The name osteopathy comes from „osteon“ = „bone“ and „pathos“ = suffering.
But instead of being a summary of bone diseases it’ s a therapy concept that was build back in the 19th century.
History
Andrew Taylor Still (1828- 1917) is the „father“ of osteopathy, important students of him are his daughter Blanche Still, John Martin Littlejohn (1867-1947) who founded the first school for osteopathy in Europe, and William Garner Sutherland (1873-1954) who developed craniosacral osteopathy. Since then osteopathy was developed and changed by several students of the founders and today you can find different schools of osteopathy as well as schemes of education.
Osteopathy today
Osteopathic techniques are divided into structural (or direct) techniques and functional (or indirect) techniques. Every school teaches both varieties but sets a different focus.
Also in Germany there are several schools of osteopathy. But they all teach the main concept of illness as an expression of imbalance in the body. The musculo-sceletal system, connective tissue (fascias), inner organs, circulatory, lymphatic and nervous systems play their role in a complex game that either can compensate dysfunctions or can’t compensate any more and therefore develops a disease.
Osteopathic treatments support our organism in it’s ability of self regulation. Health and illness are just two states of a long list of possible situations we can be in. Our body has several options to control and adapt body function: nervous system, hormones, immunity system and chemical communication inside the long web of fascias that connects and covers every organ, nerve, blood vessel, bone and muscle.
Osteopathic techniques can help to improve body alignment, rebalance muscle tone, increase range of joint movement, help fascia gliding but also address the before named control mechanism by giving space for blood vessels, hormone organs or the nervous system.
First consultation
At the first consultation an anamnesis, followed by assessments and a first treatment are obligatory.
To make sure there’s enough time for everything the first consultation will be scheduled as a 90 minutes appointment. All following appointments can be 1 hour long as long as there are no new and / or unexpected developments like a bone fracture, additional diseases etc.
Intervalls of treatments vary between 2 times a week and 2 times a month, depending on how acute and / or disturbing the symptoms are.
Usual indications for osteopathic treatments are:
-acute or chronic back pain
-headache
-migraine
-vertigo
-tendinitis (golfer’s elbow)
-chronic muscle pain or dysfunction
-joint dysfunction after distortion or bone fracture
-joint or muscle dysfunction after surgery
-jaw dysfunction
-tinnitus
-menstruation related pain
-digestive dysfunction
