Professionalism and Safety                                   

To qualify, an osteopath must study for four to five years for an undergraduate degree. This is similar to a medical degree, with more emphasis on anatomy and musculoskeletal medicine and includes more than 1,000 hours of training in osteopathic techniques. By law, osteopaths must register with the General Osteopathic Council (GOsC). It is an offence for anyone to call themselves an osteopath if they are not registered. The British Medical Association’s guidance for general practitioners states that doctors can safely refer patients to osteopaths.

What we do 

Although osteopaths treat many conditions, most people think of us as ‘back specialists’. Back pain is what many osteopaths treat a lot of the time. Osteopathic treatment does not target symptoms only but treats the parts of the body that have caused the symptoms. Osteopaths have a holistic approach and believe that your whole body will work well if your body is in good structural balance, Imagine, for example, a car that has one of its front wheels not quite pointing straight. It may run well for a while, but after a few thousand miles, the tyre will wear out. You can apply this example to the human body, which is why it is so important to keep the body in good balance. We use a wide range of techniques, including massage, cranial techniques (sometimes referred to as 'cranial osteopathy') and joint mobilization and this breadth of approach allows us to focus on every patient’s precise needs. 

Osteopaths assess and treat people of any age from the elderly to the newborn and from pregnant women to sports people.

Conditions we treat 

The most common conditions that we treat are: 
• back and neck pain 
• shoulder and arm problems 
• pelvis, hip and leg problems 
• sports and other injuries 

However, patients have found osteopathy helpful for many other conditions. If you want to find out more, any osteopath will be happy to talk to you.