About Osteopathy
2023 is the 150th anniversary year for osteopathy – Dr Andrew Taylor Still founded osteopathy on 22 June 1873, in America.
Since then Osteopathy has spread throughout the world and is practised in many countries. Some osteopaths are qualified Medical Healthcare Practitioners and delivery osteopathy as part of allopathic medical healthcare, and many other osteopathic practitioners enjoy statutory regulation and recognition as independent and also allied health care professionals. In many more countries osteopathic practitioners continue to seek regulation, recognition and licensing, to support and protect their practice.
Osteopaths care for people in all fields of healthcare, and is not limited to musculoskeletal care and sports injury rehabilitation.
Osteopaths don’t seek to ‘cure’ medical conditions, and don’t seek to make medical diagnoses. Instead, osteopaths are trained to understand how people can be supported through their life challenges, and osteopaths seek to help people across their lifespans achieve a better quality of life, better functionality, to experience less suffering and to have better emotional and social engagement.
Whilst many people choose osteopathy to help them manage their medical conditions, osteopaths seek to help the person. Osteopaths are trained to understand when people may need to seek other health services or other health providers to manage their situation, to ensure that a person’s care is always oriented to their needs. But, many people find osteopathic care complementary to their medical care, and find value for their systemic and general health through seeing an osteopath. Osteopathic principles can be applied in any clinical situation, and always with due care and concern for the problems and conditions people may have. Osteopathic care is to help a persons self-regulatory and self healing capacity, which is why it can be applied in any presentation without the practitioner making a claim to cure whatever is going on. The osteopath seeks to support your return to health and function.
We hope you can explore this website and memberships and come to appreciate why so many women seek osteopathic care when they have such things as post partum problems and injury, chronic pelvic pain, problems with scars and adhesions, or for help during pregnancy, during menopause and in their older years. Many families also bring their infants, younger and older children to osteopaths for help and support from
WHOMBS as an organisation does not make claims of treatment efficacy on behalf on osteopathic practices, but does seek to discuss what osteopathic concepts are, how osteopaths view various health challenges, dysfunctions, pathology and suffering. Through this information, and a discussion of evidenced as it continues to emerge it is hoped that members of the public and other healthcare professions can gain insights into the contribution that osteopaths can make in health care for all, but especially for women and children.