Osteopathy was founded in America in 1874 by Dr Andrew Taylor Still, a frontier doctor. Medicine was very much in its infancy, drugs were ineffective and if you were lucky enough to survive surgery without anaesthetic then you often died of an infection. As time went on Dr Still followed a different path from many of his peers avoiding alcohol and administering crude drugs. This drove him to seek new methods of treatment. The outcome of his research was application of physical treatment as a specialised form of treatment for which he coined the term ‘Osteopathy’. In 1892 Dr Still organised a school in Missouri, for the teaching of osteopathy and it was from these small beginnings that osteopathy was brought to the United Kingdom. The first school of osteopathy was set up in London in 1917, the British School of Osteopathy, and this is where I completed my training. In 1998 every osteopath who wished to be known as an osteopath had to join the statutory register. The register was established by the General Osteopathic Council to maintain standards in the profession, and therefore increase public safety.
