Your health is my priority

I also offer physiotherapy. Please take note that I do not bill statutory health insurers for these treatments. Instead, you will receive an invoice directly from me. You can then submit it to your (private) health insurance and/or subsidy (“Beihilfe”) or additional insurance if necessary to receive reimbursement of the costs. Check with your insurance company about this before contacting me by phone or email.

Osteopathy, composed of the Greek words “osteon” (bone) and “pathos” (suffering, passion), is a healing method developed by the American country doctor Andrew Taylor Still in the 19th century. The focus was on the assumption that the “the triune man” – as an inseparable unity of body, soul and spirit and as the perfect creation of a transcendent being – already possesses the ability to heal all suffering and ailments. Still is also said to have called the human body “the pharmacy of God”.

He categorically rejected the external supply of medication and was quite successful in the treatment of internal diseases (i.e. organ diseases) by manually treating malpositions and incorrect tensions of the various tissues, not just the bones. Still's goal was to ensure the supply and disposal process of tissues again.

What was essential to his success was his immense knowledge of anatomy and its functional relationships.

Using manual, usually very gentle techniques, residual stresses and mobility limitations of individual structures are felt and released with the aim of no longer irritating the nervous system and ensuring the supply and disposal process of the tissues again. If this succeeds, the body can regain its self-healing powers, eliminate restrictions on movement, and relieve or even completely eliminate pain.

So as an osteopath, I am never the “healer”, but only the one who ideally finds the cause that the body cannot heal or regulate itself. A phrase I memorized during training is “Find it, fix it, and then leave it alone!” So the question arises: As an osteopath, can I find the cause? And if I can find it, another question immediately follows: Can I fix the cause?

As an osteopath, I am looking for functional disorders, which are mainly movement restrictions in the broadest sense, i.e. joint blocks, tension, adhesions and entrapments.

Ideally (that’s what osteopathy hopes to be), any possible organic cause has already been clarified before osteopathic therapy and no cause has been found in damaged tissue. I find and correct the functional disorder after a detailed anamnesis (Greek “ana” = “apart” and “mnesis” = “knowledge”; this refers to the initial interview with the questions about the medical history) and a detailed physical examination.

Then 3 to 5 appointments are sufficient. Sometimes, symptoms are significantly relieved or even disappear after the first treatment.

Against this background, it is not surprising that A.T. Still is said to have said that 80% of osteopathy is diagnostics (i.e. the search for the cause) and only 20% is treatment.

However, if the cause is a damaged organ, as an osteopath I can't do much. For example, in cases of osteoarthritis (joint wear), I cannot osteopathically restore the abraded cartilage (In osteoarthritis, however, a positive influence on the symptoms can usually still be exerted). And if the cause lies in anatomical asymmetries, then I can only try to ensure that the tissues become or remain as mobile as possible so that the organism can adapt and thus compensate. A systemic disease or infection is also only part of medical treatment, and should be in osteopathic hands only after medical approval. Another important limiting factor is the living conditions of my patients.

If the functional disorders are largely maintained or even caused by monotonous or asymmetrical movements, excessive or asymmetrical stress or lack of exercise (e.g. by professionally dictated tasks, certain sports or an unbalanced lifestyle), then the 3 to 5 treatments are often not sufficient. As a rule of thumb, the longer the symptoms are present, the more likely it is that a longer duration of therapy will be needed to relieve them. Furthermore, especially in these cases, it is essential that my patients perform their own exercises or change certain habits. At this point, I am putting responsibility back in the hands of my patients. I seek the path; but the patients themselves must take it.

Physiotherapy has historically been a compilation of home remedies (e.g. massage, curd wraps, exercises), which has been continually expanded over the decades (e.g. to include electrotherapy and special concepts such as Bobath or Vojta therapy) and has increasingly been scientifically based and refined through studies (e.g. in medical exercises and training therapy). Against this backdrop, it is only logical that osteopathic thinking and osteopathic principles have long since found their way into basic physiotherapy education.

For example, I also had two lecturers in my studies who were osteopaths. So far, the rigid health policy system just does not allow physiotherapists to exhaust everything they can actually do due to their training. As long as this is the case, I am grateful that my permission as a naturopath gives me the freedom to offer my patients treatments of a reasonable duration.