What is Osteopathy?

Something I hear a lot from patients and friends alike are questions such as “What actually is Osteopathy? What does it mean? Is it just to do with bones?”

As someone who has spent a great deal of their life studying everything to do with Osteopathy, it inevitably leaves me with that toe clenching feeling of frustration.

Other forms of therapy such as chiropractic, physiotherapy, even acupuncture are more well known, but there is still a lack of understanding about what Osteopathy really entails.

The word “Osteo” literally means “Bones”, so it’s perhaps easy to see where the confusion comes from, but in actual fact, Osteopathy deals with so much more than just bones.

The NHS definition for Osteopathy is as follows;

“Osteopathy is a way of detecting, treating and preventing health problems by moving, stretching and massaging a person's muscles and joints.”

Osteopathy looks at bones, muscles, tendons, the whole shebang.

In our work as Osteopaths, we help to alleviate symptoms from foot pain, joint pain, knee injuries, tennis elbow, golfers elbow, shoulder impingement, tendinopathies and even headaches/migraines. The list could go on and on, but you get my point.

Osteopathy is based on a number of key principles. The most important of which is that it looks holistically at the entire body - not just one specific symptom. The body is completely interconnected and works together as one, so what might be manifesting as a symptom in your back, may be just as likely to be caused by tightness or lack of mobility in your foot as it is the back itself.

We look at the way your body moves and how all the muscles, bones and tendons react with each other and how they perform as one. We also look for general strength or weakness, how good your general balance is, your nutrition, sleep, work life habits and more.

If you ever want to find out more about how Osteopathy differs from other therapies, please get in touch or better yet, book an appointment :)