What's Right With Osteopathy?
This article is best read having first digested the arguments made in ‘What’s Wrong With Osteopathy?’ by the same authors. [1]
In recent months much discussion has been had regarding the direction of the osteopathic profession and the challenges facing it. Reflection and reflective practice is integral within healthcare, however, it can be an uncomfortable and disorienting experience when we examine, interrogate and perhaps disband with long held ideas, beliefs and practices; this is even more difficult when these are tied to our sense of professional self, purpose and identity. We have been highly critical of osteopathy in the form of a commentary paper ‘What's wrong with osteopathy?’ (WWWO) [1], and since this we have pointed out other threats to osteopathy’s progress including the misuse of anatomical knowledge (aka ‘anatomical possibilism’) [2] and the threat of pseudoscience [3]. As such, while we may be seen as ‘critics’ or even ‘agitators’ of osteopathy, we do believe there are some things which may be seen as ‘right’ with osteopathy or at least have the potential to contribute positively to the healthcare services of the UK. It is apparent that many of the challenges we highlighted within osteopathy may also be apparent in other similar professions such as physiotherapy [4] and chiropractic [5] and we applaud recent and ongoing efforts to imagine practice otherwise.
Since the publication of WWWO in the spring of 2023, we have waited for a strong antithetical narrative regarding our critical stance, and while we received plenty of derision and personal attacks (along with lots of positive support too) no such response has been forthcoming; so we thought we better just write it ourselves. We are acutely aware that the views expressed here will not align with those held by all osteopaths and some will strongly reject our suggestions for the future. However, we hope this article will be received in the spirit that it is intended - as practising osteopaths, educators, and researchers we have an interest in the future of osteopathy and we wish to see it not merely survive but thrive. In our paper WWWO [1] we articulated five areas which we felt were deficient in osteopathy and as a follow up we have highlighted five areas which we consider are strengths (or at least potential strengths given some work) of osteopathy. A quick disclaimer; by outlining some strengths of osteopathy we are not claiming these are core features of osteopathic practice/identity or that they are strengths in relation to other healthcare professions (HCPs) - they are just things that osteopathy seems to be doing well and perhaps offer a basis from which to progress, build and integrate osteopathic care. Finally, this article mainly relates to osteopathy in the UK, but some aspects will likely relate to osteopathic practice in other jurisdictions.