Osteopathy is a form of manual medicine that focuses on total body health by treating the structural and functional mechanics of the body, which include the joints, muscles and spine. Osteopathy is also a form of diagnosis and treatment for a wide range of medical and orthopaedic conditions including back pain, neck pain, joint or muscular pain, shoulder, hip and knee pain etc.
Osteopathy seeks to find the root cause of any injury. Invariably we find that a problem or previous injury elsewhere can predispose a current injury. Therefore an Osteopathic assessment involves treating the body as a unit and not just the site of pain.
Osteopaths have a highly developed sense of touch and this coupled with their extensive training in anatomy, physiology, biomechanics and in neurological and orthopaedic testing, forms a profession that is highly trained and highly competent with whatever ailment they may be presented with.
As a result of the high professional standards Osteopaths acquire it makes Osteopathy a safe and non-invasive treatment option for people of all ages.
Osteopathy was developed in America by A.T Still and he founded the first Osteopathic college in 1892. He described Osteopathy as “that science which consists of such exact, exhaustive, and verifiable knowledge of the structure and function of the human mechanism, anatomical, physiological and psychological, including the chemistry and physics of its known elements, as has made discoverable certain organic laws and remedial resources, within the body itself, by which nature under the scientific treatment peculiar to osteopathic practice, apart from all ordinary methods of extraneous, artificial, or medicinal stimulation, and in harmonious accord with its own mechanical principles, molecular activities, and metabolic processes, may recover from displacements, disorganizations, derangements, and consequent disease, and regained its normal equilibrium of form and function in health and strength.”