In April, Peter joined Bridge to Health in Uxbridge, and in his first post on our blog he describes his approach to osteopathic healthcare. Welcome, Peter.

Having trained alongside Mathieu and Marcus, I do not expect to present a radical departure of osteopathic style; however, I do have my own background influences.

I came to osteopathy in the interests of developing and consolidating my awareness of anatomy, physiology and biomechanics; prior to that, I worked with a number of Oriental disciplines, most notably Shiatsu, which is a Japanese form of bodywork performed on a futon mat that manipulates the circulation of Ki (or chi) within the body to enhance health and wellbeing.

The great therapeutic strength of energetic forms of bodywork is in the harnessing of what you might call “life-force”; the great therapeutic strength of western biomechanical bodywork is in the utilisation of anatomical and physiological knowledge and understanding. The synthesis of the two opens up intriguing possibilities.

However, that is all very well, and reminds me of a quote I came across the other day:

in theory, theory and practice are identical, but in practice, they aren’t.

So what does all this have to do with your frozen shoulder, low back pain, tennis elbow, carpal tunnel syndrome, RSI, runner’s knee, stiff neck, bad posture or whatever it is you have that concerns you?

Well, from a practical perspective, treatment is an ongoing multifaceted concept, which may involve anything from manipulation, mobilisation, massage, circulatory stimulation, lymphatic drainage, cranial osteopathy etc. to stretches, exercise activities, dietary adjustments, work-desk reorganisation etc.

But treatment also involves you as a life-force – i.e. a force of life, with the ability to affect change; you yourself can be a far more effective agent of change than any therapeutic intervention, so somewhere along the line, and in whatever way I feel suits the individual concerned, I try to bring that life-force to bear on whatever may be of concern, in the belief that the best service I can offer is to assist the individual in removing some of the barriers to radiant health that they may have inadvertently acquired, and remind them of their own amazing ability to affect change and flourish.