Institute of Classical Osteopathy

Institute of Classical Osteopathy The ICO brings together members of our profession who are prepared to apply osteopathy as it was lai T.

The ICO bring together members of our profession who are prepared to apply osteopathy as it was laid down by A. Still and the pioneers of osteopathy through our Diploma, webinars, conferences and our successful foreign groups.

✨ Meet Our Webference Speaker: Chris Batten✨ Chris is an experienced osteopath with over 37 years in clinical practice, ...
10/08/2026

✨ Meet Our Webference Speaker: Chris Batten✨

Chris is an experienced osteopath with over 37 years in clinical practice, teaching, and research. Trained in the classical tradition under John Wernham, he continues the lineage of J.M. Littlejohn's mechanical and physiological approach.

As both a practitioner and educator, Chris combines historical depth with a clear, engaging teaching style, making complex osteopathic principles accessible to students and practitioners alike. His work focuses on integrating osteopathy's philosophical foundations into contemporary healthcare and applying Littlejohn mechanics in clinical practice.

Chris has taught internationally through postgraduate seminars and clinical workshops and is currently writing a two-volume book on Classical Osteopathy, combining historical insight with practical guidance. He is known for encouraging reflective practice, clinical confidence, and precision with humour.

Special interests:
*Classical osteopathic mechanics (Littlejohn, Wernham)
*Traditional osteopathic principles in the treatment of a wide range of health conditions

Join us for what promises to be an engaging and insightful session. We look forward to welcoming Chris to the Webference.

Join us on Saturday 5th September for our online conference AKA Weberence!

Principles Scope and rationale in Osteopathy.

https://classical-osteopathy.org/webinars

✨ Meet Our Webference Speaker: Ben Adams ✨ We're delighted to welcome Ben to this year's Webference.Ben is Head of Appli...
09/08/2026

✨ Meet Our Webference Speaker: Ben Adams ✨

We're delighted to welcome Ben to this year's Webference.

Ben is Head of Applied Learning at the Institute, and a Senior Lecturer specialising in classical osteopathy. He teaches across the UK and Europe, supporting osteopaths at all stages of their careers through postgraduate education.

His work is driven by a strong interest in the relationship between mechanics, physiology, and how we teach and learn effectively. He is particularly passionate about finding clear, practical ways to communicate the complex principles of classical osteopathy—making them both clinically relevant and grounded in real-world reasoning.

His teaching approach emphasises critical thinking, continuity of osteopathic tradition, and the application of core concepts to everyday practice.

Alongside his academic work, he runs a busy clinical practice in North Hertfordshire, where he applies classical osteopathic methods in a contemporary healthcare setting. Ben also sits on the investigating committee of the general osteopathic council.

Outside of osteopathy, he’s a certified scuba diver and a dedicated supporter of Saracens rugby.

Join us for what promises to be an engaging and insightful session. We look forward to welcoming Ben to the Webference.

Join us on Saturday 5th September for our online conference AKA Weberence!

Principles Scope and rationale in Osteopathy.

https://classical-osteopathy.org/webinars

✨ Meet Our Webference Speaker: Louise Adams✨We're delighted to welcome Louise Adams to this year's Webference.Louise Ada...
08/08/2026

✨ Meet Our Webference Speaker: Louise Adams✨

We're delighted to welcome Louise Adams to this year's Webference.
Louise Adams is an osteopath grounded in classical osteopathic principles, with a particular interest in the nuanced and often under-explored area of women's health. Her clinical work reflects a deep respect for the body’s capacity for regulation and healing, alongside a commitment to precision, sensitivity, and awareness.

She has experience supporting women with post-surgical recovery, hormonal changes, lymphatic congestion, and complex pain presentations, recognising the breast as part of an integrated whole rather than an isolated structure.

Louise’s teaching aims to bring clarity and confidence to this area of practice. She emphasise’s clinical reasoning, consent, communication, and practitioner awareness.

Join us for what promises to be an engaging and thought-provoking session.

We look forward to welcoming Louise to the Webference.

Join us on Saturday 5th September for our online conference AKA Weberence!

Principles Scope and rationale in Osteopathy.

https://classical-osteopathy.org/webinars

✨ Meet Our Webference Speaker: Simon Brocard✨ We're delighted to welcome Simon to this year's Webference.Simon qualified...
07/08/2026

✨ Meet Our Webference Speaker: Simon Brocard✨

We're delighted to welcome Simon to this year's Webference.
Simon qualified from the British School of Osteopathy (now Health Science University) in 2014. He started teaching technique in 2015, and became involved in teaching with the ICO in 2018. He completed a post graduate diploma in education in 2020. He is a guest lecturer at undergraduate and postgraduate level, both in England and internationally.

Join us for what promises to be an engaging and informative session. We look forward to welcoming Simon to the Webference.

Where do we look?In the early stages of practice, it is easy to search for the problem: a tight muscle, a restricted joi...
07/08/2026

Where do we look?

In the early stages of practice, it is easy to search for the problem: a tight muscle, a restricted joint, a postural fault.

