Osteopathy is an established system of diagnosis and manual treatment, which is recognised by the British Medical Association. Osteopaths are trained to recognise and treat many causes of pain and are fully qualified members of the General Osteopathic Council.

Osteopathy recognises the importance of the link between the structure of the human body and the way it functions. Osteopaths focus on the body's skeleton and joint function along with the underlying muscles, soft tissue and internal organs.

Osteopaths consider each person as an individual, utilising a highly developed sense of touch they identify problem areas of the body. Using gentle stretching and mobilising techniques as well as manipulating joints, an osteopath works with the body to create the perfect condition to facilitate the healing process.

Your First Consultation

Osteopaths take an integrated approach to your healthcare and therefore require a lot of information from you to assist them with their diagnosis of your complaint and then construct a management plan that is primarily safe and best suited to your complete recovery.

A full case history will therefore be taken, asking questions directly about your complaint such as where, for how long, what makes it worse and better etc. Then a past medical history will be taken to include questions such as previous surgery and illnesses, heart conditions and family history etc;
The questions may on occasion seem unrelated to your complaint but please feel free at all times to stop your osteopath and have them answer your query.

After the case history has been taken, your osteopath will have a very good idea as to what has happened, but will need to examine you to be sure. The detailed examination will involve looking closely at the affected region and then assessing it in the context of the rest of your body. Your osteopath will need to examine by touch, all the time picking up details such as hot and swollen areas that might be a sign of inflammation, or cool dry areas that might mean a more chronic condition etc. Assessing how your body moves with you actively moving, for example leaning to one side and then the other for an assessment of your spinal movements will give a lot of information, your osteopath will then compare this movement with the movements they achieve through passively moving your spine without you helping them, all the time assessing for both the quality and quantity of movement. Any essential tests will also be performed at this stage, almost certainly blood pressure and then other tests such as a neurological assessment and perhaps a check on the blood supply to the affected areas.

After the examination, your osteopath will have a good idea as to what has happened and will discuss this with you at length, in a consultative approach. It may be that your best avenue of treatment will be a visit to your GP or another healthcare professional, but in the large majority of cases, your osteopath will discuss and agree a contract of care between you, detailing the nature of the problem and giving you the information relating to how best to address the issue and then with your full consent deciding on the specifics of osteopathic treatment approaches.

What is the Treatment

Osteopathic treatment encompasses many techniques. The aim of the treatment is to restore the normal function of your body. This is done by improving the function of the tissues of the body through the blood flow and the nervous system. The main treatments are:

Manipulation of joints – one of the main aims of osteopaths is to restore the normal function of joint mobility. Often the joints are not moving through their full range of motion. Osteopaths use their skilled hands to restore joint mobility by putting a small movement through the joint. This causes the joint to gap slightly, which then causes waste gases to form in the joint fluid which escapes to produce the well-known “click” sound. This helps to relax muscle spasm and pain. Soft tissue massage – often muscles are tight and produce pain.

Massage helps to reduce this tightness and improve blood flow in the muscles.

Gentle releasing techniques – our osteopath will use his highly developed sense of touch, called palpation, to identify any points of weakness or excessive strain throughout your body. By movement of the joints, muscles and tissues, the osteopath can help to release these areas of impaired function.

Cranial osteopathy or cranio-sacral techniques – These are also very gentle movements to the tissues of the body that the osteopath makes. These allow fluid movement to occur through the tissues to maximase function and the bodies capacity to heal.

You may also be advised the use of hydrotherapy - use of hot and cold water packs to manipulate the blood flow to aid healing and normal function.

Exercises may be prescribed to optimise recovery and are an important part of your treatment for your recovery and long term improvement.

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