A visit to my osteopathic clinic involves…
The first visit to my clinic takes about an hour and a half and costs $120, although some discretionary concessions are available, for example for children and students. My follow up consultations are $90.
Formal Osteopathic training covers a broad range of diagnostic and structural techniques. For more information about Osteopathy in Australia, you can visit the official website of Osteopathy Australia at www.osteopathy.org.au
Below is a description of the techniques I mainly use in practice.
The Osteopathic techniques I use…
Osteopathic techniques
Osteopathy has a broad range of techniques designed to realign the body and bring it back to functional integrity, reducing pain, increasing mobility, and normalising metabolic function as well.
Dr. still, our founder, believed as we do today, that improving the function was not just about the musculoskeletal system. Decompressing and releasing restrictions deep within the myo-fascial system improves the circulation and drainage of the organs as well. He saw the body as a closed hydraulic system where restrictions to blood flow and drainage affected all the organs and tissues.
I like to work as a classical osteopath. My preference is to use mainly gentle techniques involving the fascia, and the ‘inherent’ motion in the body, first identified by Dr, William Sutherland when he observed the capacity for movement in life, in the cranial sutures of the skull.
Cranial Osteopathy
Cranial Osteopathy was born in the 1930’s after a brilliant Osteopath called Dr Sutherland was observing a ‘disarticulated’ skull – that means the bones had been slightly separated in order to see them better.
He had the sudden intuition that the way the bones fitted together seemed to indicate a potential for them to move.
He worked with this theory for many years and mapped a pattern of subtle motion that not only pervades the cranial bones, but the fluids and membranes of the body as well.
The theory and practice of Cranial Osteopathy rests on working with the perception of this subtle inherent motion, and our awareness of when it deviates from normal. Where the body is blocked or compressed from trauma, which can stretch as far back as birth, the inherent motion is also compromised.
Fascial technique
Fascia is essentially connective tissue… skin, membranes and ligaments. Our external skin layer is like a stretchy membranous suit, which keeps us contained and provides the essential barrier between us and the outside world. It’s elastic, (has more elastin than a ligament), is strong, and is also selectively permeable.
Just as externally we’re wrapped in a tough elastic membrane (the skin), internally we’re also held together, wrapped and supported by membranes.
All our organs, muscles, and bones are wrapped in membrane, and the potential spaces created by this compartmentalisation, provide the natural pathways for the blood vessels and nerves to reach their destinations. Of course blood vessels and nerves are also wrapped in their own membranes!
From a subjective perspective, when I contact the external layer of fascia, (the skin) with my hands, and allow information and exchange to start occurring, there’s a sense of the membranous body having incredible unity and mobility.
It’s as if the whole membranous body/matrix begins to enliven and move in harmony with the cranial rhythm, that subtle motion first described by Dr Sutherland.
Biodynamic Osteopathy in the Cranial Field.
I’m also fascinated with the work done by Dr. James Jealous, following in the footsteps of Dr. Sutherland, to develop ‘Biodynamic theory’. This is a sophisticated and in depth investigation of the human energy field and it’s relationship to the universal energy field.
It explores the reality of conception and embryonic development at which time there’s a potency and a surrounding energy field into which form begins to manifest.
The premise is that if this potency, the field of innate intelligence , can be recognised and approached with great respect and love, then the human form can begin to realign itself with it’s original form and purpose.
My own journey is continuing with this fascinating field of study, which adds a new dimension and depth to the practice of Osteopathy and the art and science of healing.