So often I am asked, ‘why did you choose to become an Osteopath?’ I love this question because it does make me reflect on my pathway into the profession. In my early teens I experienced a significant lower limb fracture in an on-farm accident. Beyond the process of acute medical care including casting and relative immobilisation, I recall feeling somewhat helpless when the cast was removed after 12 weeks and I was told to just ‘go back to using it as normal as the fracture has healed’. I recall looking at my ‘healed leg’ thinking this is anything but normal. It looked different, moved differently and ultimately ended up changing my movement patterns throughout a critical stage of growth and development. In the years beyond this injury, and as a highly active teenager, I experienced various musculoskeletal pain problems distant to, but likely related to this historical injury. Often my experience when seeking help for these problems seemed simplistic and focused on the site of pain. There had to be more to it?

In my later teens my mother was involved in a serious motor vehicle accident, and suffered horrific trauma including a fractured pelvis, multiple fractured ribs and a punctured lung (among other injuries). Her long recovery associated with this accident lead to the development of chronic pain that had a significant impact on the quality of her life. After several surgeries, and seeking help from multiple different medical experts, she started to make improvements when seeing an Osteopath. After being invited to observe one of my mother’s treatment sessions, the seed was sown as I witnessed a practitioner who was able to provide intelligent insight into why her pain had persisted, what variables were maintaining her pain, and importantly was able to provide a roadmap to wellness again. Now in her 60’s my mother went on to complete several marathon events, including in London and New York!