Amelia L. Bueche is an osteopathic physician and founder, This Osteopathic Life.

From skin to soul: What pain reveals about our health

Physician
February 9, 2025

Skin is the largest organ of the body.

It also contains the highest concentration of nociceptors, alerting us to pain at the surface level with the intent to mitigate harm from noxious stimuli.

A veritable trip wire for threats from the external environment, it offers palpable and visible responses in the dermatological layer, providing opportunities for intervention to avoid, eliminate, or resolve problematic exposures.

The skin is also a message delivery system from …

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From skin to soul: What pain reveals about our health

This perspective will change how physicians address pain and recovery

Conditions
January 11, 2025

I implore all physicians to watch the film Tipping the Pain Scale. Invited by a friend to view from the perspective of recovery, I accepted in support and out of curiosity for the proposed approach to the treatment of pain. As an osteopathic neuromusculoskeletal medicine physician, this is the chief complaint of many patients seeking care, often addressed with hands-on treatment considering structure and function and the unity of body, …

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This perspective will change how physicians address pain and recovery

Expanding the osteopathic concept for the health of all things

Physician
October 20, 2020

To be seen.

To be heard.

To be understood.

To be acknowledged.

To be appreciated.

To be accepted.

To be welcomed.

To be engaged.

To be involved.

To be worthy.

To be helped.

Common desires of patients.

Common desires of physicians.

We are all interrelated.

This is the foundational basis of osteopathic medicine. Whether …

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Expanding the osteopathic concept for the health of all things

Done is better than perfect. The enemy of good is better.

Physician
September 25, 2020

Done is better than perfect. The enemy of good is better. These are phrases that have echoed throughout my training and particularly in the past year of my personal life. Credited in various iterations to multiple sources, I openly note that these two phrases are not my original words and, I’d wager based on their prevalence, not my unique experience.

Attention to detail, a penchant for excellence, the desire to be …

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Done is better than perfect. The enemy of good is better.

Navigating the river of health

Conditions
September 16, 2020

Optimal results are achieved when the patient takes an active role in the wellness plan. This is a phrase published in a brochure describing the details of my work. As a specialist in neuromusculoskeletal medicine and osteopathic manipulative medicine (OMT), patients often present with pain, which is usually multifactorial in nature. Given that the majority of evaluations result in the use of osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) to address mechanical dysfunction, there …

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Navigating the river of health

What do you picture when you think of health care?

Physician
September 11, 2020

What do you picture when you think of health care? How different is that from your vision of health? Is it possible to connect these two mental images? Can they be merged directly or at by way of a bridge?

When I envision health, I see images of vitality, vibrant smiles, glowing skin, and strong bodies. When I sense health, I feel peaceful spirits, connected hearts, kind actions.  When I witness health, …

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What do you picture when you think of health care?

Intentions don’t sanitize impact

Physician
September 7, 2020

While there are certainly instances of malicious intent in thoughts, feelings, and actions, most people operate with the intent to do good, be good, offer good to the world – but what we do isn’t always received in the way we set out to offer it.

In the words of Oscar Wilde, “No good deed goes unpunished.”

It can be frustrating and even paralyzing to consider this consequence, resigning us to, “What …

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Intentions don’t sanitize impact

Veering away from the predetermined path of training in medicine

Education
August 26, 2020

With the advent of GPS, the need for self-directed navigation has all but vanished. We find ourselves at the mercy of and indebted to the wisdom of our devices. Occasionally given choices for route preference based on directness, speed limits, or tolls, we are otherwise taken on a course of someone else’s choosing. Agreeable for the ease, wisdom of insight, recommendation based on past experience, we accept the …

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Veering away from the predetermined path of training in medicine

Ownership of outcomes: Reuniting power and responsibility

Policy
August 17, 2020

Expectations, particularly when unmet, can be a source of disappointment. Anticipating something to happen a certain way and having it not come to fruition can leave us wanting, waiting, wondering. It can be particularly challenging when we feel responsible for a result but have incomplete, little, or even no control over it in the first place.

In medicine, there is a movement toward Read more…

Ownership of outcomes: Reuniting power and responsibility

Choice is a charged word in medicine

Physician
August 8, 2020

Choice is always available to us. Choice is a charged word – fueling political debates and challenging concepts of freedom. Many would argue that there are unavoidable obligations, legal and cultural limitations that revoke choice, but at the core of human existence is free will that cannot be revoked. While there may be consequences for choices that seem undesirable, unjust, even inhumane, and ultimately unavoidable, choice remains infinitely available, and …

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Choice is a charged word in medicine

The quest for external worthiness is exhausting. The experience of internal worthiness is exhilarating.

Physician
August 2, 2020

We often think something will or someone can make us feel better. When the system appears broken, the culture toxic, the space unwelcoming, we are uncomfortable. To feel more comfortable, we seek to change the surroundings and, when that seems impossible, change ourselves to fit in. We quiet our inner voices to create an external voice that joins in with the choir around us. We shift our appearance to more …

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The quest for external worthiness is exhausting. The experience of internal worthiness is exhilarating.

How coaching prevents and treats physician burnout

Physician
July 27, 2020

Prevention is the best medicine. But when you’re already sick, what you really want is an effective treatment. When the level of contagion is high, and the likelihood of contracting a disease is great, you want to know that there are options available to support you when you inevitably get sick. If herd immunity is the most effective means of eradication, you want to do your part and hope others …

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How coaching prevents and treats physician burnout