i.
Listening that takes longer than most patients have experienced
About the first third of a first visit is conversation. That alone changes what becomes possible — you are working with information no rushed clinician ever collects.
Osteopathic Practitioner · Oak Bay, Victoria BC
Osteopathy that takes the long view.
A neurodiversity- and trauma-aware Osteopathic practice on lək̓ʷəŋən territory, Oak Bay. We listen first, then craft a treatment for the body in front of us, manually supporting its return to ease.
What brings people here
Care that meets you
where you actually are.
Patients arrive at Saisons through different stories. Each of the four below is a real way of working — not a service menu. Find the one that sounds closest to what you are bringing.
Adults & chronic patterns
Back, neck, headaches, persistent tension, recovery from injuries that haven't fully resolved. Gentle, precise, careful work for the kind of pain that doesn't have a quick story.
Learn morePregnancy & post-partum
Carrying, birthing and recovering ask a lot of the body. Osteopathic support through pregnancy, after birth, and through the long months when "recovered" still doesn't quite feel like it.
Learn moreBabies & children
Latch difficulties, strained heads, unsettled sleep, post-birth recovery. Gentle, paediatric-trained work — and honesty about what it can and can't address.
Learn moreNervous system & trauma-aware
Hands-on osteopathy held inside a humanistic, enactive frame. For neurodiverse patients, somatic-literate patients, or anyone who needs to deepen their somatic awareness.
Learn moreA short, honest explainer
What osteopathy is.
And what it isn't.
Plain English. Five minutes.
Osteopathy is a hands-on practice. It uses gentle, deliberate touch to support how your body moves, breathes and recovers. It is usually considered gentler and more holistic than its cousin, chiropractic. It is different from massage as the goal is less about muscle relaxation and more about how to help your structure reorganise itself.
The strongest evidence supports osteopathic care for back and neck pain and certain headaches. Research also covers gynaecological and obstetric conditions, irritable bowel syndrome, and paediatric care — with varying quality. I will tell you plainly where it runs out.
The evidence, in more detail
The evidence is most developed for musculoskeletal conditions — chronic low back pain, neck pain, and certain headaches — where systematic reviews support clinically meaningful effects.1 In gynaecology and obstetrics, an updated systematic review of 21 studies found positive signals across pregnancy-related back pain, dysmenorrhoea, and pelvic pain, though heterogeneity prevents firm recommendations.2 For irritable bowel syndrome, a meta-analysis of five RCTs found significant reductions in abdominal pain and constipation — while rating the overall evidence quality as low.3 In paediatric and preterm care, early studies show promise for infant colic and neonatal recovery, but high-quality replication is still needed.4 For cranial approaches specifically, current systematic reviews are candid: the original theoretical model is no longer supported, and efficacy remains unestablished.5
1 Zipp et al. (2025). An overview of systematic reviews on the efficacy and safety of osteopathic techniques. J. Bodywork Mov. Ther. doi:10.1016/j.jbmt.2025.03.018 2 Ruffini et al. (2022). The role of osteopathic care in gynaecology and obstetrics: an updated systematic review. Healthcare, 10(8), 1566. doi:10.3390/healthcare10081566 3 Buffone et al. (2023). Effectiveness of osteopathic manipulative treatment in adults with irritable bowel syndrome: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Healthcare, 11(17), 2442. doi:10.3390/healthcare11172442 4 Buffone et al. (2022). Osteopathic treatment for gastrointestinal disorders in term and preterm infants: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Healthcare, 10(8), 1525. doi:10.3390/healthcare10081525 — Tarantino et al. (2022). Non-invasive ventilation weaning of preterm infants exposed to osteopathic manipulative treatment. Healthcare, 10(12), 2379. doi:10.3390/healthcare10122379 5 Mériaux et al. (2024). Physiological mechanisms underlying the primary respiratory mechanism and cranial rhythmic impulse in osteopathy: a systematic review. Healthcare, 12(24), 2503. doi:10.3390/healthcare12242503
My work is listening-led, interpersonal, and built in the moment from extensive foundations. The technique is chosen for the patient, not the patient for the technique.
While respecting the traditional frame of osteopathic manual work, the intellectual frame I work inside is biopsychosocial, enactive, and informed by contemporary pain science (Thomson, Esteves, Sposato). The observational orientation owes a lot to Edward Bach's patient attention to how a person holds and presents their condition. After twenty years of practice, what I have learned as a fundamental is to listen first.
When you and your body can feel each other better, you'll end up feeling better at large. Nearly too simple to be true!
