Training and Regulation of Osteopaths in the UK

Osteopathy for Seniors
Training and Regulation of Osteopaths in the UK

In the UK, the Osteopathic profession is regulated by the General Osteopathic Council and by law, an Osteopath must be registered with the Council to practise. To remain registered, they must comply with strict regulatory requirements and high standards of professional practice. They must also maintain regular professional development.

These requirements give patients the same sort of guarantees and protection as those given by doctors and dentists.

Osteopaths are trained to degree level attaining either a Bachelor of Science (BSc) or integrated Masters (MOst). Training takes a minimum of four years and includes a requirement to have over 1000 hours clinical experience with patients prior to registration.
Osteopaths are recognised by NHS England as Allied Health Professionals, playing a critical role in the diagnosis, treatment and care of people of all ages.

We are members of the Institute of Osteopathy, the professional membership organisation for osteopaths, committed to the support and development of the osteopathic profession.
Membership of the Institute of Osteopathy affords assurances to the public, patients and colleagues, that we provide the highest quality service and care.

For more information on the Institute of Osteopathy, visit http://www.iOsteopathy.org or call 01582 488455

To make an appointment, please contact:

Carolyn McGregor BSc (Osteopathy)., BA Div (Hons)., MARH., Registered Osteopath Registered Homoeopath at Petersfield Osteopathy, 1a, Spain Buildings, 28 The Spain. Petersfield. Hants. GU32 3LA. M: 07766330489 Practice: 01730 267 224


About Osteopathy
This information has been produced by the Institute of Osteopathy to provide the public with information on osteopathic care and treatment.

Osteopathic examination of the hand and wrist

Osteopathy for health

Osteopathy for Female Health in Later Years

A whole body approach to health

About Osteopaths:

Osteopathic practice is a safe and effective form of prevention, diagnosis and treatment for a wide range of health issues.
Osteopaths are highly trained healthcare professionals who are experts in the musculoskeletal system (joints, muscles and associated tissues) and its relationship to other systems of the body, to keep you as healthy as you can be.
Osteopaths see people of all ages from babies to the elderly and everyone in between, including pregnant women and elite athletes.
You do not need to consult your GP before you visit an osteopath, although you may wish to do so.

What to expect:

Osteopaths are highly skilled professionals who are trained in diagnosing health issues, including those which may require further investigation.
When you first visit an osteopath you’ll be asked about your current symptoms and medical history. All information will be treated as confidential in accordance with the standards of practice set out by the General Osteopathic Council and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), May 2018.
It is natural in most circumstances to worry about your symptoms and the cause. You can be confident that your osteopath will always complete a routine examination that checks for more serious diagnoses and will advise and discuss with you any further action that might be required.

After this examination, your osteopath will discuss your treatment options and you will then jointly decide an appropriate and suitable treatment plan, and the likely associated costs. This plan may involve several visits and, very occasionally, further tests and/or referrals to another appropriate health care professional.

Your treatment may begin at your first appointment. Your Osteopath should advise you on what you are likely to experience in terms of symptom resolution following treatment, and the duration of time you should expect this to take. Depending on the nature of your presenting symptoms and underlying health, you may experience mild discomfort afterwards, but in most cases this will pass within 24 hours.

If you have any concerns about your treatment you are encouraged to discuss them further with your Osteopath.

Chaperone:

If you wish, you are more than welcome to bring someone with you to your consultation.

Petersfield Osteopathy Registered Osteopaths can provide a dedicated chaperone to assist and support you during treatment.

You will be offered the opportunity to have a chaperone present. Your appointment will be arranged to enable a chaperone to be present throughout your appointment. Appointments with a chaperone will generally require advanced booking and notification. Your Osteopath can discuss with you how and when a chaperone is helpful or necessary during any examination process or Osteopathic treatment.


The assessment:

As part of your consultation your osteopath will examine the area(s) of your body causing discomfort and may undertake tests such as taking your blood pressure or testing your reflexes.
It may be necessary for your osteopath to ask you to remove some clothing, so that they can assess the areas of the body causing concern. If you are uncomfortable undressing to your underwear, you can bring with you clothing such as shorts, t-shirt or close fitting garments, that will enable them to work effectively without making you feel uncomfortable. Females are advised to wear sports/gym wear. Males are encouraged to bring a pair of shorts to enable effective examination and treatment.


Your Osteopath will use a highly trained sense of touch, called palpation to feel for changes in your muscles and joints and examine these areas to identify problems. They may also assess your posture and the way you move. Sometimes the cause of the problem may be in a different area to the pain, so they may examine your whole body.

Dependant on your case, your Osteopath may suggest that you seek further tests before your first treatment, for example blood tests or scans. They may also recommend that you consult your GP or another appropriate healthcare professional for onward care.

