Therapies
Osteopathy is a system of medicine, which treats the whole person and not just the symptomatic area. It was founded by Dr. Andrew Taylor Still in 1874. Still believed that the body is self healing and an uninterrupted nerve and blood supply to all the body's tissues is essential for normal functioning, to prevent disease.
Body Functioning
The osteopath’s main focus is to improve the normal functioning of the spine as this is essential in the maintenance of health. The spinal cord can be described as an extension of the brain, which controls all the functions of the body, not only the muscles but all the organs, blood vessels and glands.
Spinal restrictions can cause interruption to the nerve signals going to and from the cord. By treating these restrictions the health of the body can be restored.
Health & Disease
Osteopaths do not consider the spine to be the only factor in health and disease. Genetic, developmental, dietary, environmental and psychological factors can all play a part in causing disease.
Osteopathy places main emphasis upon the diagnosis and treatment of structural and mechanical imbalance of the body and regards manipulative therapy as one of the most important factors in the prevention of disease.
Osteopaths also use other methods of natural healing. We can offer advice on good posture and self help, such as exercises and diet, to prevent the pain recurring and maintain good health.
What do Osteopaths Treat?
Although musculo-skeletal injuries are the most commonly seen, the following problems frequently respond well to Osteopathic treatment:
Lumbago |
Neck & Shoulder Tension |
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Sciatica |
Headache & Migraine |
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Disc Injuries |
Menstrual Disorders |
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Neuritis |
Discomfort in Pregnancy |
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Knee & Hip Pain |
Respiratory Conditions |
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Frozen Shoulder |
Digestive Disorders |
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Tennis Elbow |
Constipation |
Cranial Osteopathy can also help a wide variety of problems including Sinusitis, Tinnitus, Tension, Anxiety and M.E.
Osteopathic Treatment
Whilst recognising the importance of the spine in the maintenance of health and treatment of disease the practice of Osteopathy is now much wider than the mere examination and treatment of the spine.
Most people first consult an osteopath because of back trouble but Osteopathic Manipulation is also of great value in the treatment of musculo-skeletal conditions anywhere in the body. Emphasis is placed on the structural integrity of the whole body.
Pain and Stiffness
This can be due to a mechanical strain or sprain, of sudden onset or from long term repetitive movement. The body has an amazing ability to be able to compensate and adapt to the stresses applied to it, however, pain is experienced when the body is no longer able to compensate. Pain is a warning signal to prevent further damage. Inflammation in the surrounding tissues causes stiffness, which can be eased using gentle techniques to improve tissue drainage.
Who Would Benefit?
Most people would benefit from Osteopathic
treatment at some time during their life. Patients may be treated for health problems from the trauma of birth to the arthritis of elderly people.
Babies and children can also benefit from these more gentle techniques, helping things such as colic, ear infections, sleeping and feeding difficulties.
Treatment is focused on treating the person and not just the symptoms. Osteopathy guides your body to enable your natural healing energies to bring you to better balance, harmony and health.
Visiting an Osteopath
When you visit an osteopath for the first time a thorough case history will be taken and you will be given an examination.
As in all healing arts, the prerequisite of successful treatment is accurate diagnosis. Patients will normally be expected to undress down to their underwear in order to complete a detailed examination of posture and to perform a simple series of movements in order to determine the cause of the presenting problem.
In some cases it may be necessary to undertake additional investigations such as x-ray or blood tests in order to arrive at a full diagnosis and a suitable treatment plan for you.
Osteopathy is patient centred so that each treatment is tailored to you as an individual. Treatment emphasis is placed on adjusting the whole body and not just the symptomatic part. It is designed to alleviate the current problem and to help prevent recurrences.
Click here to find an osteopath in York.
Bowen Technique is a hands on holistic therapy suitable for all ages from babies to the elderly and infirm.
It aims to support and boost the natural healing capabilites of the body. Bowen therapiest believe that the body has the ability to adjust, adapt and heal itself.
