• HOME
• ABOUT US
• SERVICES
  • Osteopathy
  • Naturopathy
  • Homeopathy
  • Medical Intuitive
  • Alternative Healing
  • Bodywork
• PRACTITIONERS
  • Dr Clare Gordon
  • Libby Dartez
  • Helen Paige
  • Genii Mammone
  • John Coleman
  • Barb Stone
  • Enza Sparta
  • Rochelle Hadjiloukas
  • Jean Nemeth
• PRODUCTS
• COURSES & WORKSHOPS
  • About Birth
  • Yoga
  • Energetic Workshops
  • Intro To Crystals
  • Crystal Healing
  • Cutting The Ties That Bind
  • Archetypal Chart Course
  • Helen Paige Workshops
  • Homoeopathy First Aid
• CONTACT US

What is Osteopathy?

History of Osteopathy

Osteopathic Training

Cranial Osteopathy

Treatment of Babies

What is Osteopathy?
Osteopathy is a system of manual medicine which focuses on the relationship between the function of the body and its structure. By physically treating the structure of the body, it has the ability to normalise and re-align. By doing so, it allows the function and, therefore, overall health to improve. Osteopaths work to support the fact that the body is self-regulating and will perform best when all systems of the body are balanced and functioning efficiently. This includes, but is not limited to, the musculoskeletal, circulatory, nervous and digestive systems. Osteopaths focus on the whole body as well as looking at lifestyle issues that may be contributing to the situation.

Osteopathy can help with, but not limited to, the following conditions:

• Back and neck pain
• Sciatic pain
• Headaches
• Digestive issues, i.e. indigestion/reflux, constipation, etc.
• Pain during pregnancy
• Menstrual problems
• Fluid retention
• Reflux, colic and digestive and sleeping problems in babies
• Asthma and breathing difficulties
• Sporting Injuries
• Joint pain/Arthritis
• Growing pains in children

Using skilled evaluation, diagnosis and a wide range of techniques an Osteopath can identify dysfunction in the body and treat it accordingly. Osteopathic treatment uses techniques such as soft tissue techniques and stretching for the general treatment of muscle, tendons and ligaments, joint movement and articulation, as well as slow release techniques such as ligament balancing and cranial osteopathy, which make it gentle and safe to use on the elderly, babies and pregnant women.

History of Osteopathy
Osteopathy was developed in 1874 by an American Physician and surgeon, Dr Andrew Taylor Still. His theories of the body and how it functioned differed greatly from the medical model of the time, which was far from the science model of today. He advocated the treatment of the individual rather than the disease.

After an outbreak of spinal meningitis in 1864 that claimed the lives of three of his children, he conducted ten years of research and clinical observations. This inspired him to develop his own system of treatment based on the structure and function of the body, and the body’s inherent healing capacity. Dr Still started treating his patients using manual therapy and as a result of his success he established the American School of Osteopathy in 1892. The first Osteopaths came to Australia in 1908 from the USA.

Osteopathic Training
Osteopaths are government registered primary health care practitioners who complete a minimum of 5 years university training in anatomy, physiology, pathology, general medical diagnosis and osteopathic techniques. Osteopaths are covered by most private health funds and the Medicare Enhanced Primary Care Scheme.

Cranial Osteopathy
Cranial Osteopathy is a technique that is used by osteopaths who have done specific post-graduate training to refine their skills in this field. It is a very subtle form of osteopathic treatment and is based on gentle inherent motion within the body. The name of Cranial Osteopathy came from Dr William Garner Sutherland, who discovered this gentle motion of the bones in the skull in 1898. He subsequently named this motion “cranial rhythm”, hence the name of the technique. However, it has since been discovered over the last 100 years that this gentle motion is present all over the body and is referred to by Osteopaths as Involuntary Mechanism or more commonly, the Primary Respiratory Mechanism (PRM). The name of “Cranial Osteopathy” still remains yet the treatment can take place anywhere on the body and is used to treat the whole.

The PRM is a very small motion consisting of very small amplitude. It can take from 30 to 90 seconds for one cycle of motion. Tension in the body can disturb the PRM and therefore, using a finely-tuned sense of touch, the Osteopath can sense from where this disturbance may be coming. This may even be away from the actual site of pain that the patient originally presented with. It can also give the Osteopath an overall sense of how the body is feeling, be that healthy, or stressed and tired. Treatment involves rebalancing the PRM so that through its self-healing capabilities, the body will be able to function at its optimum health.

Cranial Osteopathy treats the whole body so while it can be very effective in treating the presenting symptoms, a wide range of conditions can benefit from the treatment. These may include back and neck pain, headaches, joint pain, sports injuries, digestive issues, menstrual issues, stress, recurrent infections, as well as general health and wellbeing.

Biodynamic model of Cranial Osteopathy is one that was founded by the world renowned American Osteopath Dr James Jealous. He took Cranial Osteopathy and combined it with the study of a German embryologist (“Biokinetics and Biodynamics of Human Differentiation”) and as it further developed, he named it Biodynamics of Osteopathy in the Cranial Field. This approach looks at the health of the individual rather than concerning itself with the problems. Therefore, instead of recognising the tissues that may be causing the restriction or lack of motion, it works by understanding the quality and movement of the PRM. By doing so, and allowing the PRM to have its full expression in the body, it will allow for healing to take place.

Dr Jealous discovered that there is a link between the PRM and the metabolic field in the embryo, which links a correlation between the PRM and the self-repair nature of the body. A Cranial Osteopath who works biodynamically will consider Health as a verb, look at the whole body, and allow for the self-correction ability of the body to take place.

Treatment of Babies
The bones in a babies skull are designed to overlap each other in order to pass though the birth canal. Sometimes the bones may not return to where they should be after birth or the baby may have some strains through its body from the pressure of the forces during labour. This may have occurred after a difficult labour due to the position and/or size of the baby, the position of the mother’s pelvis, the labour may be unusually long or short, or if intervention has been used like forceps delivery or ventouse extraction. A Caesar delivery may involve trauma if the baby is stuck in the mother's pelvis.

The result of a difficult birth can present as:
• irritability
• excessive crying
• difficulties feeding i.e not attaching well and/or favouring one side
• colic
• difficulties sleeping for long periods or not settling well
• breathing difficulties
• digestive problems
• misshapen head

Cranial Osteopathy can help with realigning a baby post-natally and helping to relieve the tension in their body. By doing so, their bodies will function more efficiently, feel more at ease and create a happier baby.

The following conditions may also be helped with Cranial Osteopathy in children at a later stage in life:
• growing pains
• headaches
• ear infections or glue ear
• back and neck pain
• digestive issues
• learning difficulties
• behavioural problems
• developmental delay
• asthma
• irritability

 

 

home | about | services | contact us

site by erw design