Your treatment:

Osteopathic care is based on the individual needs of the patient and so varies depending on your age, fitness levels and diagnosis.
Osteopaths use a wide range of gentle hands-on techniques that focus on releasing tension, stretching muscles and mobilising joints. These are often used together with exercise and helpful advice designed to help you relieve or manage your pain, keep active and maintain the best of health.

Research has shown that manual therapy such as that used by Osteopaths, can have beneficial effects, especially for back pain, helping you to return to ordinary movement and activity.

The health risks associated with having osteopathic treatment are extremely low. A leaflet describing the risks and benefits of Osteopathic assessment and treatment can be provided to you.

If you have any concerns about your treatment, we encourage you to raise them with your Osteopath who will be happy to discuss them with you.

Osteopaths in the UK are registered and regulated by The General Osteopathic Council.

Osteopaths in the UK may also be members of additional Osteopathic Associations, such as the Institute of Osteopaths and other professional organisations, reflecting their particular academic, clinical and professional interests.

Carolyn McGregor BSc (Ost.)., BA Div (Hons)., MARH., is registered with:

Registered with The General Osteopathic Council, Osteopathy House, 176 Tower Bridge Road, London, SE1 3YY.

Telephone: 0207 357 6655 (GOSc Registration: 414)
Registered with The Institute of Osteopathy, 3 Park Terrace, Manor Road, Luton. Beds. LU1 3HN.

Telephone: 01582 488 455 (iO Registration: 2237)

Registered with The Alliance of Registered Homeopaths, Millbrook Hill, Nutley, East Sussex, TN22 3PJ.

Telephone: 01825 714506 (ARH Registration: 577)

Advice for Storing Homeopathic Remedies

Written by Carolyn McGregor BSc (Ost.), B.A Div. (Hons)., MARH., Registered Osteopath (GOSc 414) Registered Homoeopath (ARH 577)

Principal Osteopath at Petersfield Osteopathy, 1a, Spain Buildings, 28 The Spain. Petersfield. Hants. GU32 3LA.

M:07766330489 Email: carolynhomoeopath@hotmail.co.uk

Storage of Homoeopathic medicines:

Please store your remedies away from direct sunlight, strong odours, pharmaceutical medicines, all electrical/emitting equipment including telephones, mobile phone or microwave.
A useful place is a drawer which you visit every day, or consider making your bedroom a device free space by investing in an alarm clock!
The recommended exposure time to our mobile phones is 20 minutes in 24 hours, following a UK government research programme.

Taking your homoeopathic medicines:

To optimise the efficacy of your remedies, please take your remedy on a clean palate with nothing to eat or drink 15 minutes before or after placing the remedy under your tongue.
If taking a daily remedy, try to take your remedy at the same time of day, ideally when relaxed and resting.
Like beautiful food, take a moment, with intention and focus on your healing as you take the remedy. Positive intention will support your body’s best efforts to heal.

Antidotes of Homoeopathic medicines:


Camphor, menthol, peppermint, eucalyptus (used in cough medicines and vapour rubs), and some essential oils used externally, appear to cause antidoting of Homoeopathic medicines.
Some spices also appear to cause interaction with Homoeopathic medicines, which provoke a strong sweating response, such as Fenugreek or chilli if routinely used.

If you are happy to use a good quality non – peppermint toothpaste this will optimise your body’s healing with Homoeopathy, as well as to lower the intake of frothing agents and preservatives!

The chemical structure of coffee gives it the particular aroma. It also has one of the longest organic molecular chains in nature. It can have profound effects on our body’s physiology and certain bodily constitutions are more susceptible to coffee than others.
Equally specific homoeopathic medicines are more susceptible to antidoting from coffee. Looking at both aspects of this conversation is why Homoeopaths generally request that their patients refrain from drinking coffee whilst receiving Homoeopathic care.

Commonly asked questions:

How soon will my remedy act?

Once taken, Homoeopathic medicines may act immediately, or over time, depending upon the nature of the remedy itself and way in which the remedy has been prescribed. Your Homoeopath takes the specific nature of the remedy, its healing properties, duration of action and interaction with other remedies into account when prescribing for you.

Each Homoeopathic medicine has by its nature, an optimum period of time over which it acts.
For instance Belladonna acts with speed and energy and is useful in healing acute symptoms associated with fever states, where speed is of the essence in working along side the efficacy of the fever to heal infection.

Homeopathic remedies have a working relationship to each other. This can be supportive and enhancing the action of a particular central remedy upon which your Homoeopath will be focussing their intention as a central theme of the focus of your healing.

Remedies have personalities as huge and encompassing; diverse and as rich as the people we prescribe for.