Rather than seeing isolated findings, we begin to recognise relationships. The patient's presentation is understood as an organised whole, where individual findings gain meaning through their connection to one another.

This shift in perception changes the way we examine, reason and treat.

Osteopathic diagnosis is not simply about identifying what is present. It is about understanding how the body's adaptations belong together and what they reveal about the patient's capacity for function and self-regulation.

Seeing the whole. Treating the person.

Has your way of thinking changed throughout your osteopathic journey?

✨ Meet Our Webference Speaker: Robert Cartwright✨ We're delighted to welcome Robert Cartwright to this year's Webference...
06/08/2026

✨ Meet Our Webference Speaker: Robert Cartwright✨

We're delighted to welcome Robert Cartwright to this year's Webference.

Robert Cartwright DO, ND, LicAc, MICO is an osteopath, educator and Chairman of the Institute of Classical Osteopathy. He is also Board Chairman of the Littlejohn Centre in Dublin and has been involved in postgraduate osteopathic education for many years.

Alongside clinical practice, Robert’s work focuses on the principles, physiology and mechanics that underpin osteopathic diagnosis and treatment. His particular interest is in how osteopaths move beyond isolated findings to recognise the wider patterns of adaptation and mechanical organisation expressed by the patient as a whole.
His teaching explores the development of osteopathic thought and its relevance to contemporary clinical practice, with a particular emphasis on diagnosis, body mechanics and the physiological significance of the osteopathic lesion.

Join us for what promises to be a thought-provoking session. We look forward to welcoming Robert to the Webference.

Join us on Saturday 5th September for our online conference AKA Weberence!

Principles Scope and rationale in Osteopathy.

https://classical-osteopathy.org/webinars

Celebrating the birth of Andrew Taylor StillBorn on 6 August 1828, Andrew Taylor Still challenged the medical assumption...
06/08/2026

Celebrating the birth of Andrew Taylor Still

Born on 6 August 1828, Andrew Taylor Still challenged the medical assumptions of his age and established osteopathy upon a distinctive understanding of the human body: not as a collection of isolated parts, but as a living, self-regulating and mechanically organised whole.

Nearly two centuries later, his work continues to ask something fundamental of every osteopath: to look beyond the location of symptoms, to understand the relationships expressed through the whole person, and to seek the principles underlying clinical practice rather than merely applying techniques.

Today we celebrate Still’s intellectual courage, his determination to question established convention, and the profession that developed from his work.

Happy 198th birthday, A.T. Still.


✨ Meet Our Webference Speaker: Alice Williams✨We're delighted to welcome Alice to this year's Webference.Alice is a pra...
05/08/2026

✨ Meet Our Webference Speaker: Alice Williams✨

We're delighted to welcome Alice to this year's Webference.

Alice is a practising osteopath, lecturer, and Course Director for the Institute of Classical Osteopathy. She teaches osteopathic principles and physiology across the UK, Italy, and Spain, with a particular interest in how osteopathic thinking can be clearly articulated and transmitted in education and practice.

Before training as an osteopath, Alice completed a degree in physics, specialising in computer-generated holograms, a background that continues to inform her interest in models, perspective and the relationship between parts and wholes.

Alice’s current interests include fluid balance, self-regulation, and the capacity for habitual patterns to shift and reorganise. She trained at the Surrey Institute of Osteopathic Medicine, graduating in 2010, and now practises from her clinic in the Surrey Hills.

Join us for what promises to be a thought-provoking session. We look forward to welcoming Alice to the Webference.

Join us on Saturday 5th September for our online conference AKA Weberence!

Principles Scope and rationale in Osteopathy.

https://classical-osteopathy.org/webinars

Things osteopaths think… but rarely say.“I can feel that something matters… but I can’t always explain why.”Many osteopa...
05/08/2026

Things osteopaths think… but rarely say.

“I can feel that something matters… but I can’t always explain why.”

Many osteopaths know that moment.

You recognise something in the patient’s presentation. A relationship, an arrangement or a pattern catches your attention. It seems clinically important—but finding the language to describe exactly what you are perceiving can be difficult.

That does not necessarily mean the perception is vague. Sometimes the difficulty lies in the language available to us.

Developing an osteopathic language is not simply about sounding more confident. It helps us describe what we observe, show how the findings belong together, and explain how that understanding guides examination and treatment.

It gives words to what our hands and clinical judgement may already be telling us.

Have you ever understood something clinically but struggled to put it into words?

Share your thoughts below. 👇

Every osteopath begins with an idea of the practitioner they hope to become.Perhaps you imagined understanding the patie...
04/08/2026

Every osteopath begins with an idea of the practitioner they hope to become.

Perhaps you imagined understanding the patient more deeply. Seeing how their presentation belonged together. Working from principles rather than relying on a collection of techniques.

Then practice became busy. The immediate problem demanded attention. The language available did not always express what your hands and clinical judgement were telling you.

But the original aspiration may still be there.

The ICO Diploma offers a place to develop the perception, language and understanding needed to bring that aspiration more fully into practice—not by becoming someone else, but by becoming more able to practise as the osteopath you meant to be.

What did you dream of becoming when you chose osteopathy?

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