The Archaeology of Osteopathy

I often use the concept of an archaeological dig when I’m treating patients.  When a new patient arrives at clinic for the first time, tells you the story of what happened to them, what brought them to me and what the problem is the digging begins.

More often than not there are a few things in a patients past medical history, in some cases there’s a huge list of stuff, all of which is relevant on some level. One of my jobs as an osteopath is to figure out what is the new stuff and how to untangle it from the old stuff.

Backed up with clues from what the patient has told me and what I feel under my fingers I get a sense of which tensions are fairly fresh and those that have been around a long, long time. I get an idea of which joints are a bit stiff because of recent strain or injury and which haven’t been moving for years. Tensions are layered on older tensions and new injuries are layered on old injuries.

Getting an idea of what came first, how one old injury may have influenced a newer problem and which problem is freshest is important for a number of reasons.  For a start the newer stuff should be easier to resolve as it’s not so imbedded into the structure of the body and we can normally give an indication as to how soon we would expect to see a change in a condition with treatment.

However, whilst we’re on our archaeological dig through the tension layers in the body we’ll often uncover stuff that has been sitting quietly in the background unnoticed.  It may be an old injury that was never fully resolved or part of a postural pattern that’s been around for a long time.  Whilst this silent problem may have been happily minding it’s own business for years there’s a chance that osteopathic treatment may disturb it. If that’s the case, as a patient it’s as well to be warned that this might happen.  It’s all very well going along to have one problem treated only to find that it seems to trigger another problem.

Also if the old problem was in some way related to the newer injury then to avoid a recurrence the older archaeology has to be accessed.

Let it go, let it go

Those of you with children of a certain age will be well aware of the impact of the Disney film Frozen and how it has encouraged bursting in to song with ‘Let it go, let it go’. It’s scary to admit that it’s even had an impact on my osteopathy as I often seem to find the tune running through my head during treatment sessions!

It never fails to amaze me how much tension some folk can hold in their body and be totally unaware of it. I’ll sometimes try to trigger some awareness of this by asking a patient that is lying on my treatment table to relax fully whilst I lift an arm or leg in the air. I’ll then let go the limb and see what happens. Of course a nicely relaxed arm or leg will flop back to the table but it’s not unusual to find that many limbs stay exactly where I put them. As far as the patient on the treatment table is concerned they are completely relaxed despite the fact that their arm is amazingly suspended in mid-air as if held up with invisible puppet strings. This is when the Frozen tune filters it’s way into my head as I think ‘Let it go, let it go’.

Given that the patient in this situation is actively trying to relax, if that’s not a contradiction in terms, imagine what’s going on when they’re not relaxing.  I’m sure most of us have experienced the effect of shoulders rising up towards the ears after sitting in front of a computer, especially if there’s an element of stress thrown in to the mix.  There are many people whose heads are permanently sucked in towards their shoulders with no awareness that it’s happening.

In this situation often the first signs of awareness will be a stiff neck and even a headache and this is where the osteopath comes.  Stage one is to encourage the body to ‘let it go’ with some hands-on treatment.  Stage two has to involve some degree of encouragement to get the patient to ‘let it go’ mentally which has to involve becoming aware that it’s happening. Osteopaths can’t do this alone, it has to be a partnership with the patient to achieve lasting results.

So please forgive your osteopath if he or she starts humming a song from Frozen during a quiet part of your treatment.  You could argue that it’s a good sign that they’re focusing hard on one of the goals of the treatment.

You Know It’s Good For You

This time of year we have a recipe that comes out at home which we simply call ‘The Mixture’. It consists of crushed garlic bulbs (as many as you like), the juice of half a lemon, a dollop of good honey, all topped up with warm water. It has to mature over a couple of hours and then it’s ready to combat the coughs, colds, and snots.  This is essential weaponry against the lurgy, especially in a household that has kids all too keen to share their secretions. It tastes horrible but as it passes over the tongue and down the back of the throat you just know it’s good for you.

That’s sometimes what bodywork, including osteopathy, is like. When an experienced therapist hits one of those bits that’s really sore you know that it hurts but you also just know it’s good for you.  Those fingers and thumbs can become like guided missiles searching through the knots and tensions tracking down trigger points, tender points, problem spots.

That’s not to say that osteopathy should be painful.  I struggle with the idea of a ‘good pain’. If you’re on the receiving end of a treatment and you’re in pain I would say that the pain is telling you they should stop. There’s a difference between pain and discomfort, although when a therapists hits one of those good spots it can be a bit of a fine line. However, if I sense a patient is tensing up beneath my fingers I know I’ve crossed the line in to pain and I need to take the pressure off.

Most of the soft tissue work I do on patients is aimed at creating space around an area and encouraging the body to release or let go of whatever it is that’s being naturally protected. Pain or injury naturally makes us tense up to protect the area that has been damaged. When it’s appropriate to do so, releasing that protective spasm and tightness will aid recovery. However, inflicting more pain is not the way forward. Working just deep enough to encourage the tissues to release and let go is the aim.

Of course if tissues are encouraged to release and we create space it also means that everything that passes through those tissues will be less compressed. Now here’s how osteopathy can actually be seen to back up the work of ‘The Mixture’ mentioned above. If your head is full of mucous, be it a bad cold or an attack of sinusitis, having an osteopath work on your neck and upper back will effectively open up all the drainage pathways to allow for some of the sticky gunk to get away from the head.

Winter is a time of coughs and colds, it’s the time to brew up a batch of ‘The Mixture’ and it’s the time to visit an osteopath.  You’ll just know it’s good for you!