What To Expect Of Your First Consultation?
It’s natural to feel a little nervous when going to visit someone like an Osteopath or a Cranial Therapist for the very first time. The first thing to remember is – don’t panic! We’re fully trained healthcare professionals with decades of experience in helping people back on their feet and out of pain.
Before you come in to see Phil the Osteopath, you should expect to fill out an online first consultation form. The information you provide helps Phil the Osteopath to get ‘the gist’ of what’s going on and prepare a few questions which may be more relevant to your case. It also helps Phil comply with regulations by having you sign all necessary forms electronically. People wishing to see Svetlana won’t have to do this due to regulatory differences.
You should expect the following things when you come to see us at your first consultation:
- To continue a verbal case history whereby questions are asked about how, why, what, where, when etc you came about your injuries.
- This information allows us to compile a short differential diagnosis of the likely cause of your complaint/injury
- We they conduct any required testing. This may include taking blood pressure readings and completing a brief neurological screen. We may even need to palpate your abdomen in some cases.
- Once we have all this information, we will have enough to provide a provisional diagnosis to you and create an offer of treatment.
- You then can decide of you would like to proceed and have the treatment
Please Note:
During your first consultation, you may need to remove some outer clothing for us to perform a physical exam of you. This may include any shoes, shirts and trousers which are hampering our efforts to help diagnose the problem you present to us with.
If you feel uncomfortable with this or if your religion forbids it then of course we can accommodate this, so long as you are aware that our service we can offer may also be limited too due to the inherent inability to see problem areas and accurately palpate them through dense clothing. Under these circumstances then we would recommend that you would wear one single layer of outer clothing (more would make it difficult to accurately palpate the very differences that you require us to adjust). The clothing should also be a thin material, preferably cotton if possible.
How Many Session Will I Need?
At the end of treatment, you will be recommended when to return. It is advised that you take the experienced opinion of your practitioner seriously and whatever you do, please don’t treat Osteopathy or Cranial Therapy as a ‘one trick fix’. It works best when taken as a part of a course of treatment. Think of it like a prescription given by your doctor. You wouldn’t dream of only taking half a course of medicine would you?
OK! – So How Many?
Generally speaking treatment takes place weekly, over a number of weeks. Sometimes though, it’s months, with later treatments being more spaced out, rather than weekly.
The true prognosis really depends upon a number of factors, such as;
- How old you are
- How long you’ve had the problem before coming to try and do something about it
- What pre-existing health concerns/conditions you might have
- Your mindset – How keen you are to help yourself out of pain and follow the advice given by your practitioner, which may include
- Exercises
- Stretches
- Hot and cold treatment
- Dietary/lifestyle adjustments
Then What Happens?
Well after you’re pain free you can come back whenever you like. For some, that’s once every 5 or 6 years and for others, it’s once every 6-8 weeks, its really up to you.
If you prefer to maintain your health and mechanical body, then you may find it beneficial to see us on a semi regular basis (6-8 weeks).
This may sound like profiteering, but truth be told, once you’ve tried us, you probably won’t want to be without us for too long anyway – we’re just like that 🙂