What is Osteopathy?
Osteopaths use a wide range of techniques, including massage, cranial techniques (sometimes referred to as ‘cranial osteopathy’) and joint mobilisation to get and maintain your body good structural balance. Osteopaths assess and treat people of any age from the elderly to the newborn and from pregnant women to sports people.
Osteopathy can treat:
- Generalised aches and pains
- Joint & Rheumatic pain
- Arthritic pain
- General, acute & chronic backache, back pain
- Mechanical neck pain
- Headaches
- Shoulder pain & Elbow pain (including Frozen shoulder, tennis elbow, golfers elbow)
- Sports injuries and tensions
- Sciatica & Neuralgia
- Fibromyalgia
- Digestion problems
- Circulatory problems
- Cramp
- Lumbago
- Muscle spasms
- Inability to relax
However patients have found Osteopathy helpful for many other conditions. If you want to find out more, your Osteopath will be happy to talk to you.
Your medical history
Before we start to treat you, we will make a full medical assessment. We take time to listen to you and ask questions to make sure we understand your medical history and your day-to-day routine. We’ll ask you about things like diet, exercise and what is happening in your life, as these may give clues to help our diagnosis.
We may feel your pulse and check your reflexes. We may also take your blood pressure and refer you for clinical tests, such as x-rays, if we think you need them.
We usually look at your posture and how you move your body. We may also assess what happens when we move it for you and see what hurts, where and when. Using touch, we may also find the areas which are sensitive or tight and this helps us to identify what’s going on. When we have done this, we can diagnose your condition. We may sometimes feel that osteopathy is not appropriate for you and refer you to your GP or another specialist.
Your treatment
Osteopaths use a wide range of gentle manipulations, depending on your age, fitness and diagnosis. Treatment is different for every patient but may include techniques such as different types of soft tissue massage and joint mobilisation to release tension, stretch muscles, help relieve pain and mobilise your joints. We may discuss exercises that you can do to improve your posture and movement in your workplace and everyday life.
