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Osteopath
Helix House Natural Health Centre

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	Clive Osteopath
00:07	I’m Clive, and I’m an osteopath. I’ve been an osteopath for a long town. Erm, an interesting career, it’s my second career.
00:15	I started out er, not really knowing what I wanted to do at school and followed more of an arts track than the sciences. Ended up doing social science and ended up as teaching sociology. I realised I was in the wrong job, so I stopped and retrained and put myself through another 4 years of university study, er, to become an osteopath.
00:38	Every day’s different. People walk in with a variety of different problems. Sometimes people may have with chronic head pai-, headaches or neck pain, erm, sometimes we’re, we’re advising people about their lifestyle and their health and their nutrition and why they’re, er, having trouble.
00:56	You have to help people lead the healthiest life you can. Some people have trouble after a big dental extraction and they can’t understand why they’re getting pain in the jaw or face, er, and for other people, there’s one, one of my colleagues has worked a lot with chronic fatigue syndrome. Other people get very interested in, what, the way in which our diet and our lifestyle can affect our wellbeing.
01:23	The sort of person who would get on well with osteopathy is somebody who likes problem solving, is good with their hands, likes to use their brain and their hands, ‘cause we’re hands-on people. In the old days, they used to call osteopaths, er, ten-fingered, bloodless surgery, in the sense that we don’t cut people up, but we do use our hands to help people restore themselves back to normal health, get rid of pain and, and get back to good function.
01:51	If you’re interested about osteopathy then the Institute of Osteopathy has a whole lot of stuff on there, that’s our organisation, tell you all about it. So, I think one of the key things about being an osteopath, and one of the things I love about it, is that you have to be interested in people. If you are a people person, if you like people and you’re able to solve problems, osteopathy is really a great career. I’ve been doing it for 40 years and I still do it now as an older person, and I love it.
02:31	END OF TRANSCRIPTION

“If you like people and you’re able to solve problems, osteopathy is really a great career.” Clive started out as a sociology teacher before deciding to retrain. He now works as an osteopath, helping restore the normal function of patients’ joints using techniques such as stretching and massage.

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£34,840

average salary

The UK average salary is £29,813

average weekly hours

There are 37.5 hours in the average working week

10% male

90% female

The UK workforce is 47% female and 53% male

Future employment

Future employment?

Description

? Job holders in this unit group plan and apply physical and therapeutic treatments and activities to assist recovery from physical and mental illness and to minimise the effects of disabilities not elsewhere classified in MINOR GROUP 222: Therapy professionals.

Qualifications

Entrants usually possess an accredited degree or postgraduate qualification. Training can take between two to five years depending upon the chosen method of study. Courses provide a mixture of theoretical study and practical experience. Membership of professional bodies may be mandatory in some areas.

Tasks

Prescribes diet therapy and gives advice to patients, health care professionals and the public on dietetic and nutritional matters for those with special dietary requirements or to prevent illness amongst the general population;
Diagnoses and treats disorders of vision and eye movements, monitors subsequent progress and recommends further optical, pharmacological or surgical treatment as required;
Manipulates and massages patient to discover the cause of pain, relieve discomfort, restore function and mobility and to correct irregularities in body structure;
Adopts a holistic approach in assessing the overall health of the patient, and treats by inserting needles under the skin at particular locations according to the disorder being treated;
Administers aromatic herbs and oils and massage to relieve pain and restore health;
Assesses and provides treatment for people with mental disabilities, or those suffering with mental illness, stress, and emotional and relationship problems;
Diagnoses and treats behavioural problems in animals.

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