What is osteopathy?

Osteopathy is a whole-body integrated approach to diagnosing, treating and preventing health problems. The practice is based on the principle that a person’s physical well-being depends on muscles, ligaments, bones and connective tissues working together in harmony.

It uses manual techniques such as joint manipulation, stretching and soft tissue release to encourage movement, relieve muscle tension and enhance the blood and nerve supply to tissues. 

This aims to restore your body's full function by helping its own self-healing mechanisms. Osteopaths pride themselves on their ability to listen and understand each patient to give relevant exercises and lifestyle advice. They may also advise on posture and exercise to aid recovery, promote health and prevent recurring symptoms.

• Adult Osteopathy 
• Paediatric Osteopathy 
• Mum & Baby Checks 
• Women's Health (Pre/Post Partum and Menopause)
• Sports Injuries
• Cranial Osteopathy
• Perrin Technique
• Dry Needling

Our treatment approaches cover a wide spectrum of osteopathic techniques, including very gentle cranial osteopathy and more direct “structural” techniques such as gentle joint mobilisation as well as soft-tissue and muscle and joint stretching.

The short answer is… everyone!

Osteopathy is effective for babies, children, teens, adults, older people, manual workers, office professionals, pregnant women, children and sportspeople.

Our Osteopaths specialise in different areas of osteopathy. Look further into the different types of osteopathy at VPO to see which may work best for you.

Consultation - Examination - Diagnosis - Treatment

Osteopathic treatment takes into account a patient’s lifestyle and the environmental factors that may be contributing to their symptoms. Your course of treatment starts with a 60-minute consultation, examination and diagnosis. In this session, your VPO osteopath will sit down with you to learn more about your life and medical history to better understand the issue you are having and effectively provide a diagnosis. 

We know that there may be a number of contributing factors to your symptoms. We evaluate not only the area producing pain or other problems but also any associated areas that may be contributing to the issue. We may ask you to make changes to how you sit or work, simple dietary advice or suggest simple exercises if this seems appropriate. 

Follow-up appointments last 40 minutes. These are designed to restore you to a sense of health and provide you with a toolbox to maintain this autonomously in the future so you don’t need to keep coming back.

For Perrin Technique, the first appointment lasts 90 minutes and follow-up appointments are 45 minutes.