Very few DOs practice any hands-on osteopathy. The vast majority practice as any MD would. Most have the attitude that, as one of my students told me ( I taught osteopathic manipulation in the 80s in a DO school), ” You wasted a spot that could have gone to someone who really wanted to be a doctor.”
But I love my work and my patients seem very grateful for what I do for them.
Every year there are fewer and fewer DOs who do what I do. Most of them are truly ignorant of what osteopathy is all about. It is not about manipulation at all. That is simply a tool we use to improve the physiology (functioning) of our patients. The essence of osteopathy is philosophy and it is this that is overlooked and not taught at any of the schools. The philosophy of osteopathy is truly profound and guides me in my interactions with patients, my examination and treatment of them.
And this unique view of life and how to use it to help people who are suffering makes all the difference in the world for our patients.