By law all Osteopaths are registered professionals.
Acupuncturists are trained to use subtle diagnostic techniques that have been developed and refined for thousands of years. The focus is on you as an individual, not your illness, and all symptoms are seen in relation to each other.
Acupuncture is used as an integrated approach to the management of pain and inflammation and as a means of stimulating the body’s own healing chemicals in order to aid recovery and enhance rehabilitation.
Acupuncture within osteopathy is used against the background of clinical and research evidence. The concept of Traditional Chinese Medicine [TCM] is an ancient system of written scripts as far back as 1000BC, founded on the holistic concept of treatment and an acknowledgement of the body’s ability to return to its balanced state of health, given the correct stimulus to do so.
Modern acupuncture is often pain-free. The needles we use are extremely fine (with a diameter as small as 0.2mm), they are sterile and individually packaged for one use.
A growing body of evidence-based clinical research (here) is discovering how the body responds to acupuncture and its benefits for a wide range of common health conditions. A lot of people have acupuncture to relieve specific aches and pains, such as osteoarthritis of the knee, TMJ, headaches and low back pain, or for common health problems like an overactive bladder. Other people choose acupuncture when they can feel their bodily functions are out of balance, but they have no obvious diagnosis. And many have regular treatments because they find it so beneficial and relaxing.
As osteopaths we regularly employ modern acupuncture as an adjunct to our other manual therapy techniques in the treatment of trigger points and myofascial pain. We aim to relax the affected muscle or muscle group as a result of the “micro trauma” effect of the acupuncture needle in the surface of the muscle(s) being treated.
I ensure high quality care as I am registered with the General Osteopathic Council (GOsC).
The register is available at osteopathy.org.uk.