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How should I prepare for my first appointment?
Not everyone feels the need to understand what to expect when visiting an osteopath. However, it can be very helpful to think about your problem, how it started, how it is impacting your health and wellbeing and what you hope we might be able to do for you.
To help you to prepare there are some very helpful guides you can use. This link takes you to a short video that takes you through the process and what you may like to think about before you come.
There is also a useful info-graphic you can look at if you are short of time.
Is treatment painful?
Osteopathic techniques range from very gentle soft tissue work to high velocity thrusts (HVT) to manipulate the positioning of your body. Your osteopath will talk through different treatment options, and let you know if a treatment is likely to be uncomfortable – either at the time or after your appointment. You can then decide whether you are happy to go ahead or not. Your practitioner will ask your consent throughout your appointment before they perform a technique. If at any stage, you feel uncomfortable or unsure you have the right to withdraw your consent.
What should I wear?
As with any healthcare appointment, it may be necessary for your osteopath to ask you to remove some clothing. This is so they can see and touch the areas of the body causing you concern. Your osteopath will want you to feel at ease, therefore if you feel uncomfortable undressing to your underwear, you may prefer to wear clothing, such as shorts and a t-shirt, or close-fitting garments, that will enable them to work effectively, so please do discuss this with them. Towels and blankets are also available. If at any point you feel uncomfortable, please let your osteopath know and they would be happy to discuss how best to adapt to your needs. You may wish to seek treatment from an osteopath of the same sex as yourself. You are also welcome to ask a friend or relative to accompany you and be present throughout your appointment.
How long will my appointment take?
Your initial appointment will last approximately 45 minutes, during which time your osteopath will take a full clinical history, including asking you questions about your general health to fully understand what has happened and how best to act to ensure you receive the most appropriate care. This may take 10 minutes, at which point your osteopath will explain to you what they think is wrong. If it is appropriate and you are happy to proceed your osteopath will then examine you, performing a range of tests and assessments to better understand the relevant factors pertinent to your case. They will then discuss their findings and agree with you how best to help you. If appropriate you will normally receive treatment at the end of your first appointment. If the osteopath feels that osteopathic treatment is not indicated, they will discuss with you the best course of action and write any appropriate referral letters so that you are cared for appropriately. Any follow up appointments are for 30 minutes long. Your osteopath will normally quickly re-assess your symptoms and gauge progress, prior to treating you.
What does treatment involve?
Osteopaths usually start any treatment by releasing and relaxing muscles and stretching stiff joints, using gentle massage techniques, rhythmic joint movements and muscle release techniques. The osteopath may also manipulate specific joints. While manipulation can be suitable in a number of different presentations, it is not an essential part of a treatment, and other techniques may also be used depending on your problem. Some of our osteopaths also use acupuncture as part of your treatment. If they feel that this may help with your recovery, they will explain the procedure to you and obtain your consent before proceeding. If you have any questions about your treatment do speak to your osteopath at any point.
How many appointments will I need?
This depends on your condition. Generally, you would expect to see some changes in your symptoms after one or two visits but more complex, long term or chronic conditions may require more treatment. Your osteopath will discuss this with you and provide you with an indication of what length of treatment you might expect.
Is osteopathy covered by private health insurance?
Most major health insurance companies cover osteopathic treatment. Please check your policy for terms and conditions and inform reception on booking. Our reception team would be happy to help you if you have any questions.
What should I expect during an online appointment?
If you book an online appointment, you should receive a confirmation email with a link which should take you to the “Video Appointment Screen”, (if you haven’t received this, please let us know). We need you to be able to be “Hands Free”, so whether you use your phone, iPad or computer you need to have it positioned or propped up against something so that your practitioner can see probably two thirds of you. Wear whatever you are most comfortable in. Ideally wearing either sports clothing; shorts or leggings and sports tops (a close-fitting T shirt would do) is best because we may need to see how your joints such as your hip or shoulder move). If you are not sure just get in touch and we can discuss beforehand.
It’s useful to be sitting for the first part of the appointment so a chair will be required. If you have a low back problem, it may be easier to have the phone in your bedroom so you can lie on the bed to carry out the stretches or exercises. We find it useful to check this using the selfie type photo in the camera of your phone, that way you can check what we will see.
We may demonstrate and ask you to repeat some exercises so you will need to have a hand towel, TheraBand (Or if you don’t have that a tie or a scarf), a massage ball or tennis type ball. We can always discuss this during the appointment so don’t worry.
The appointment broadly follows the routine of a normal appointment in the clinic, we will take notes on how you are, we’ll discuss your symptoms and quantify how severe they are using a pain scale and functional assessments e.g. Putting socks on, whether the pain limits you reaching etc. We will then ask you to perform some movements e.g. neck rotations or bending forward, it is useful for us to be able to see the area we’ll be treating so wearing a vest or something similar will be helpful.
Once we have a good idea of what is wrong, we will explain things to you, answer any questions and discuss your treatment options. If appropriate we can then give you advice and/or exercises to use as a means of helping you take control of your problem. We will follow up this online instruction with a bespoke exercise programme which you will be able to access through our dedicated online exercise platform called Physitrack. If you require any follow up, we can discuss this with you at the end of the session. This may be a further online appointment or simply a phone call, depending on your needs.
Summary: To join the appointment-
Any payment for online appointments can be made through our website shop. Just select the appropriate appointment fee and follow the instructions. If you do not have a PayPal account just let us know and we can identify an alternative way to pay.