Osteopathy clinic newest care available at Centre for Healthy Communities

Want to learn more about manual osteopathy? Is a lack of benefits coverage preventing you from seeking allied health care? Are you dealing with an injury or affliction that won't go away?

If your answer to any of those questions is yes, the newest student clinic at Sheridan's Centre for Healthy Communities in Brampton could eventually provide the solution you're looking for.

Operating out of the same Davis Campus space as the college’s Athletic Therapy Clinic, Sheridan’s Osteopathy Care Clinic provides evidence-based, student-led manual osteopathic care under the direct supervision of experienced Osteopathic Manual Practitioners (OMPs).

Members of the community can receive manual treatment for a variety of conditions — including acute or chronic pain, muscle strains or postural issues — for just $15 per appointment, with additional benefits available to Sheridan students and staff.

Therapeutic care in the clinic is provided by student practitioners from Sheridan's Honours Bachelor of Science - Osteopathy degree, Canada’s first public postsecondary program of its kind and the only osteopathy degree in the country that meets the World Health Organization’s Type 1 standard of 1,000 hours of supervised clinical practice.

"This clinic provides our students with work-integrated learning experiences while ensuring the way they practice is consistent with what they're learning," says program co-ordinator Catherine Cabral-Marotta, who is also the owner of Mississauga, Ont.-based Motion Health & Wellness. "It also makes osteopathic manual care more accessible to the public, especially those who may not have extensive benefits coverage, and increases awareness of the profession."

Sheridan accessible learning advisor and part-time Pilon School of Business professor Nicholas Mitri was one of the clinic's first patients, seeking treatment for a lingering neck injury that wasn't being resolved through other types of manual therapy.

"I like going to student clinics because there are multiple sets of eyes on you, and this was an opportunity to receive outside-the-box treatment," says Mitri, who was also a regular visitor to the Athletic Therapy Clinic when he was a Sheridan student. "I'm finally experiencing some relief in my neck, and I don't think I would have ever pursued osteopathic manual care if I hadn't had the chance to try it at Sheridan's clinic."

“I don't think I would have ever pursued osteopathic manual care if I hadn't had the chance to try it at Sheridan's clinic.”

– Sheridan advisor and professor Nicholas Mitri

Because Sheridan's osteopathy degree launched last fall and the program is only comprised of first-year students, the clinic's capacity is currently limited to two patient intake sessions each Friday. That capacity will expand dramatically as the program matures. "Eventually, we'll have teams of third-year students paired with second-year students, and fourth-year students paired with first-year students," Cabral-Marotta says. "Two years from now, we'll be able to see nine patients per week, and the numbers will grow from there."

Appointments at Sheridan's Osteopathy Care Clinic can be booked by emailing osteopathyclinic@sheridancollege.ca. All applications go through a screening process to ensure patients' needs align with what students have already learned.

"The experience we get in the clinic ties together with what we're learning in our second-semester Structure of Function and Applied Clinical Practice courses," explains osteopathy student Charlin Osei, a Registered Practical Nurse (RPN) who was looking to deliver care that is more holistic and patient-centred.

"This program has already taught me to think more creatively and that the practice of osteopathy is about putting out the fire. (It’s about) finding the root cause of a problem and treating it."

Learn more about Sheridan's Honours Bachelor of Science — Osteopathy degree.

In banner photo, a student from Sheridan's Honours Bachelor of Science - Osteopathy degree assesses a classmate. In body photo, program coordinator Catherine Cabral-Marotta demonstrates an assessment of a student.