What to Expect at your First 'Beyond Bodywork' Osteopathic Consultation
- Your First Consultation will last approximately one hour where you will be asked questions about your past medical history as well as more recent events that have led you to seek treatment, as this all may affect our diagnosis and what sort of treatment and advice you are given. All information given by you is treated in strict confidence and in some cases we may request your permission to write to your GP to obtain your medical records if we feel it would help with our treatment and management of your condition. In some cases there may be two Osteopaths present working as part of a team but one of them will be your Primary Care Practitioner and the one that will treat you and see you for Follow Up Treatments.
- 'Standing Assessment' - Depending on the area that is causing a problem, you may be asked to undress down to underwear so we advise wearing appropriate garments (i.e briefs/trunks rather than thongs and normal bras rather than sports tops/bras) so that your Osteopath can assess your overall posture and using 'palpation' (a highly developed sense of touch) look for any muscle tenderness/tightness or areas of inflammation.
- We may also carry out a full a Postural Assessment (with photographic evidence if you require) to show your current Postural State and explain how this may be causing you problems or lead to problems in the future. This can be compared to an 'ideal' posture and advice given on exercises to help achieve this.
- You may be asked to walk around the room so that we may assess your Gait (the way you walk).
- 'Active Examination' - You will be asked to move your body into various positions to assess the movements of your spine and other joints such as the shoulder, hip or knee.
- 'Passive Examination' - Your Osteopath will ask you to relax while they gently move areas of your body themselves to assess the ligaments and joints, using their palpation skills.
- You may be examined using conventional Medical Tests to measure things like Blood Pressure, Pulses, Reflexes, Muscle Strength, Heart and Lung sounds. We can also check your urine sample (Urinalysis) for signs of infection or protein (a sign of kidney disease) or glucose (a sign of diabetes).
- Our Osteopaths will then use various Special Orthopaedic Tests which involve moving parts of the body in a certain way and asking you to 'resist' and by applying gentle pressure to assess the areas they think are causing the problem. We always look for the underlying cause of your pain.
- You may find that our Osteopaths will assess (and treat) areas both above and below the area where your pain is felt as sometimes the source of the problem is further away (e.g. pain in the hand can be caused by a problem in the neck or pain in the foot could be coming from a problem in the hip).
- Our Osteopaths will discuss their findings with you and usually come to a diagnosis on the first visit and give you some treatment. They will advise you whether further treatment would be of benefit to you and how many sessions it may take before you see an improvement. This can range from one or two more treatments to up to six treatments (depending on your condition). In some cases a further course of treatment may be advised and/or a follow up appointment to check your progress.
- Occasionally it is not possible to make the diagnosis until further tests are done which may need a referral (e.g. X-Rays, MRI, CT Scans, Blood Tests etc). Your Osteopath will arrange for this to happen swiftly and can write to your GP (with your permission) to ensure you get the investigations you need.
- Occasionally with very chronic (long standing) cases of injury or pain there may be a longer Treatment Programme prescribed which may span several months. In these cases we offer a Treatment Package Plan* and this will be discussed and agreed with you.* Terms & Conditions apply