Then the Pandemic Came…. And then Dr Jealous passed away. And we were left holding a strange gift. Dr. Jealous named 42 people faculty before he passed away. That happened over years and is a story for another day. There we were, a completely unorganized group of 42 very independent osteopaths from all over the world (Russia, Australia, France, Italy, England, Canada, Austria, Germany, the US, of course both east and west coasts … you can see all of our names and countries and states on this website hosted by Dr. Jealous’s daughter.
We struggled, we’re still struggling. With the loss of Dr. Jealous, with how to operate together, since we’d never had to before, and with how to continue the tradition Dr. Jealous had nurtured for so many years – when each of us had heard him say that biodynamics would die. He’d stopped training faculty, should we? He’d divided his estate in a way that caused a good deal of angst and confusion and yet over and over he’d told us to Dig On! Each of us held a love for Jim and for Osteopathy that burns intensely. Egos, drama and family issues plague us of course, but so does our simple love of this work.
We are still looking for answers but OHA felt like one small gift I could offer to the community – the faculty and the thousands of students who’d experienced Dr. Jealous’s work and teaching. So I started to work on it again. This time around I managed to get help from the American Academy of Osteopathy (AAO) and OHA is now able to offer those precious CME units. This means there is a small source of funds coming in to OHA which serves as an operating base. I found a like-minded colleague who suggested a workaround for getting osteopathy to more people. Join our mailing list to be updated on this idea when it gets closer to fruition.
OHA partnered with Long Tide Inc, which is owned and run by Marnee Jealous Long, and has been the hub of the biodynamic community for years. Marnee is Jim’s daughter and worked with him for more than 15 years to build his business. She will tell you that she’s still doing this out of a love for her dad but even more-so because of the way she’s seen this work help people from all over the world, over and over again. Without her dad to work for, however, the work now is an act of love and a not terribly lucrative business. So partnering with Long Tide Inc helps support her a little bit which brings me full circle to the inspiration for OHA in the first place – getting Dr. Jealous’s work out in the world, getting people who don’t know about it, and can’t afford it anyway information and access to Osteopathy.
Osteopathic Health Access 