A series of gentle precise rolling moves over spercific areas of the body encurages this realignment, whilst the client relaxes. Frequent and all important pauses between moves allows the body time to respond and benefit from each series of moves. Realignment contunues to work after treatment.
It is non invasive and can be done through light clothing if the client wishes.
What can it help?
Bowen can help many problems some of which are:
• Back and Neck Pain including Whiplash
• Frozen Shoulder, Tennis Elbow and R.S.I
• Muscle Pains and Spasms and M.S
• Tension, Stress, Depression, Fatigue and M.E
• Headaches, Migraine, Hay Fever and Sinus Problems
• Respiratory difficulties and Asthma
• Lymphatic Drainage
• Sports Injuries
It can also:
• Promote healing and pain relief
• Recovery of energy
• Enhance sports performance
The average number of treatments for Bowen is 3, although long standing problems may take more.
Holistic Massage is one of the most natural healing arts, since it relies solely on the refined touch and varying stroke of the practitioner, to help soothe, tone, stimulate, repair and regenerate the body tissues and organs. Helping to leave a recipient feeling lighter, more energetic, uplifted, calm and confident. It is ideal for those wanting a more hands on approach.
The Benefits of Massage
• Aids relaxation and helps relieve stress and tension.
• Helps relieve muscle stiffness and improves joint flexibility and mobility.
•Increases blood and lymphatic flow.
• Aids the recovery of the body after injury and reduces formation of exess scar tissue.
• Improves skin tone & elasticity and aids desquamation.
• Helps relieve tension related headaches.
• Aids digestion and improves elimination of waste.
• May help reduce high blood pressure.
• Reduces anxiety and helps release blocked emotions.
• May help to elevate mood.
Parents with their baby can attend classes where they will be guided through a series of massage stokes, which they can use on their baby to calm them and help their muscles relax into a more stretched out and lenghten posture after their early curled up position. Baby massage tuition is also a wonderful way to help parents bond more fully with their baby, helping their baby gain a sense of self in the world it has entered.
The Importance of Baby Massage
Touch is the first sense to develop from seven weeks in utero therefore baby massage is imporant as it uses this sence to soothe and stimulate the new born.
The new borns nervous system is not fully developed and gradually developed from the spine to the periphery and the brain doubles in size in the first year and kidneys double in weight in the first six months. Massage helps to improve the circulation throughout the baby’s body at this time of rapid development.
It can also help to:
• Alleviate sleep problems and Colic
• Encourage the digestive system to adjust more fully
• Aid immune system function
• Encourage blood flow and lymphatic drainage.
• Aid all the developing body systems
• Make the baby feel stable and strong
• Reduce cortisol levels (stress hormone) and increase oxytocin & endorphine levels (natural pain killers).
These levels when set in early babyhood remain with them throughout their life and with massage on a regular basis it has been shown that babies develop into more confident children and adults.
The word Reiki means 'Universal Energy,' it is an eastern energy healing system, which works through clothing encouraging relaxation to help improve the body's immune system, reduce pain and promote healing. Reiki healing is also benificial for those suffering from stress or relationship problems and supports positive personal changes such as improving the diet. It is discrete, non invasive, and consists of light touch or non-contact, where appropriate, on the body. Reiki is a gentle energy and is safe to use on all ages.
I first became aware of Journey Therapy in 2004 when I was given Brandon Bays 'The Journey' to read. It describes Brandon's healing journey from being diagnosed with a football sized tumour, which cleared completely within 6 1/2 weeks! The book then explains how Brandon took the physical and emotional Journey that she experienced and developed it into a simple process that other people could undergo to bring themselves to greater healing and wholeness. It is one of the most powerful and transformative techniques that I have come across.
At certain times in our life when trauma occurs, science has shown that when we experience a strong emotion and it is repressed a measurable biochemistry is released into our body that can block receptor sites in cells. If dis-ease is going to happen it is more likely to manifest where these receptor sites are blocked.
