All About osteopathy
Osteopaths believe everyone can benefit from a tailored, whole-person approach to health. They are Allied Healthcare Professionals who take time to understand your individual history, circumstances and unique physiology.
What do osteopaths do?
Osteopaths provide safe, effective treatment and care that aims to promote the health of patients. As highly trained healthcare professionals, Osteopaths are experts in the musculoskeletal (MSK) system – that is the muscles, joints and associated tissues and their relationship with other systems of the body.
Osteopaths will use a wide variety of gentle hands-on techniques that focus on releasing tension, improving mobility and optimising function, together with providing useful health advice and exercise if required.
They will also work with, or refer you to, other healthcare professionals as needed to ensure you receive optimum care. They take the time to understand each patient, and there unique combination of symptoms, medical history and lifestyle.
This helps to make an accurate diagnosis of the cause of your issue, (not just addressing the site of discomfort), and formulate a treatment plan with you that will achieve the best outcome.
How can Osteopaths help?
People commonly visit osteopaths for MSK conditions, such as back, neck, joint, muscle and arthritic discomfort. Osteopaths have a well-deserved, evidence-based reputation for expertise in the treatment of these conditions.
People also visit osteopaths for a variety of other health reasons including neuromuscular conditions such as sciatica, digestive issues, headaches and migraine prevention.
Most osteopaths work in local private healthcare clinics and you can visit them without the need for a GP referral.
What do We Treat?
Osteopathy is a system of assessing, diagnosing, treating and preventing a wide range of health problems.
Osteopaths are commonly known for treating back pain and postural problems including changes due to pregnancy, caused by driving or work strain, the pain of arthritis and minor sports injuries.
Heres a list of a few common things we treat:
Arthritic pain
Sciatica
Digestion problems
Headache arising from the neck (cervicogenic)
Joint pains
Migraine prevention
Sports injuries
Muscle spasms
Rheumatic pain
Osteopaths are trained to check for signs of underlying conditions they cannot treat. In these circumstances, they will inform you of what they believe is the problem and refer you to see your GP or hospital for further investigations.
Training and registration
Osteopaths are regulated by law and recognised as an allied health profession by NHS England. This gives them a similar status to dentists or physiotherapists and guarantees the equivalent high level of care.
By law, an osteopath must be registered with the General Osteopathic Council (GOsC) to practise in the UK.
Before an osteopath can obtain registration, they must attain specialist degree-level training, either a Bachelor of Science (BSc.) or integrated Masters (MOst.), plus complete over 1000 hours of clinical placements (direct patient contact time).
To maintain their registration with GOsC, which is renewed annually, osteopaths must meet mandatory continuous professional development (CPD): keeping skills and knowledge up-to-date and maintaining high standards of professional development.
