Hannah Ferguson - Osteopathic Manual Practitioner

01/25/2022

Join me as I have a conversation with Stefan about feet and how frustrating foot pain can be for both patients and practitioners! I talk about some tips and tricks for foot pain sufferers and some insight as to why manual therapy has an important role in rehabilitation of chronic and acute foot pain. Check out the Unscholared Health podcast wherever you get your podcasts!

10/01/2021

06/10/2021

To my patients,

Some very exciting things have happened for Osteopathy in Ontario! We are no longer considered a Personal Care Service and now part of Health Care and Social Services which means that osteopathic practices in Ontario can re-open with Phase 1 – so next week! This is amazing news and was pushed for and achieved by our relentless Association, practitioners, and you – our patients!

Unfortunately, my practice in Peterborough will not be re-opening.

It is with mixed emotions that I must announce that I have accepted an amazing job opportunity at the Halifax Osteopathic Health Centre in Nova Scotia that I will be starting this July. I am hoping to be flying out to Halifax to start my quarantine period in the next couple weeks (if Nova Scotia will allow me to), so I will not be able to open my practice next week.

Luckily for my patients in Peterborough and surrounding area - I work with two other fantastic osteopathic practitioners at Peterborough Osteopathy who will take wonderful care of anyone who wishes to continue with osteopathic treatment (which you should!). You can visit www.peterboroughosteopathy.com to access their contact information! If you are a current patient, you should have received an email with additional information on this transition.

I cannot thank everyone enough for the support I have had over the course of my education and this past year having graduated. Some of my patients I have been seeing since before I started my Osteopathy education and having you trust me with your health has made me a much better person and practitioner. If you would like me to give you a call sometime this month to touch base and say goodbye, I would love to do that. Just send me an email to hferguson@canadianosteopathy.ca and I will get back to you as soon as I can!

If you were a patient of mine, feel free to add me on FB if you want to keep in touch!

Good luck on your own adventures!
- H

05/23/2021

Unfortunately, it does not look like Osteopathy services in Ontario can continue until Phase 2 of the re-opening plan. That means July 6th if people get vaccinated!

04/10/2021

Osteopathic practitioners and patients need your help!

The reality is that the Osteopathic approach to treatment can help patients who have not, or do not, have success with other modalities. Osteopathy is essential and should be recognized as such.

Osteopathic practitioners have not been recognized as an essential service by the Ontario government. There are still so few of us that we do not have a loud enough voice for the government to listen to our concerns. At this time, my association (the OOA) is doing everything they can to get us deemed as an essential service, but we need your help and your voice to help get us back to work. At this time, there are two very easy things you can do to help.

1. There is a petition to have us deemed as an essential service in Ontario circulating. Please sign it and pass it along to your family and friends!
https://www.change.org/p/ministry-of-health-government-officials-let-s-get-ontario-osteopathic-manual-practitioners-back-to-work?signed=true

2. The OOA has re-posted the Osteopathic survey for patients to complete. If you have completed it before or if there are two members of your household trying to complete the survey - open it in a private browser (Incognito or InPrivate window) or on a different device or else it won’t let you do it twice.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/7R2YSQY?fbclid=IwAR0eIC3VvMnkPc48RaSmSWU8Snc7Uz8msvMDpQSBExfGkMQxV110sdVOyHo

I also want to assure you that I am doing everything in my power to get back to treating. Last December I was in touch with Peterborough Mayor Diane Therrien who said she would be have a meeting with MPP Dave Smith and discuss Osteopathy services being closed. I will be following up with Dave Smith myself this week and will pass along the petition.

Thank you everyone for your continued support for Osteopathy, and me! It is truly appreciated.

Your Osteopathic practitioner,
Hannah

Osteopathic Manual Practitioners in Ontario Should Be Considered an Essential Service!

04/10/2021

Please sign to help Osteopathic practitioners in Ontario get back to work! We are able to practice in every other province. Osteopathic treatment is essential care.

8912 signatures are needed! Osteopathic Manual Practitioners in Ontario Should Be Considered an Essential Service!

