Osteopathy is a manual therapy, patient focused approach to health. Osteopaths respect and work with the dynamic nature of the body to understand the underlying cause of your pain with the aim of restoring balance and mobility and reduction of pain; this is why your osteopath will treat more than just the “sore bit”.
Working with all systems of the body, not just the bones, to achieve this, you can expect a varied treatment. This may involve working on your muscles, fascia, joints and ligaments through to your abdominal organs and your respiratory system.
Osteopathic philosophy states that all systems of the body are interrelated and therefore should work together. Your treatment will aim to achieve harmony for these systems.
Chronic headaches, irritable bowel syndrome, whiplash injury, scoliosis, acute knee strain, sciatic pain, chronic pain, fibromyalgia, constipation, acute and chronic back/neck pain, breathing dysfunction…your osteopath has an expert skill set may be able to help in a wide and varied range of physical symptoms. Get in touch if you are unsure whether osteopathy may be able to help you.
What is Osteopathy?
Visceral Osteopathy
This technique aims to encourage the normal mobility, tone and motion of your organs and the surrounding connective tissues, including nerves, ligaments, arteries and veins. Performed using gentle manipulation visceral osteopathy can potentially improve the functioning of individual organs, the systems the organs function with and the structural integrity of the entire body.
Cranial Osteopathy
This approach works through the gentle application of techniques to all areas of the body, not just the head. Your osteopath can feel subtle areas of tension and tissue dysfunction within the body that may interfere with normal fluid movement or rhythms of the body. Once identified, these restrictions can be treated using very gentle pressure that promotes restoration of balance, resulting in ease movement and reduced pain for the patient.
Both visceral and cranial osteopathy can be used as stand-alone techniques or in conjunction manual therapy based osteopathic approach.