About Osteopathy

About Osteopathy

Osteopathy begins at birth

A mother and a baby must cope with the stresses of birth. The toddler may have frequent sinus, or ear and/or chest infections. The school child may have learning difficulties or have a bad fall or knock while playing. The student spends long hours hunched over the computer resulting in eyestrain, headaches and back/neck pains. Sports people push their bodies to the limit, overstretching ligaments and muscles and picking up injuries. Adult life is full of its stresses and strains be they physical, emotional or mental, all will take their toll resulting in illnesses from anxiety or depression, to asthma, to irritable bowel syndrome, to back or joint pain or many other conditions. In old age our joints stiffen, and our circulation may not be as good as it once was. These are the types of difficulties which an osteopath can help alleviate.

About Osteopathy, Osteopathy for As You Get Older, Osteopathy for Babies, Osteopathy for Back and Joint Pain, Biodynamic Osteopathy, Osteopathy for Book An Appointment, Osteopathy for Cardiovascular Conditions, Osteopathy for Children and Teenagers, Osteopathy for Children with Special Needs, Cranial Osteopathy, Osteopathy for Gastrointestinal Conditions, Osteopathy for Genitourinary Conditions, Osteopathy for Gynaecological Conditions, Osteopathy for Mental Health And Anxiety Related Disorders, Osteopathy for Musculoskeletal Conditions, Osteopathy for Neurological Conditions, Osteopathy for Obstetric Conditions, Obstetric Osteopathy, Osteopathy for Paediatric Conditions, Paediatric Osteopathy, Osteopathy for Pregnancy, Osteopathy for Respiratory Conditions, Osteopathy for Sports Injuries, Structural Osteopathy, Visceral Osteopathy, About Osteopathy Wexford, Osteopathy for As You Get Older Wexford, Osteopathy for Babies Wexford, Osteopathy for Back and Joint Pain Wexford, Biodynamic Osteopathy Wexford, Osteopathy for Book An Appointment Wexford, Osteopathy for Cardiovascular Conditions Wexford, Osteopathy for Children and Teenagers Wexford, Osteopathy for Children with Special Needs Wexford, Cranial Osteopathy Wexford, Osteopathy for Gastrointestinal Conditions Wexford, Osteopathy for Genitourinary Conditions Wexford, Osteopathy for Gynaecological Conditions Wexford, Osteopathy for Mental Health And Anxiety Related Disorders Wexford, Osteopathy for Musculoskeletal Conditions Wexford, Osteopathy for Neurological Conditions Wexford, Osteopathy for Obstetric Conditions Wexford, Obstetric Osteopathy Wexford, Osteopathy for Paediatric Conditions Wexford, Paediatric Osteopathy Wexford, Osteopathy for Pregnancy Wexford, Osteopathy for Respiratory Conditions Wexford, Osteopathy for Sports Injuries Wexford, Structural Osteopathy Wexford, Visceral Osteopathy Wexford

What is Osteopathy?

“The first step in Osteopathy is a belief in our own bodies. The next step is to advance that belief to an intelligent understanding. You will learn that the body is self-creative, self-developing, self-sustaining, self-repairing, self-recuperating, self-propelling self-adjusting, and does all these things on it’s own power. Osteopathy is not a system of movements (techniques), neither Osteopathy nor it’s application to the patient are something that can be passed around on a platter. One must delve and dig for it themselves, it’s application to the patient is something given by reason not by rule.”

Osteopathy is a form of hands-on treatment that is suitable for people of all ages and in any state of health. It is not just a musculoskeletal therapy, it is a method or approach to healthcare with great scope and depth which can address and help all conditions that afflict living beings, as envisaged by its founder Andrew Taylor Still.

