What to expect, osteopathic treatment, diagnosis

Your first visit to the Osteopath

The Osteopath will want to discuss your problem and your general health in depth.

Significant medical history (for example past fractures and traumas, operations, illnesses, investigations, and any medications, including sprays, creams and inhalers) will be required. Please bring any recent medical reports and X-rays if available.

Physical examination

You will normally be examined from head to toe, so be prepared to undress to your underwear (you will have privacy for changing). If this causes concern, please say, and we will find a way to accommodate your concerns. You may have a witness or advocate present. Children must be accompanied by a parent or guardian at all times.

Treatment

Gentle movement is used to examine, diagnose and treat all at the same time. A range of techniques may be used, such as massage, muscle stretching, articulation of joints, and manipulation (when a joint will sometimes 'click').

You should tell your Osteopath if you are unhappy or in pain during treatment.

Assessment

Osteopathic diagnosis is more concerned with explaining the problem than giving it a precise name. Therefore the name of a condition is usually only the start of the enquiry. Because causes are often remote or complex, the actual 'bit that hurts' is often not the main focus.

Homework

Treatment will often include advice for self-help. Sometimes advice needs tuning, so if homework is difficult, or seems to be making things worse, then please STOP and let us know.

Prognosis

Every problem has its own natural history that is by nature hard to predict. On average patients receive around eight treatments, but this can vary considerably - some recover quickly and others take a very long time.

If you feel as if you are not making progress do tell your osteopath.

The Healing Process

Sometimes the best medicine is to leave alone and wait for events to run their course. Unexpected reactions to treatment do occur - occasionally quite dramatic - and they tend to be a sign that the treatment is working. Seemingly unrelated small details can be very important to progress. So with every aspect of your health please keep your osteopath 'in the loop'.

"The treatment worked really well, it feels like I have regained the control and balance of my body. Thank you so much."

Martim Dinis, performance artist

"I do feel so much better, I felt the benefits almost immediately. I was having a particularly stressful week and your osteopathy treatment gave me a new lease on life, feeling back to my balanced self now, so very grateful. Warmest wishes"

"Thanks very much Kuno. I am very pleased with your work, you have been a tremendous help to sort out my problem, right from the first treatment. A couple of weeks ago, my neck was so stiff I could not turn it. The range of movements I can achieve now is almost back to normal, and it has freed my shoulder as well. A sense of freedom and alignment is felt after each treatment. It really changes my life, not just immediately, but for days you feel transformed. All I know is that most yoga practitioners go to an osteopath so it must be for a good reason.".

"Kuno, thank you so much for seeing me yesterday. I felt so spaced all day, which was wierd, but something clicked with my body yesterday, and I don't just mean my neck! Thank you for your time, energy, experience and learning"

"Thanks Kuno, I feel fantastic!"

"Arms feeling loads better today. A few aches and pains but nothing major at all"

"Fantastic - really impressed with your work and your ethos"

Osteopathy is for much more than back-pain and sports injuries. Here are just some of the things that bring people to osteopaths:

- Acute pain or discomfort

- Chronic, stubborn or complex issues

- Medical mysteries

- Sports injuries

- Occupation-related health matters

- Vicious cycles of health

...and much more besides.

Because Osteopaths treat people and not diseases, causes and not symptoms, it is not always possible to say 'Osteopathy can help with this and not with that'.

So please phone or email to discuss your particular problem and find out if Osteopathy can help you.

Osteopathy can often find new avenues for progress when other systems have failed, or when diagnosis has created a label but not solved the problem.

Many people turn to Osteopathy having been disappointed by other approaches.