Osteopathy is a system of individualised healthcare that looks at how your whole body is working and how to overcome the restrictions and challenges you face. It aims to free physical restrictions that may be present in your body due to a lifetime of habitual use. These can lead to your suffering a whole host of undesirable symptoms; pain, discomfort or an inability to do the things you want to do. These tensions and restrictions could be between any of your body structures, not only the bones and muscles but all the other things that are in there too, eg nerves, fascia, blood, lymph and organs.
Think of your body like a factory where the departments and workers are like your different tissues and cells.
Restrictions in various areas of your body can lead to altered blood supply and drainage to some of your tissues. A worker in a factory needs to receive the ‘goods-in’ that he needs to do his particular job and once the work is performed he needs the ‘products’ and ‘wastes’ to be taken away. The tissues in your body are no different, they need to receive an appropriate supply and drainage to function effectively.
Restrictions can also lead to altered signals travelling in your nerves. Again, as in any factory, communication is key to smooth running of the business. If a message is garbled the result will not be as expected. Management, departments and workers need to have clear pathways communication. Likewise signals between your body tissues and your body’s control centres need to be clear for smooth running of your whole body.
Osteopaths take the time to understand why your factory isn’t running as effectively as you would like. We seek to grasp the whole meaning of your situation and the relationships between all your tissues. A particular part might be complaining, and symptomatic relief might be important. More important though will be to look at why that part of your body isn’t happy and which areas require attention and rearrangement. If you are standing on the cat’s tail no amount of looking at the bit that’s making the noise will sort out the issue.
We aim to figure out why you are currently having issues, so that they can be resolved and you can get on with your life.