About Osteopathy

Osteopathy is a complete form of health-care dating back to the mid-nineteenth century, it has since developed into an holistic form of manual medicine, specialising in the treatment of the musculoskeletal system and is complementary to modern medical practice.

All osteopathic techniques involve manual manipulation of the patient's body to achieve optimum balance and function. The aim being to reduce pain, restore function and prevent future problems, such as the joint degeneration that can occur when such issues go untreated.

As mentioned previously osteopathy is considered an holistic modality, but what does this really mean? In practice we aim to identify and treat not only the patient's symptoms (pain, stiffness etc.) but also to identify and correct the underlying cause. The aim being to prevent, as far as possible, any recurrences.

How do we do this? Osteopaths recognise that the body has the ability to heal itself. We are all aware of this phenomenon, if you cut yourself it heals, if you catch a cold, you get better. Therefore any pain, stiffness or loss of motion should, under ideal circumstances, be dealt with by the body's own defences. However we believe that many people do not operate under ideal circumstances. Our modern lives do not encourage balance or alignment in our posture or general use of our bodies. Osteopathic technique, is therefore aimed at restoring balance and allowing the body to restore its own health.

So what can we treat? Well that is a very long list, osteopaths are well known for their expertise in treating low back pain. However that is only a very small part of the story. Osteopathy aims at being able to treat pain and dysfunction arising from any part of the musculoskeletal system: bones, joints, muscles, ligaments or fascia.