04/02/2021

Going into Lockdown April 4th 2021...

On Thursday, the Government announced that the entire Province will be placed in an Emergency Break to try to slow the third wave of the pandemic which is currently overwhelming our hospitals and causing an alarming number of infections and deaths. The Emergency Break will come into effect April 3, 2021, at 12:01 am and will remain in effect for at least 4 weeks, until May 1, 2021.

The Ontario Osteopathic Association (OOA) is making every effort to persuade the Government to include osteopathic practitioners on the list of essential services however, the Government has not budged and Osteopathic treatment remains in the personal services category.

Unfortunately, no personal services will be permitted whatsoever during this time and therefore, no members of the Ontario Osteopathic Association (OOA) anywhere in the Province can practice.

I will be cancelling all appointments for the next 4 weeks.

On a positive note, last week Osteopathic practitioners were notified by the OOA that once the Emergency Break is lifted, practitioners will be able to return to practice because the Government will allow personal services in grey lockdown zones with certain restrictions (which Peterborough Osteopathy follows at all times).

Osteopathy is still a small profession in Ontario so we do not yet have a loud enough voice for the Government to recognize the benefit we provide to our community.

During the last lockdown the OOA sent out a survey for patients to complete regarding their feelings about Osteopathy. I am waiting to see if the OOA is adjusting this survey and will send an email with a link to it when it becomes available.

If you have any questions or concerns about the status of my practice, Osteopathy, or your health at any time during this lockdown - do not hesitate to contact me. I love hearing from you! I will be posting on Instagram, Twitter, and sometimes Facebook if you would like to follow me on any social media to keep in touch. I will be providing updates on those platforms as I get them. I will send an email when I am able to start booking again or if for some reason my lockdown is extended past April.

Please be smart and stay safe -
Wishing the best to you and your family as always,

Hannah

03/04/2021

The foot is complicated! ...

I am incredibly lucky to come from a family of health practitioners - my parents are both Podiatrists (/Chiropodists) and feet were actually my first introduction to manual therapy!

My parents both started to learn manual therapy techniques for the feet when they were getting frustrated with a lack of progress with a certain population of their foot pain patients. When I was still in University, my parents invited me along to a manual therapy course to see if it was something that sparked an interest with me... and it totally did!

I had just finished a full year of intense anatomy study and the rationale made perfect sense to me. Sometimes these darn foot bones shift out of place and can cause all sorts of problems!

It should not be surprising that the foot bones shift - we walk a lot of kilometers with our feet over the years and experience a lot of changes in our bodies! From weight fluctuations, trips and falls leading to ankle injuries, bad shoes, bad flooring... they have to deal with a lot!

So why would we not assess and treat the entire body when considering foot problems? The way we stand, where we bear our weight on our feet - all impact us. Sometimes a foot problems is not just a foot problem! More often than not, when I asses the foot I find related problems all the way the legs and hips.

Osteopathic practitioners want to understand why your body has made the changes it has!

03/02/2021

High Heels!....

Women love their heels! But long-term, heels can make a big impact on our bodies.

Heels change our center of gravity, which means that we walk differently, we load our structures differently and our bodies have to adapt to this.

If you are wearing a heel that is 2 inches or higher, consistent use will change the ability of the muscles in the back of your leg to lengthen appropriately. This can lead to diagnoses such as achilles tendonitis or plantar fasciitis.

It is also likely that there will be a shift in the bones of the feet due to the change in loading. I will expand on this effect in another post!

Meanwhile, you can mitigate the negative effects of wearing heels by:
- Change your footwear up! Move to a slightly shorter heel or a flat. I typically recommend footwear where your heel is secured and supported. Or reduce the frequency of use.
- Be sure to stretch and move through your health and comfortable range of motion in your legs and feet
- If you are quite active, you could reduce the frequent stress put on your hips, knees and feet
- See your osteopathic practitioner!

02/14/2021

Online booking is open! ...

There is a link to my website in my bio where you can book online. My appointment times have changed slightly, so make sure you double check your time and complete your COVID Self-assessment form prior to your appointment!

