About Osteopathy - What is it?

     Osteopathy is a system of diagnosis, treatment and management that focuses on the whole body as a single system. It also takes into account the physiological changes that can be caused by the persons psyche (e.g effects of stressful job) and social situation. People of all ages can benefit from Osteopathic treatment. 

     Diagnosis: To diagnose a problem, we first take a case history. This is to "screen" each patient to ensure they aren't suffering something that requires a different specialism. This gives us a very good idea as to what is going wrong, which tissues are involved, and why it went wrong at this point in time. Osteopathy then utilises observation, movement and palpation (touch) in it's diagnosis, to see how the whole body, not just the area of pain, is being affected.
     Treatment & Management: Osteopaths are highly trained in "manual therapy", or more specifically, "Osteopathic Manipulative Therapy (OMT)". This enables us to choose which treatments are best for each individual patient from a wide skill set. We also frequently utilise nutrition, exercises.
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A mass of confusion? Osteopathy is about making sense of the pain, finding out why it happened and what needs to be changed to get you back on the right track.
At Highlight Osteopaths, these can include several forms of technique​...
  • Joint Articulation
  • Massage 
  • Stretching 
  • Friction techniques
  • "Myofascial" techniques (Utilising connective tissue)
  • "MET" techniques (Stretching against resistance),
  • "HVLAT" (Gentle thrust, may produce a little click)
  • "Cranial" and "Visceral" Osteopathy
  • "Inhibition"/ "Reciprocal Inhibition" (muscles and nerves)
  • Many others
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Summary
  • State Regulated You can only be called an "Osteopath" if you are registered with the GOsC. And you can only be registered with the GOsC if you have studied and proved yourself able to hold the high standards they set.
  • Very Safe Osteopathic Therapy is considered to be an extremely safe form of medical intervention.
  • Holistic The Osteopathic approach utilises the "bio-psycho-social model". This means we consider not just the body (bio) but the individuals mental, environmental and social state... e.g stress.
  • Ethical Here in Highlight Osteopaths, we uphold the highest standards of medical ethics. 

Who goes to see an Osteopath?

     Anyone who suffers mechanical pain can see an Osteopath. Rather than explain how we can help each body region here, we have pages dedicated to each individual part of the body. We invite you to click the region that is causing you pain or discomfort and see if you want to give Osteopathy a go. If you are unsure, we can arrange to skype, phonecall or book yourself in for a 10 minute chat (free).

Who gets to be called an Osteopath?

  The term "Osteopath" is protected by Law. Anyone who wishes to be known as an Osteopath must first go through rigorous training, and then become a member of the GOsC.
Osteopaths receive such long, intense training in order to excel in the principles of medicine, and to those particular to the discipline of Osteopathy.
Robs' GOsC Registration Number is 8550
Neck & Headaches     Upper/Lower back     Shoulder/ Arm     Elbow     ​Wrist/ Hand     Hip/ Thigh     Knee     Ankle / Foot