Remedy relationships are like human families.

Certain Homeopathic remedies will act together supportively in a framework of mutual coherence and share a broadly similar focus of action, and act in like environments in a familiar way.

Homoeopaths have an ever deepening understanding of remedy relationship through training and clinical experience, as well as the traditions of prescribing upon which Homoeopathy is founded, to refer and seek guidance from when evaluating your remedy/ies.
Homoeopathy as a system of healing and medicine is inherently safe.

The beauty of Homoeopathy in part lies in the intrinsic patterns of reflective thinking, testing and arriving at the evaluative process of thought which each Homoeopath undertakes in considering ‘the simillimum’.

By nature, Homoeopathy permits the lucid, clear testing of hypothesis within the very structure innate to the journey undertaken to prescribing. Through the thorough search within the Material Medica and Repertorisation process which a Homoeopath must undertake in order to understand the person, their presenting symptoms, ‘the case’ more broadly speaking, and the nature of the Homeopathic remedy in its action in the curative process.

Alongside this, a Homoeopath must have a thorough going knowledge of the plant, mineral and animal and environmental kingdoms from which each remedy has its origin.

Knowledge and understanding of the botany of the plant; the geology and chemistry of the mineral composition remedies; the biology and physiology, and emotional characteristics of remedies derived from the animal kingdoms, for example are part of the working knowledge of the Homoeopath.

The ‘simillimum’ is that remedy found in Nature which most closely acts by its nature, in correspondence to the presenting symptoms and underlying state of health seen and gained through effective case taking with the patient.

Homoeopathy can be safely prescribed during peri-conceptual phases; pregnancy, birth and postpartum. Homoeopathy can be safely prescribed alongside pharmaceutical medicines. Please keep your Homoeopath informed of any changes to your prescribed medication.

How long will my remedy last?

The time during which a remedy may act can also be influenced by the potency of the remedy, and whether several remedies are prescribed to support each other.
A single medicine may act powerfully as a stand alone remedy, or your Homoeopath may decide to use several remedies together to support the body in its direction of cure. Some remedies are by their inherent nature designed to act quickly, others may act more slowly, and some over a considerable period of time.

How long do Homoeopathic medicines keep?

If stored well, Homoeopathic medicines can remain fully effective for over a hundred years, if kept in optimal conditions.

Our original mother tinctures held by the Homoeopathic pharmacies may contain original medicines created by our founding Homoeopaths. This is an extraordinary blessing.
The ‘sell by date’ on over the counter homoeopathic medicines is given because over the counter remedies are regulated by the foods and supplements legislation, not the Medicines Act. I would add, that from my own viewpoint, the quality of over the counter homoeopathy can be variable because these medicines may not have been created in the optimal conditions of the excellent Homoeopathic pharmacies or indeed may not have been stored in optimal conditions once on the shelf.

What else can I do to support by body to heal?


The direction of cure that the body takes in its healing is unique to each individual. However there are general patterns in which direction of cure takes. The body’s best attempt to cure can be supported by taking a look at any behaviour that interrupts the ability of the body to heal.

Avoid any substance which when ingested, alters the vital action of a particular organ and its physiologic action in relation to other organs. All addictive substances have such effect: coffee, sugar, alcohol, tobacco, drugs.

Example: Regular coffee intake, increases adrenal output, diminishes kidney function, impedes optimal functioning of the liver and causes the brainstem to have a higher state of arousal than normal. This in turn affects the regulating of heart and lungs.
If a person is repeatedly taking coffee, the vital action of the body has to contend with the long term effects of coffee consumption. This slows normal, healthy physiology and thus makes it harder for the body to heal effectively.

Avoid patterns of behaviour which aggravate the body: prolonged anxiety; over work; prolonged caring for others; chronic ill health; situations where your daily patterns are adversely determined by the actions of others; routines which have become dull, boring, redundant.

Optimise your health by bringing flexibility and spontaneity into your life.
Look at the good patterns that safe guard your health, try and resolve those patterns which impede your health.

Make time for silence and peace.