1 Overview of systematic reviews on osteopathic techniques, Int. J. of Osteopathic Medicine, 2025. 2 Patient-active approaches in osteopathic practice — scoping review, 2022.
Why some patients describe it as magic
What feels magical,
explained.
Patients in BC have consistently called me all sort of magic related words (at my great surprise). The work isn't mystical — it has four specific ingredients, and naming them honestly is part of the practice.
ii.
Palpation refined over twenty years
Five and a half years of full-time French osteopathic training, then two decades of practice. What hands learn to detect — tissue tone, fluid quality, the bracing of a system not yet at ease — is genuinely uncommon.
iii.
In-the-moment technique selection
Structural, functional, cranial, visceral, biodynamic, trauma-aware — the technique is chosen for the patient and the moment, not the patient for the technique. To experience this feels like the right thing happening at the right time. That isn't magic. That is craft.
iv.
Attentional discipline
Trauma-aware training isn't primarily a technique training. It is a training of how a practitioner pays attention while their hands are on the body. The felt effect on a patient is one of being met. That, more than anything else, is what the word magic is usually pointing at.
Sensory-aware by default
The clinic is set up to be quiet, warm, and low-stimulation — respecting the delicate sensoriality of autistic, ADHD, and sensitive/reactive patients.
No surprise music, no scented oils, warm lighting, predictable pacing. If a longer first conversation, a regulating object, or a support person in the room would help, mention it when you book. None of that is unusual here.
A season of care
What working with me usually looks like.
No two patients arrive on the same path. But most of the work, when it goes well, has a shape that looks something like this — measured in weeks and months, not minutes.
01 · Spring
First conversation
Sixty minutes. About a third of that is talking — what brings you in, what you have tried, what would be different in three months. The rest is hands-on assessment.
Week 1
02 · Summer
Active work
Two to four sessions over one to three months, usually. The shape of change becomes visible — what is shifting, what is stubborn, what is asking for different attention.
Weeks 2–12
03 · Autumn
Settling
Sessions space out. We confirm what has settled, what tools you have for yourself, and what kind of ongoing rhythm — if any — actually serves you.
Months 3–6
04 · Winter & next Spring
Seasonal check-ins
Many patients return two to four times a year — at the change of the seasons, or before something demanding. Not maintenance. Attention to how the body is adapting to whatever the year has brought.
2–4 × per year
About the practitioner
Lucas Vergnettes,
DO(FR).
I trained as an osteopath in France, at the Institut Supérieur d'Ostéopathie in Aix-en-Provence — five-and-a-half years, full time, more than five thousand clinical hours. Between 2003 and 2014 I practised in Aix, Marseille and Paris, taught at CEESO Paris, and served three years as President of the Académie d'Ostéopathie de France.
I moved from Paris to British Columbia in 2014. My first own Canadian clinic, Saisons Osteopathy, opened on Victoria's Oak Bay Avenue in 2019. These days I am completing a Master's in Osteopathy at the Metropolia University of Applied Sciences, Helsinki, where I have studied with Jerry Draper-Rodi, Jorge Esteves, Oliver Thomson and Niklas Sposato among other cutting edge osteopaths and researchers.
20+
Years in clinical practice
5.5
Years of full-time osteopathic training in France
300+
Hours of trauma-specific certification (Kain, Terrell, Somatic Resilience & Regulation, Touch Skills for Trauma)
For practitioners
If you are a physio, midwife, GP, PsyD/RSW/RCC or somatic practitioner with someone in mind — I'd be glad to talk before you refer.
I work within OsteopathyBC standards and a modern biopsychosocial frame, and I will tell you honestly what falls inside my scope, what is at the edge of it and what does not. Patients can visit my clinic without formal referral, but that collaboration enhances expectations and outcomes for more complex presentations.
I can also work directly with other practitioners — helping decode how a body is presenting, what the load pattern suggests, and what manual or somatic approaches are worth considering. If that is useful to you, reach out through the practitioners page.
Visiting Saisons
Oak Bay Avenue,
Victoria, BC.
Address
B–1834 Oak Bay Avenue
Victoria, BC, V8R 1C2
lək̓ʷəŋən territory
Hours
Mon, Tue, Thu, Fri · 9 – 5:30
Closed Wednesdays · Often open on holidays
Fees
First visit · 60 min · $185
Follow-up · 60 or 45 min · $170
All fees GST incl.
Insurance
Receipts issued for all BC extended health plans listing 'Osteopathy'.
Languages
English · French (native)
Español entendido
Member
OsteopathyBC, in good standing
Reg. no. on request
Book online →
Or write before you book — lucas@saisonsclinic.ca