Before Your Appointment
In order to better understand your symptoms and ensure effective care, it is important that our practitioners have all relevant information regarding your condition. Whenever possible, we kindly ask you to bring any recent medical imaging to your first osteopathy appointment (such as CT scans, MRI scans, or X-rays). This information is essential for your therapist to fully understand your anatomy, particularly the cervical spine, before any manual treatment is performed.
If you have experienced a significant trauma and symptoms such as dizziness, migraines, bleeding, or gait disturbances have occurred since then, you should consult your general practitioner or treating physician before booking an appointment with an osteopath.
Déroulement d'une séance d'ostéopathie
Clinical Examination
The clinical examination follows the medical history. The practitioner will assess you in different positions, such as standing or lying down, and may perform active, passive, and resisted movement tests.
This stage, often referred to as clinical palpation, allows the osteopath to assess joint mobility and the condition of surrounding tissues in order to identify the source of the problem.
The accuracy of this assessment is what distinguishes skilled practitioners. Clinical palpation requires thorough anatomical and physiological knowledge, as well as well-developed manual skills.
Treatment
Once the dysfunction has been identified, the practitioner will proceed with treatment. Osteopathy uses a wide range of techniques, including visceral, cranial, fascial, soft tissue, and structural approaches.
Some techniques may involve a quick, controlled movement often referred to as a “thrust”. This can occasionally produce a popping or cracking sound, which is not the objective of the treatment and does not indicate its success.
The aim of treatment is to provide appropriate input to the affected structures in order to restore mobility and support normal function.
Medical History
An osteopathy session begins with a detailed clinical interview, during which your practitioner will ask about the duration and characteristics of your symptoms, any changes in intensity, and the circumstances in which the pain appears or subsides.
It is essential that no relevant information is overlooked. Your therapist will guide the discussion by asking targeted questions and filtering out elements that are not clinically relevant, in order to establish a clear and accurate understanding of your condition.
After a Session
After a session, it is common to feel tired. In some cases, symptoms may temporarily increase following treatment, but they are expected to improve within 48 to 72 hours. This reaction is linked to the inflammatory response that may occur after manual therapy.
The primary goal of the first session is to restore mobility to the affected area. In chronic conditions, several sessions may be required to achieve lasting improvement.
Sessions should always be spaced a few days apart to allow the body time to adapt and regain balance, enabling you to fully benefit from the treatment.
However, in many cases—particularly acute conditions where symptoms have appeared recently, such as certain upper back or lower back pain—patients often experience rapid and positive changes. In these situations, the body has not yet adapted to a prolonged imbalance, and the first session is frequently perceived as beneficial.