The osteopath works to rebalance ALL the structures of the body, whether they be muscle, bone, organ, nerve or blood vessel, in order that these structures can physiologically function better and thereby restore health to the body using it’s own natural healing processes. It is a mistake to underestimate the self-healing capabilities of the body. Remember, your body is killing and disposing of cancer cells, viruses, bacteria and other harmful pathogens everyday. It is only when the body’s ability (or part of the body,) to deal with the cumulative load of these pathogens becomes temporarily or permanently overwhelmed that we develop an illness or disease that requires outside intervention to help the body deal with this overwhelming load. Osteopathy looks at ALL the structures of a person’s unique body and asks the question how can it get the structures of this particular body to function better so that it can be healthier. The osteopath considers each person as an individual. Utilizing a highly developed sense of touch, they identify areas of the body where the structures can be helped to do their function better.

“One should recognise that as with medical doctors, osteopaths have varying levels of post-graduate training, experience, skills and specializations.”

Structural Osteopathy

All osteopathy is structural, and you cannot work on one part of the body without affecting the rest of the body for obvious reasons, they are all interconnected. That being said, the body does have interconnected compartments on differing levels all of which affect each other. It is this interconnectedness and interrelationship of the parts and compartments of the body on many different levels is where Osteopathy has its focus and stands out as an effective approach to restoring health to the whole body. Many approaches to medicine particularly in the western world only address the area of the body producing pain or illness. It does not delve into the layers of the whole body asking the question why this structure got overwhelmed. This is largely crisis management medicine.

Some osteopaths keep their focus on the musculoskeletal systems of the body and work at that level. Others choose to expand their scope and include the interrelationship of the organs and the musculoskeletal system. Others go further again look at the structure and function of central nervous system and the other connecting systems of the body such as the cardiovascular, lymphatic, and fascial systems are how to treat them directly. Others go even further and look how the structures of the body were affected as it was developing over its lifetime and the impact of impeded or poor development and how to treat and change those developmental forces. And there is more.

Visceral Osteopathy

Visceral Osteopathy looks at how well the organs of the body are doing. There are several important issues which visceral osteopathy addresses. It is best described like this. For all intents and purposes our organs are structurally like sponges. They are designed to absorb via its blood supply oxygen, nutrients and other chemical elements (e.g., hormones, calcium etc,). Then excrete via the blood supply, lymphatic supply or urinary system, carbon dioxide, waste products and other chemical elements again. Without going into the biochemical causes of organ dysfunction, and putting it simply, there are 4 main ways in which the function of an organ can be impaired or dysregulated and they are as follows:

Tension: Lets go back to our image of a sponge. If you take sponge hold it in position and then pull it. Now the ability of the sponge to absorb fluid is reduced as it is under strain. This is how the musculoskeletal framework of our body to which the organs are attached can affect our organs where there is too much tension. Similarly, lets image that there are little internal strings radiating from the centre of the sponge to its outer edges in all directions. Now, image at the centre of the sponge these strings attached to a little winch and that winch starts winding in the strings. The sponge will compress. Again, the ability of the sponge to absorb fluids will be reduced. This type of compression can happen for several reasons, e.g., disease, injury, surgery, overstimulation, under stimulation.
Blood Supply (in and out): If the blood supply in or out of the organ is compromised for any reason then the organ will not be able to perform its function properly.
Nerve Stimulation: If an organ is overstimulated or under stimulated it will not perform its function correctly and the effects of this will be felt all over the body.
Lymphatic Drainage: The function of the lymphatic system is to carry away harmful waste products from the tissues of the body.

Another very important point that is often forgotten in try to find the cause of a strain or pain is the fact that our musculoskeletal framework is designed to protect organs. If an organ is not able to “happily do its sponging process” the muscles of the body will contract around it. This is often one of the root causes of musculoskeletal strain.

Visceral osteopathy addresses all these issues, often relieving the root cause of problems and pain in the body.

What is Cranial Osteopathy

Cranial osteopathy is not different to osteopathy. It is the name given to a subtle and refined approach to osteopathy that follows all the principles of osteopathy but includes closer examination and treatment of the structure and function of the head, central nervous system, and systems which interconnect the parts of the body such as the neuroendocrine, craniosacral, cardiovascular, and lymphatic systems.

