Gladstones Holistic Clinic

About

Classical Osteopathy brings a traditional view to the profession, it is not based on manipulation but on integration through Body Adjustment, and this is why we see Osteopathy as a form of art, as well as a science enhanced by a philosophy that helps us to understand the organism, the way it works and compensates.
Classical osteopathy is a system of healing which was formulated over a hundred years ago by AT Still and then further interpreted by JM Littlejohn. It encompasses the Hippocratic concept of Vis Medicatrix Naturae, ‘the healing power of nature’, where the body is seen not as a machine, but as a vital living organism with a normal tendency towards self-healing, elimination and health. The development of disease depends on any factors which lowers the vital force or the vitalising processes of the patient and compromises the organism’s ability to recover. It follows therefore that the osteopathic lesion is not a bony lesion, but a physiological one and that any disease or disturbance must be addressed through physiological processes.

This approach of health promotion is directly in contrast to orthodox medicine, which delivers a more linear/ pathogenic approach to treatment of disease and its symptoms via the use of pharmaceuticals. In osteopathy, health is not merely viewed as an absence of disease, but as a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing. The osteopathic therapeutic concern is therefore to adjust the body’s capacity to deal with environmental stressors, whether these be on a mento-emotional, physical or biochemical level.

This process was termed simply as ‘Adjustment’ by JM Littlejohn and implies perfect structural adjustment, including bones, muscles, ligaments, blood vessels etc. , perfect neurological adjustment and adjustment of the individual to their environment by considering factors such as diet, hydration level, sanitation, social interactions, stress levels, sleep pattern and so on.

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