02/10/2021

Finally!!!

After the provincial government's announcement on Monday February 8th 2021, it looks like my practice will be permitted to re-open on Tuesday February 16th!

If you had your appointment cancelled due to the lockdown or reached out to me during the lockdown, I will be in touch tomorrow (Thursday) to get you in as soon as possible.

My online booking system ** is now open!

If you are eager and want to make sure I do not miss getting in contact within the next couple days, please send me a DM, email, or text - please refrain from leaving a voicemail if possible.

I cannot wait to get back to work and see all of you!

02/04/2021

Think of your health like a piggy bank...🐷
..But in this case, most people start off life with quite a full piggy bank.

There are things you can do in life that take away from your health's piggy bank & things you can do that add to it.

If your health bank account is low, it makes it harder for your body to adapt to the stresses you put on it every day. But those stresses do not stop. They keep building and your body has a more difficult time appropriately responding to these added stresses. The status of your health bank account comes across in vitality.

Typically, if your body has been through a lot of stress and the longer the stresses have been present – it is more difficult for your body to adapt to treatment. There may be positions that I cannot put a patient in or even parts of the body that I cannot touch because the area is so sensitive.

When your vitality is low, treatment does not just involve taking away tensions from the body, it also involves building up the body’s ability to take on treatment. This change takes time because we have to remind and retrain your body that it is safe to be treated and that change is good - not dangerous.

If your body is in this kind of state, it is trying its best to keep you safe and that is a healthy response. It just means that your practitioner will have to work more slowly and more methodically to encourage change.

02/03/2021

Have you ever tried to do a simple task, like bending over to pick something up - and suddenly your back "gives out"?

Our bodies are very good at hiding when there is a problem and we do not often realize that our bodies are changing and adapting over time. Not only are we composed of layers of tissue, but we also have layers of compensation that build on top of each other.

That is why sometimes a seemingly simple task, like bending over, can "throw out your back". It is more than likely that your body has compensated to such a degree that it has run out of options to keep your body safe from injury.

Typically, the longer a compensation has been present, the longer it will take to remove. That is because if there was an injury or problem in the body that has been present for a long period of time, your body has compensated further around this problem and it is more than just your back involved.

When I treat a patient for the first time, I want to figure out and understand how long their compensations have been potentially building. How much stress is their body under and how much of the body is involved?

Osteopathic Manual Practitioners (OMPs) unwind layers of compensations that have been built up over years, throughout your entire body. We understand that your back pain may not just be related to your back. Every body is different.

01/28/2021

What do you say to someone who is struggling? ...

Today is a day that we speak up about mental health and how important it is to take seriously. I am a huge advocate for taking care of your mental health as it is something that has deeply affected loved ones of mine, as well as myself.

Depression can affect any person, at any age - and if a friend or loved one of yours has the courage to speak to you about their mental health, it is okay not to know what to do and often it takes a little practice and/or education.

Here are some tips on ways to speak to someone struggling with their mental health.

1. Ask if they want to talk about it (they may not want to). Remind them that you are there for them when they are ready.

2. Ask if there is anything you can do to make their day easier. Sometimes getting out of bed is hard and just dropping off some soup or doing a simple task can make a huge difference.

3. Remind them that they are not alone, that they are important.

Things to Say:
"That sounds really hard."
"I am sorry you are going through this."
"How are you coping?"
"I'm here for you if you need me."

Things NOT to Say:
"Everything will be okay."
"There are so many people out there who have it worse than you."
"Just think happy thoughts."
*Anything that compares their struggles to yours or someone else's.
*Do not necessarily try to offer solutions to their problems, sometimes there is no immediate solution.

Remember that even if it is your best friend or family member - you do not know exactly what another person is going through. Most people just need someone to listen to them. Be sure to recommend that they speak with their Doctor or some sort of mental health practitioner when they feel ready. Your Doctor should be up to date with changes in your health and that includes your mental health!

*I am not a mental health practitioner, these are recommendations from my own personal experience and working as a First Responder at University for a couple years.

01/25/2021

Osteopathic Principle 3 - the body is capable of healing and self-regulating.

