How to find the best osteopath in Montréal

Over the years, osteopathy services have multiplied. How can you be sure you’re seeing the osteopath who’s right for you? What criteria let you be sure you’re dealing with the right person? Here are a few leads for your search.

Looking for the best osteopath in Montréal

The best osteopath in Montréal will above all be someone you feel like talking to. The first thing that will matter in a relationship as particular as a therapeutic one is the trust you can place in that osteopath.

Best osteopath in Montréal or in Québec: you won’t find any ranking or names to recommend here. Ostéopathie Québec, a professional association, suggests talking with the osteopath first: their training, their experience, their approach, whether they belong to an association. Then it’s up to you to judge whether the trust is there.

How can you tell if an osteopath is good?

To build that trust, several things can help you.

How can you check that an osteopath belongs to an association?

To check membership in Ostéopathie Québec, the simplest way is to look at its member directory (in French). It only shows members who have agreed to display their profile publicly. So a member may not be listed: if in doubt, ask the osteopath before booking.

Choose, then confirm at the first appointment

Once you think you’ve found the right person, it’s time for the appointment and the session.

I describe how a first osteopathy appointment unfolds on another page. Here are just a few pointers.

Your story and your expectations

It’s a time for conversation, where the osteopath and you talk about your reason for coming, your medical history (surgeries, injuries, medications, recurring discomfort…), your lifestyle, and your expectations of osteopathy.

A practice that’s unique to each osteopath

It’s a practical part where, depending on the osteopath’s sensibility, they offer you a range of techniques, with or without explanations of them.

Tips for your daily life

Finally, this “best osteopath” may also pass on a few tips at the end of the session, so that at home, in your daily life, you can enhance the benefits of the osteopathic treatment: rethinking your lifestyle habits, seeing other professionals (doctor, physiotherapist, psychologist).

Without a referral, and without a medical diagnosis

You can see an osteopath directly, without a doctor’s referral.

Even though they can’t make a diagnosis, an osteopath’s very first job is to find out whether your reason for coming falls under osteopathy. Ostéopathie Québec’s code of ethics requires its members to point you toward another professional if your interests require it, and with your consent (code of ethics, in French).

How many sessions should you expect?

Often, one session is enough to help you, sometimes two, rarely three. That’s what we figure out together at the first appointment. If there’s no improvement after three sessions, I’ll generally point you toward another professional. Why so few sessions? It comes down to the osteopath’s role.

The best osteopath in Montréal works to “give you back options for mobility”. An osteopath’s goal isn’t to treat you or to cure you. Their focus is on supporting your health. In other words, they’re interested in giving your body back its ability to function.

Like a (sophisticated) machine, your body can sometimes have grains of sand in its gears. In this analogy, the osteopath’s role is to remove these obstacles that disrupt how your body works. It isn’t their mission to make those gears turn for you.

So, generally, an osteopath won’t have you come in several times a week for several months to do this work.

The best osteopath in Montréal will be the one who’s right for you. In other words, he or she will be the osteopath who, in your view, meets the different criteria mentioned above.

Nicolas Acquié, osteopath D.O.

I’m an osteopath D.O. (graduate in osteopathy). I earned my diploma at the Institut Toulousain d’Ostéopathie (France) in 2013. I also teach at the IEOQ, the Institut d’Enseignement de l’Ostéopathie du Québec. You’ll find me at my practice in Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie.

My background