Firstly, a detailed history is taken of the main problems that brought the patient to the clinic. This aims to highlight any contraindications whereby the osteopath would exclude treatment and redirect the patient to a medical specialist (part of our approach and pledge to quality). The medical history taking continues with a system by system analysis of the body to acknowledge the existence of functional disorders. The osteopath will then enquire about the patient’s general state of health, lifestyle and eating habits, followed by personal and family medical and surgical history. All these questions allow the osteopath to familiarise him/herself with the patient and the environment in which they function.

The osteopath also takes into consideration additional clinical examinations (x-rays, blood tests, etc) if any before moving on to observation of the patient in their underwear. They will observe deformations, adjustments and compensations adopted by the patient on standing and sitting (position under gravity) as well as on lying (relaxed position). This allows the therapist to get an idea of the momentary postural adaptability of the patient. The osteopath will then use active and passive mobility tests to confirm or refute the first diagnosis made during the initial medical history.

The treatment has the objective to normalise the tissue within the region that the therapist has diagnosed “osteopathic lesions”. This means the changes in mobility between two or more tissues that can cause loss or decreased function of an organ or a joint and that will result in short or medium term local or distal pain.