“Any problem you recognize represents but a tiny blip on the radar screen of your well-being. Even while you are experiencing difficulty, homeostasis is working on your behalf to return you to perfect balance. Your role is simply to relax and allow nature to take its healing course.”
- Alan Cohen

I always tell my patients when I first see them, that our bodies are really good at knowing what they are supposed to do – but sometimes it gets a bit confused, and my job is to encourage it back to health. You can read more about how this principle keeps me on my toes reacting to your body's response to treatment in my latest post.

https://www.humanbodymechanics.ca/blog-1

Thoughts on pain, treatment, common questions and concerns, and Osteopathy.

01/24/2021

Update - January 24th 2021 -

I wanted to send out an update as I received an email at the end of this past week from my association, the Ontario Osteopathic Association (OOA). This email informed me that the provincial government are choosing not to add more health care practitioners to the list of those able to return to work in Ontario at this moment, as such the current lockdown phase has now been extended until February 19th, 2021.

Please be aware that the OOA is continuing to advocate on our behalf, and is dedicated to finding a solution to our current status so that we may return to work and provide osteopathic care to those in need.

OMPs continue to ask that you help us bring awareness about Osteopathy to the government and gather more data to prove that osteopathy is essential to healthcare by completing the survey I have linked below. The OOA has updated the survey since I last sent it out, so I would appreciate it if you would complete it again.

Thank you if you take the time to complete the survey! It is definitely disappointing news, but I look forward to seeing you as soon as OMPs are permitted to return to work. I am posting some educational content on my Instagram and Twitter pages if you would like to keep in touch that way!

https://458rl1jp.r.us-east-1.awstrack.me/L0/https:%2F%2Fwww.surveymonkey.com%2Fr%2F7R2YSQY/1/0100017721c370bf-6861de5e-e3ed-45cc-8f55-f95543fd056a-000000/_J0RPnuMvl64dnEjRC2QY5_kVHs=198

Take this survey powered by surveymonkey.com. Create your own surveys for free.

01/18/2021

Update! No news yet on getting back to work, my practice remains closed unfortunately... but here is a post on Osteopathic Principle 2 (2/4).

Structure & function are interrelated!

I've discussed Osteopathy being a “principles-based” education and last week I went over the first principle - the body is a unit. This week I will discuss how structure and function are interrelated and why that is critical for our understanding of the human body. You can check out my blog post here or check out my Instagram or Twitter pages for more digestible chunks over the week! ☺️

https://www.humanbodymechanics.ca/blog-1

Thoughts on pain, treatment, common questions and concerns, and Osteopathy.

01/14/2021

Your body is a unit!...

Osteopathy treats your entire body. All systems.

Did you know that there are 11 systems in the human body? We have respiratory, circulatory, digestive, endocrine (hormones), exocrine (waste removal), immune, muscular, nervous, renal (urinary), reproductive and skeletal systems in our body. Because of the enormous amount of information now available about each of these systems, they are taught as separate systems. However, there may be an underappreciation for how interconnected these systems truly are.

That is one of the reason’s why patients often have varying and surprising changes to symptoms or problems that we may have not specifically aimed to treat, and why we have no problem not specifically treating or diagnosing diseases. At the end of the day osteopathic practitioners care about what we can feel in our hands. We are improving circulation, taking tensions and stress off areas that may have been aggravated for some time – and responses from person to person vary hugely based on what stresses your body has been under.

If you come to me with a specific diagnosis, of course I want to hear about it! But you do not need to have a diagnosis – because I am treating your body. That is often where Osteopathy shines for people who are currently struggling with pain or symptoms of unknown cause and have yet to find a diagnosis or individuals who have a diagnosis for their pain but rely on pain medication or other medications to help get through the day.

*Osteopathy is NOT anti-medication. We are not doctors and we do not prescribe medications, but it is very important that we know what medications you are on. We do not encourage stopping or lowering your medications without discussion with your Doctor. Osteopathic practitioners work WITH your Doctor to make sure that every part (and system!😄) of you is being taken care of!