Carolyn McGregor BSc (Osteopathy)., BA Div (Hons)., MARH., is registered with:

Registered with The General Osteopathic Council, Osteopathy House, 176 Tower Bridge Road, London, SE1 3YY. Telephone: 0207 357 6655 (GOSc Registration: 414)

Registered with The Institute of Osteopathy, 3 Park Terrace, Manor Road, Luton. Beds. LU1 3HN. Telephone: 01582 488 455 (iO Registration: 2237)

Registered with The Alliance of Registered Homeopaths, Millbrook Hill, Nutley, East Sussex, TN22 3PJ. Telephone: 01825 714506 (ARH Registration: 577)

Christmas and New Year Opening Hours 2022/2023:

Osteopathy for Athletes and Sports Injuries

Saturday 24th December 2022: 08:15am – 15:00pm;

Sunday 25th December 2022: CLOSED

Monday 26th December 2022: CLOSED

Tuesday 27th December 2022: 08:15am – 19:30pm;

Wednesday 28th December 2022: 08:15am – 19:30pm;

Thursday 29th December 2022: 08:15am – 19:30pm;

Friday 30th December 2022: 08:15am – 19:30pm;

Saturday 31st December 2002: 08:15am – 15:00pm;

Sunday 1st January 2023: CLOSED

Monday 2nd January 2023: CLOSED

Tuesday 3rd January 2023: NORMAL CLINIC RESUMES 08:15am – 19:30pm;

Epidemic Energy

As a Homoopath, I have been speaking about the role of epidemic energy since mid – July last year, 2019. With the propensity to laryngeal and bronchial complaints with loss of confidence and feelings of loss of position in the world, society. Certain remedies have been coming through gently and clearly as underlying themes for a while.  

Homoeopaths are tasked with the role of finding those remedies from Nature which assist the economy of the body, the environment both inner and outer, towards greater balance and harmony. 

If you can, focus on Nature. She will show you the path. It may simply be sunlight through your window. A plant. A bird singing. Magical Nature heals and transforms. 

With any condition, or expression of life in Nature, there are positives and negatives. In our personality, and within our emotions, the same positive and negative expressions. 

I noticed that certain specific themes were emerging around us, whilst we are all bathed in the epidemic energy whose vector, currently is COVID 19. 

Fear of acute business failure;

Fear of death; of dying;

Fear loss of loved ones; Being left alone;

Is restless, continually changing places; extremely nervous, restless and anxious.

Anguish and restlessness. Despairs of recovery. Thinks it useless to take the medicine.

Fear of death and disease, yet tired of living, worse at night;

Fear of being approached; suspicious; mistrustful; fear of contamination; of germs;

Fastidious; fears the order will be upset; fears disorder; germs, disease, contamination.

Over sensitive, fault-finding; Irritable, selfish. 

The remedy where these themes are emergent is Arsenicum Album. 

Hmmmm…. sound familiar? These are not necessarily just specific to you but are themes of the epidemic energy of which we are all susceptible to right now. 

Why are we susceptible now?  

One of my little patients said to her mum: ‘ Mummy, I think we have the corona virus so the earth can learn to breathe again…’

We have just passed through the Spring Equinox, we saw the peak of the news of the arrival of COVID19 with the Equinox. The Equinox, a Time of change.  

Pluto is the deep cleanser, who shines a powerful light into those deeper aspects of our being and psyche which we find difficult to look at; where we don’t want to change or find difficult to do so, is strongly with us right now. It helps us.

In direct conjunction, is Saturn whose excesses of indulgence, enjoyment, materialism etc., are shown in the negative attributes of the base chakra whose ruler is Saturn: unstable, resentment, insecurity, anxiety, worry, bad tempered. 

The positive traits of Saturn/the Base chakra: reverence, perseverence. radiance, stability, learns lessons of patience, accepting of karma.

We then have Mars coming in, ruler by fire, who brings energy in bursts. Sudden change, upheaval. … Its negative correlates, fear and anger. Mars, ruler of the solar plexus brings the positive attributes of courage, fearlessness, calm, non-impulsive commitment.

After this has passed too we have Jupiter, bringing expansion, renewal, new energy. Change.  A different way of doing, seeing and Being. 

Negative attributes are sifted, tested, shifted and dissolve.

Positive attributes clothe the soul with lighter sensibilities and awareness. These stay with us as we journey forwards.

There is an opportunity for Quiet. Peace. Transcendance. Calm through it all. Wisely centre your self. Listen to silence. If you must, listen to good music. But most of all embrace Stillness and Silence. Be at one in the small moments of your every day Being and Be with Nature.

Jupiter, ruler of the sacral centre brings transformation, letting go of old values, embracing our true spiritual values. Brings renewal. Hope. Transformation. Transcendance of old patterns and values. Optimism. Honour. Truthfulness. True religious understanding. Self confidence.

Wisely centre the lower three chakras or energy centres of the body. Be seated and still. Rest.  Yoga. Stretch. Meditate. Prayer. Be thankful.

Eat well and simply. Do not indulge. Seek balance in all things. Drink plenty of water. Sleep early and well. Seek to balance activity with rest;  

Balance Doing with Being. Seek the light of the Spring sunshine. Walk in the brightest part of the day. Rest even more. Be observant. To others. To your inner voice. To that of Nature. Seek your true purpose and true needs.

Be Kind. Trust in all things.