It has been shown that if we cut ourselves and have an argument with someone at the time it happens then the healing takes twice as long.
Dr Deepak Chopra has proposed that we don't just store memories in our heads but in every cell of our body. If the unhealthy memory continues to be reproduced from one cell generation to the next this programming will continue until the issue is resolved.
The Journey is a guided visualisation process that helps you to uncover, gain access to and clear out old stored cellular memories. In completely emptying out any unexpressed feelings and emotions from that time it is possible to come to a deep and lasting forgiveness with the people or situation that may have arisen, allowing us to move forwards in greater freedom.
To me The Journey feels like the missing link. Having known people in my family who had led a healthy lifestyle, eaten good fresh wholesome food, taken regular exercise and still developed terminal illness, The Journey felt like the tool that could be used to clear the emotional issues as they arise to prevent disease from occurring and clear any emotional issues that might be underlying a disease process. When these emotional issues have been cleared, the body's natural healing process can be implemented more fully and even cells can begin to reproduce more healthily again.
In my own healing Journey, asthma and digestive problems arose after the death of my Grandmother. In clearing the repressed emotion around this loss and finally coming to completion and understanding as to why this happened it has allowed my breathing to return to health once more and my digestive process is much healthier.
In my osteopathic practice I had noticed that some physical tension seemed to originate from emotional roots, and having used The Journey to work with these patients on unresolved emotional issues it has allowed people to heal more completely even at a physical level, once they have come to peace with the emotional healing.
There are two parts to a Journey Process, an Emotional Journey and a Physical Journey. The Emotional Journey starts with experiencing the emotion that is present, related to the current situation. What often happens is we repeat similar patterns over and over again until we resolve the underlying issue and can move forwards. I'm sure you, like myself, have experienced similar patterns in our relationships or in life, which come up time after time until we actually face what is going on rather than running a series of avoidance strategies to numb out the pain.
An Emotional Journey is like peeling back the layers of an onion. We observe where we are feeling a certain emotion in our body and then welcome it, rather than pushing it away, and we breathe right into the centre of it. As we do this we can feel what might be underneath it and then breath into this emotion too. As we start to welcome each emotion we find the Peace right in the centre of it and this is called Source. We can experience this as Love, Peace, Bliss, Connection to everything, even stillness.
The Physical Journey can be combined with the emotional drop through process. We are guided to a certain area of our body that may have a stored memory there, which is often related to a similar current issue, perhaps even the very first time this situation may have arisen, where we might have shut down to the pain that we found ourselves in at the time. By imagining a campfire we invite the younger you from that old memory and the present day you to sit around the fire and converse with the people involved with your issue so that you can say everything that you wanted to say at the time but didn't. We then give the other people at the campfire the chance to explain how it was from their perspective.
When we have fully emptied out all the stored hurt and pain and understood why the situation arose and what wisdom might be received from it, forgiveness becomes an effortless and natural step to take. There can be many other additions to the process, such as new empowering beliefs and inner resources that we can bring to the campfire to allow us to move forward in greater freedom. Each Journey is unique and as such the practitioner will simply guide you through each process and it is your wisdom that comes through to enable you to clear the blocks to emotional wellbeing, health and happiness.
I have completed and graduated from The Journey Practitioner's Programme which is taught by Brandon Bays. The Journey has allowed me to become more fully who I am. My skin has become clearer, my eyes brighter, my energy levels have increased, optimism and self confidence have improved. Compassion for myself and others has hugely increased. I have a greater sense of Life Purpose and feel much greater love and joy in every day life. If you are inspired to reach your true potential and Be all that you can Be, read 'The Journey' book and if you feel drawn to this work I would be more than happy to work with you. For more information visit www.thejourney.com
Tel: 01904 788411..........................36 York Road • Acomb • York • YO24 4LZ