The questionnaire (If you haven’t done it yet, you absolutely should!), really made me think about a few things that I hadn’t expected prior to practicing…

1)    How differently we all practice!
Yes, all osteopaths studied hard at university and we all answer to the same national registration standards. But that doesn’t stop endless discussions and healthy debates among colleagues and peers. Why? Because our practice has been shaped by our individual experiences, which has led to an array of perspectives and techniques.  I am excited to know what we all do and how we all work.

2)    How many decisions I have to make about business
Running my own practice? Being an associate? Renting a room? Where do I stand with my peers on this? I have worked in my own practice – on my own without reception. I’ve run my own practice within a GP practice. I’ve even rented a room within a multidisciplinary practice and I’ve also been an associate numerous times.

Sometimes things aren’t what I expected them to be. For example, many people assume running your business is fabulously liberating. But I learnt that the process can be quite lonely, especially when I started out and was building up patients. I enjoyed the GP practice but I especially love working with other osteopaths, sharing ideas and learning.I am constantly assessing and reassessing opportunities and decisions that can ultimately affect business, my own career, patients and even my lifestyle.

3)    How much I would keep learning
I knew we had to do 25 hours of CPD but I never thought I would have so much choice and have such difficulty deciding what courses to do. I personally use lots of different techniques – structural and indirect – and I think both are effective.

The fact that there’s so much information out there is a wonderful thing and it makes me wonder, what don’t I know? I enjoy learning from my peers and finding out what treatment techniques are effective perhaps more than others. Continued learning from courses, webinars, articles and studies like ORION not only benefit me as an osteopath, but it will also enhance patient care.

I’m sure there will be many more lessons to come but for now, I look forward to the ORION results and learning about the perspectives, experiences and outcomes that will help strengthen our profession.

What are some things you’ve learned on your journey as an osteopath?

Everyone gets given all kinds of advice, some wanted some not. Having just had my second baby just over 4 months ago, I would like to share some personal and professional insight into a happy healthy pregnancy. The personal advice worked for me and may not work for all….

My personal recommendations:

1)     For morning sickness – alkaline green drinks helped me in the morning, (green powder you just mix with water). I used the Melrose brand (Barley Grass) and I found when my morning sickness stopped me from getting out of bed, these helped.

2)     Exercise – I kept up my exercise right through, I jogged up until I was about 5 months pregnant – with a good belly support belt –not far (3-4km) and not fast but it felt good to keep it up. I also went to the gym with a personal trainer right up to the end and did yoga twice a week. All really helped me feel good and helped my breathing, flexibility and strength for the birth.

3)     Meditation – helped with breathing and keeping calm before the birth (and during)

4)     Calm Birth – I did Calm Birth classes with Lael Stone and Jules Brooks (see contact below). These classes were invaluable and I used what I learnt in both my first and second labours.  I loved these classes and it really worked. These classes give you the tools to prepare for a wonderful birth but like anything practise makes perfect so I did practise my breathing and listen to the meditations daily from about 27 weeks. Even if you end up with a caesarian, the breathing will still help with a beautiful birth.

5)     Staying well hydrated.

Top 5 osteopathic tips for pregnancy:

1)     Exercise – walking, yoga, pilates, gym with a trainer is recommended unless you are well versed in exercises during pregnancy. Ideally you would be doing these before falling pregnant but if not just make sure your teacher / trainer is experienced with pregnant clients.

2)     Get some appropriate exercises off your osteopath or other practitioner to do on a daily basis just to keep your body strong and flexible – 5-10 minutes a day.

3)     Get regular osteopathic treatment during pregnancy, if you have no aches or pains you can even book monthly to start off with and then can increase to fortnightly towards the end of the third trimester.  This will help keep your pelvis aligned, increase your mobility in upper back which often gets very stiff and decrease tension in neck and other areas among many other things.

4)     Drink lots of water – 33ml per kg of body weight is the recommended amount normally but you need more when it is hot and if you are exercising more.

5)     Eat well – if you need advice please get help from your GP or naturopath. Lots of fruit and vegetables and good grains – because we all know there will be a bit of chocolate here and there (in moderation totally fine!!)

My contacts:

Yoga: yoga school of india www.yogaschoolofindia.com.au

Personal training: www.trewhealth.com.au

Green drinks: http://www.melrosehealth.com.au/health_products/General_Wellbeing/Barley-Grass.aspx

Calm Birth: www.aboutbirth.com.au

 Women’s running shoe by Vivobarefoot

How I was soled!

I was certainly interested in barefoot shoes. I had at this point been to the ‘great footwear running debate’ – where barefoot running shoes were certainly favoured over ‘big soled shoes’ for performance by the presenters and I had purchased my first pair of New Balance ‘vibram’ soled running shoes which I was transitioning to very slowly, but these vivobarefoots are even more barefoot than those.

Intentions.

The idea behind the barefoot shoes is to increase proprioception – or to increase awareness of our body in our environment which is involved in balance and movement.  By being able to feel the ground under our feet, neural feedback from our feet to our brains is increased and therefore our proprioception is increased. Among other things this helps to improve our posture and decrease injury.

When do I wear these?

So as everyday shoes these are great, I can feel the ground under my feet. You may be thinking that this sounds uncomfortable but seriously, it feels as if it should be this way! It is like being barefoot but having a puncture resistant sole in place to avoid injury. I was Ireland last year with my husband and son and we went into a Cathedral and it was like having a 4D experience, we could both feel the mosaic tiles under our feet which was seriously amazing.

Distance running.

As running shoes… well I would recommend getting appropriate advice from either where you purchase the shoes or better still Soled in Hampton are involved in running clinics to help with your new barefoot running technique. The technique is totally different to running in ‘big soled’ shoes. In big cushioned shoes we tend to heel strike because we can – due to the substantial cushioning. It could be very painful to heel strike in barefoot shoes, in your running style, like heel striking in barefoot, we just wouldn’t do it. Running barefoot should be fluid and we should forefoot strike. As most of us have spent our whole lives heel striking when we jog we need to take lots of time to transition to avoid pain. I ran 2km first up and had pain for 3 days afterwards because my calves were so tight. It took me about 6 months to comfortably run my usual 5km mixed-surface track in the barefoot footwear but I must say I haven’t put my asics back on since I started, these shoes just feel right.

 Men’s running shoe by Vivobarefoot

Kids are most pre-qualified to wear these thin soles!

Barefoot shoes are fantastic for kids, they love being barefoot and these shoes allow them to feel the ground, and develop good proprioception. A great deal of kids’ shoes have thick rigid soles which don’t allow for optimal movement and prevents the muscles from developing in the best way possible.

Vivobarefoot shoes are available from Soled in Hampton, Suey and Gary have a great team who are very knowledgeable in barefoot shoes.

www.soledshoes.com.au

If you would like more information on barefoot running jump onto this website: www.vivobarefoot.com

If you are unsure just try a pair of casual shoes to start, you won’t look back!

Also check out Soled FB Page at https://www.facebook.com/this.is.soled.shoes?fref=ts