga aims to achieve this goal by moving through a series of poses and breathing techniques that help release physical tension to promote better balance, communication, and energy in the body.  There are many different types of yoga; at Awakening Health our belief is that the quality of movement is much more important than the quantity of movement.  Therefore our facility only allows small class sizes (maximum of 12 people), with instructors that make sure you perform movements properly to avoid potential injury.

There are many researched benefits of yoga, including:

• Decreased stress and increased parasympathetic activity in the body
• Increased mobility and therefore decreased risk of injury when performing activities
• Better respiration (breathing) with some evidence that yoga can decrease sensitivity in the airway and decrease asthma attacks
• Decreased blood pressure, decreased heart rate, and may reverse damage to the arteries caused by heart disease
• Decreased blood sugar levels
• Although not vigorous activity, a consistent yoga practice is correlated with weight loss

Small groups with increased individual attention is the focus of our yoga classes at Awakening Health.  Our goal is to help provide you with the tools to achieve the health you are searching for, and maintain it into the future.

Meditation is one of the most beneficial activities we can do for our body, mind, and spirit.  There are many different types of meditation.  Generally speaking it is a practice that allows us to quiet our conscious mind and focus on the present moment.  In doing so, we are able to achieve states of deep relaxation, gratitude, and peace.

The physiological benefits of meditation have been extensively studied and are becoming more and more mainstream.  Some of the most common benefits include:

• Quiet the mind allowing better communication with ourselves and others
• Increase our ability to focus and therefore make better decisions
• Stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system helping to reverse the effects of stress
• Enhance the function of the immune system
• Decrease aggressiveness 

Our lives are structured in a way that we are constantly bombarded with stress and various other triggers.  While we may not be able to control when these stressors occur we can control our responses and the effects these stressors have on our body.  In this manner meditation is an effective and integral part of achieving balanced health.