Non-invasive Path To Pain-free Lifestyle
Osteopathy is an often misunderstood form of physical therapy solely for the elderly with weak bones and those who sustained bodily injuries. But this is just a fraction of what osteopathy is all about.
Osteopathy is a drug-free, non-invasive manual therapy that aims to improve health across all body systems by manipulating and strengthening the musculoskeletal and biochemical framework. Manual medicine means that both diagnosis and treatment are carried out with the hands with a focus on the joints, muscles, other soft tissues, and skeletal system. Treatment aims to positively affect the body’s nervous, circulatory, and lymphatic systems.
Osteopathic practitioners in Singapore are typically licensed in foreign countries and may be a member of the Osteopathic Association of Singapore. Their focus is to improve people's overall health and wellness by understanding and treating the whole person, not just a condition or disease they may have.
Thomas Wynn-Jones comes from a long family line of therapists and doctors all the way back to ‘bone setters’ in the 19th century. His own journey started when a travelling companion, during a gap year, from the UK spoke candidly about osteopathy, their own training and the fulfilment they got from the career.
Perhaps inspired by his father whom he describes as “having a set of skills in his career where he could go anywhere in the world to work”, Thomas decided 20 years ago to start an osteopathic path and, nearly 14 years ago, to uproot himself from the UK and settle down in Singapore to work in the field of osteopathy.
Thomas is a dedicated practitioner who trained at the British School of Osteopathy (London) and is registered with the General Osteopathic Council (GOsc) in the UK. He is also a founding member of the American Academy of Paediatric Osteopathy and the founding chairperson/president of the Osteopathic Association of Singapore.
He founded City Osteopathy & Physiotherapy in Singapore, a holistic healthcare practise to provide care for patients of all ages, with an experienced team of more than 25 practitioners in osteopathy, physiotherapy, sports massage, lymphatic drainage therapy, with a naturopath and nutrition coach.
“Our principle is helping people live their lives pain-free… and whoever walks through the door, the multi-disciplinary clinic should be able to help patients resolve their problem, therefore, it is a holistic clinic, whether it’s physical, biochemical, biomechanical issues that come in,” he says.
Image: cityosteophysio.com
Image: cityosteopysio.com
The clinics treat classic cases such as sports injuries, pain from falling, pre- and post-surgical rehabilitation, pain in pregnancy, bay mechanical issues and can help when an old or new injury comes into play. He expounds that “it’s really about adjusting the body/soma/human mechanics to go back to it’s most normal way in order to increase blood flow to and from an area, lymphatic drainage, ultimately reduce inflammatory in those ‘problematic’ areas, and possibly releasing muscles which have become tightened due to sitting in one posture for too long”, for example.
However, treating a patient holistically goes further than that. Thomas cites pregnant patients who frequently suffer from lower back and pelvic pain, coinciding with hormonal changes that can be debilitating during pregnancy.
He points out, “looking at the human body from a muscular skeletal point of view and being aware of the biochemical side, in terms of how things are altering along a pregnancy pathway to allow for change in the body is normally your guide to understanding pain plus mechanical problems and ultimately trying to resolve them.”
Image: cityosteopysio.com
In diagnosis of conditions a matrix is used to work out what’s going on in the body, whilst trying not to miss anything salient to identifying the tissue causing symptoms, maintaining factors and any possible red flags.
He adds that “many pregnant ladies are far from home, from the support of family and friends, my goal is to put them ease by reducing their pain, having a listening ear and try to help them understand any issues or problems they may not have been able to resolve. Being a support away from home and giving them that comfort in the process is very important.”
In today’s current climate of working from home and the Zoom culture, bad ergonomics is another rising and common pain inducing situation. For example, sitting on a chair whilst favouring one buttock cheek over the other, can cause problems and pain. Thomas says, “the consultant has to be in the right mindset in the consultation room with regards to playing detective about what is causing the pain, what is maintaining it and with all that considered managing the patient and their expectations.”
He further clarifies that there are red and yellow flags to be aware of. Red flags mean that you are going to the hospital now. Yellow flags, wherein people say how unhappy they are with their jobs, their partners, pressure feeling with their kids – layers on top of a muscular skeletal injury that you have to bear in mind because it affects the whole – therefore again, holistic practitioner. “You have to keep an eye and suggest ideas such as a staycation away from the kids, meditation, which helps long term stressful moments,” especially these days he notes.
“If the need arises, and in the interest of providing the best possible care for our patients, we are only too happy to refer to other medical practitioners for diagnostic testing and surgical opinions or to other therapists within or outside our clinic. We do this with confidence, because we have the patients’ best interests at heart and want to help them find the best resolution to their problem.”
“If you can identify dysfunction, resolve it whilst explaining and educating the patient as part of the healing process… if you can do this and get results with different patients by finding out who they are, where they are from, how long they have been away from their homeland etc. You might be able to work out what is stopping them or not allowing them to get better. When you are solving the puzzles, fitting pieces together and getting results by helping patients, it is the best job in the world,” he states.
His best advice to us, “It’s never too late, getting help as soon as possible will be a quicker resolution,” with the goal to help achieve the best and longest lasting health.
Karmela | ws
City of Osteopath & Physiotherapy branches in Singapore: (CBD) 80 Robinson Road #17-03, tel +65 6222 2451 | (Bukit Timah) 1 Fifth Avenue #03-02 Guthrie House, tel +6314 4440 |(Novena) Sinaran Drive #06-15 Novena Specialist Centre, tel +65 6339 9936
