14/03/2026
I get asked this question A LOT, and I’m always happy to oblige!
Some of you might know my mother is also an osteopath… but 20-year-old me didn’t want to copy her or take the known path (despite having been a patient for years and knowing its miraculous benefits 🙃).
So I thought, oh, I’ll be a physio. I thought parts of it were great, but the NHS, though wonderful, really limits their phenomenal knowledge and scope. Then I thought I’d be a really, really rich chiropractor… but signing people up for tens of treatments and X-rays etc. didn’t sit well with me ethically or morally. I was trying to move away from all of that, having worked in the City for five years… so I reluctantly turned back to what I knew and what I was raised on.
13 years later, I’ve never looked back. It’s never felt like a task — it’s given me so much joy.
Treating the whole (holistic) person is a cornerstone of osteopathy — but there is so, so, so much more.
Owing to our Level 7 training, we train for four years, 8:30–6 each day, doing a mixture of lectures and in-clinic training at community clinic (I my self trained ) with around 30 treatment rooms to hone our skills under the guidance of exceptional tutors. It was intense, but wow was it worth it!
Then in our final year we wrote our Master’s thesis. Mine was:
“A critical literature review assessing links between neuromusculoskeletal dysfunction in people with learning disabilities (dyslexia) and treatment options outside of educational psychology.”
That process taught me skills I use day in and day out.
We’re also trained to take detailed, expert case histories. I’m not shy to say I’ve sent patients straight back to their GPs because their right shoulder pain was actually a gallbladder issue, their lower back pain was a kidney problem, their sudden loss of height was a disc herniation, or they had suspicious mole changes that needed removing — and so on.
We don’t just rub the sore bit — we fix things, and if we can’t, we know exactly who to refer you to.
There are many, many more reasons why I am so incredibly proud of my profession. I utterly adore my vocation. Being able to genuinely help people — helping them understand how small changes (standing posture, seating posture, that subtle stretch that can sometimes be better than popping a pill) can make massive differences in their lives — and seeing them flourish back to a sport they love or achieve something they didn’t think was possible anymore… it’s an absolute honour to be part of their journey.
If you have any questions, or feel you may need some holistic help, please don’t hesitate to call or book in online 🤲🏻
https://ashfieldpractice.as.me/