Cranial osteopaths use a highly trained sense of touch to feel subtle changes of tension and tissue quality in the living anatomy of the whole body, and to diagnose areas of strain or dysfunction. The osteopath is often drawn to areas in the body that have been affected by past events, such as old accidents and injuries. The body may have learned to compensate for a traumatic event or injury and the patient may be unaware that there is anything wrong, but the effects may still be present and relevant to current symptoms.

Using this approach, the osteopath learns to listen to and be guided by where the body is revealing dysfunction, which may be different to the patient’s opinion and the osteopath’s initial opinion. This helps the osteopath to understand and treat the root cause of the symptoms, to reduce the chance of symptoms returning in the future.

One should be aware that levels of training, understanding and skills of an Osteopath with post-graduate training in Cranial Osteopathy are significantly different to those of a craniosacral therapist.

What is Biodynamic Osteopathy

Our body constantly strives to maintain balance and harmony. This means that all human beings have the innate ability to heal themselves. If you get a cut or break a bone your body’s own healing mechanisms restore the injured area to its previous state before the injury. These healing mechanisms are directed by the same forces which dictated how our body’s developed as we grew. Biodynamic osteopathy treats the patient’s wholeness, aiming to establish direct contact with the body’s developmental, self- healing, self-balancing, self-adaptive processes.
Instead of searching for symptoms or even dysfunction, the osteopath focuses attention on recognizing the priorities set by the client’s innate health and reinforces them.
Illness and lesions manifest themselves as asynchronous movement in the system that never occur just locally, but in the whole. As such, they can be recognized by an osteopath before external symptoms develop. Sometimes, pain, illness, or disease occurs where there has been a temporary or long-standing disconnect from the body’s inherent self-healing, self-restorative, self-adapting or developmental forces. Biodynamic osteopathy looks to connect with those developmental forces and re-establish or improve connection where it has been reduced or lost.

This is a very advanced and in-depth form of Osteopathy and requires many years of experience and post-graduate training to fully grasp and be able to work with competently.

Paediatric Osteopathy

Paediatric Osteopathy is a specialty of its own. It is studied through post-graduate courses. In-depth studies look at the stages of growth from conception through to adulthood. It looks at how problems can arise at each stage on development and how they can be alleviated. Treatment generally takes the form of a combination of visceral, cranial and biodynamic osteopathic techniques. It can alleviate a wide range of difficulties like:

issues with the organ systems,
neurological issues,
learning and behavioural issues
developmental postural and musculoskeletal issues,
and injuries.

It is a very good preventative therapy. By addressing issues in early development many future illnesses and problems can be avoided. Osteopaths recognised this because on very many occasions in order to get to the root cause of problems a person may be having, they must treat and resolve strains and issues which have been wholly of partially retained in the body since infancy, childhood, or adolescence. This is well-recognised now.

Obstetric Osteopathy

Obstetric Osteopathy specifically looks and the stages of pregnancy. It looks at the changes a woman’s body goes through at the different stages of pregnancy and how the complications of pregnancy can develop at each stage. It gives a rational and guide to treating these complications like:

Excessive nausea in the earlier stages of pregnancy,
Aches and pain as a woman’s has to accommodate the growing baby,
Making sure the baby has plenty of room to develop preventing compression and molding issues through the middle and later stages of pregnancy
Preparing the woman’s body for giving birth by gently releasing tension in the muscles and ligaments of the pelvis allowing the birth canal to open easily during labor.
Ensuring and helping proper recovery of a woman’s body from the rigours of giving birth.

This last point is so important and often forgotten with the arrival of a new-born baby and all the attention switches to it. Osteopaths so often find that very many of women’s issues later in life have their root cause in their body not recovering properly from childbirth. These problems can be wide-ranging like:

Back and joint problems,
Headaches & Migraines
Menstrual and Gynaecological problems
Hormonal problems such as hypothyroidism later in life
Depression and Anxiety
Retained labor reflexes which can lead to Uterine prolapse
Urinary/Bladder issues
Chronic Fatigue/Fibromylagia

Castlebridge Complementary Healthcare,
Ballytramon,
Castlebridge,
Co. Wexford,
Y35 X785