Why Choose Osteopathy?
You’re may have been trying to find a practitioner for an injury that you’ve acquired. Why would you choose osteopathy over the other modalities? Well, osteopathy is a whole body treatment. This means the osteopaths will look at the body as a whole unit. So we’ll treat you as a whole! That means that we will look at all your different systems. So, we’ll will look at your skeleton, we’ll look at the muscles surrounding that, we’ll look at you nervous system and we’ll look at your circulatory system as well. And using all these together, we will trying to find an efficient way to help your body move again, and go back to its normal.
What Are The Principles of Osteopathy?
So, some of the principles of osteopathy, the made one being that the body is a unit, the next one is the structure and function are interrelated. So this means that, if you for example have a rib that goes out of place. Well that means that you’re breathing as a function isn’t going to work as well or as efficiently as when that rib is back in place. And so that goes throughout the whole body. The other principle of osteopathy is that the body has a self healing mechanism. So osteopaths aren’t actually fixing as such. What we are doing is we are putting your body into a position where it feels that it can help itself to heal itself. And so by using all of these principles, we as osteopaths can give you a whole body treatment.
What Are The Most Common Conditions Osteopaths Treat?
So the most common conditions that an osteopath will treats would probably be back pain, lower back pain or neck pain and headaches. But there are other things that we can treat. We can also treat problems with extremities so RSI, sporting injury, knee injuries, problems of the shoulders, we can treat a whole range of issues because we are treating the body as a whole.
What Can I Expect When I Visit an Osteopath?
So, when you go to an osteopath, in your very first visit, we will go over your medical history, it’s quite thorough. So we will do cover a full muscular skeletal domination; and if you have symptoms then maybe a neurological examination as well. After that we will diagnose and the treat you. So the treatment can be quite gentle. It may involve massage and manipulation, also resistance techniques and it may also involve something called cranial sacral therapy which is a very gentle treatment approach.
Do I Need A GP Referral To Visit An Osteopath?
To come to an osteopath, no you don’t need a referral. You can just walk and make an appointment.
Do You Take an X-Ray Before A Treatment?
No, we don’t need to take any x-rays before we do a treatment. However, if it is indicated then we may refer you off to have an x-ray performed and we can read that here on site and we can use that information to guide our treatment process.
How Long Is An Osteopathy Treatment?
An osteopathy treatment, for an initial treatment is typically one hour that allows us of course to take the medical history as well as diagnose and treat. And a subsequent treatment is typically half an hour we will do a short diagnosis and then performed treatment in that time.
Are Private Health Insurance Rebates Available For Osteopathy?
Yes, with osteopathy most health insurers will give you a rebate. That rebate will change depending on which health insurance you are with and what type of cover that you have. So check with your health insurer
What Training Do You Need To Become An Osteopath?
So, before you become an osteopath, you need to go into a university course. This is a three year bachelor and three year masters course at the moment.
What Does an Osteopath Study?
So the things that an osteopath studies in an osteopathy degree is very much based on anatomy, physiology, pathology. So it’s very evidence based, very scientific and then on top of that of course we learn osteopathic treatment techniques and certain diagnostic techniques as well.
Do Osteopaths Treat People During Their Studies?
So in the beginning we treat the other students. And then in the later years, there are student clinics on campus which actually have people that coming off the street just like you or I and the students will be able to treat them and that’s how we have practice. So when you first come to see an osteopath don’t be scarred that the person might be a new graduate. That person, that practitioner has already been treating people off the street for two to three years at the university under strict guide and supervision by osteopathic clinicians.