How To Become An Osteopath



Posted: Thursday, April 21, 2011

by Ellie Garwood

Osteopathy, despite having been around since the late 1800s, has really taken off in the UK, and across Europe, the States and Australasia, in the last couple of decades. If you’ve have any pain, or ailments, especially perhaps if you’ve had neck or back pain, you might well have been to visit the osteopath. So how hard is it to become an osteopath? And what qualifications/experience do you need in order to be able to undertake the training?

The UK has a range of schools for those wanting to train as an osteopath, and courses run on both a full-time and part-time basis, so you can choose the course that fits your circumstances. If studying an osteopathy degree full time, the course will last four years, part-time it will take five-six years. Quite amazingly there is a school in the UK, The British School of Osteopathy, which has been open and teaching students, since 1917.

Students of osteopathy study a whole range of topics including anatomy (structural make up of organisms), physiology (functions of organisms) and pathology (nature of disease and its causes). In addition to this students will spend a large amount of time learning practical skills, such as manual techniques and clinical diagnostic testing.

In regards to qualifications needed to study osteopathy, the usual grades needed include 5 GCSEs at grades A–C including mathematics and English language, 3 A’ levels of which biology and one other science (including subjects such as PE or sports studies) is required. It is worth bearing in mind, however, that depending on where you go to study the requirements are likely to change, although the above is normally industry standard. There is no expectation that students should already have a degree, although the number of students over 25 is high, and in many cases mature students do already possess high level qualifications.

In addition to this AVCE, BTEC National Diplomas, VCEs, Access Certificates, Scottish Highers, Irish Leaving Certificates (higher level), International Baccalaureates and a large number of other equivalent qualifications are accepted.

Once qualified students will have the opportunity to open their own practices or work for a larger organisation, depending on the types of lifestyle/career they want to pursue. The majority of osteopaths are self-employed but with the growing nature of the industry, the opportunity to work for leisure centres, therapy centres and even the NHS are now becoming more common. The average income of an osteopath is hard to state as there is not necessarily a typical working pattern/hours. Depending on where you practice, as well as the qualifications you have (graduates can go on to gain professional development qualifications) and experience of a practitioner, osteopaths can go on to charge anything from £15 to £25, and even up to £40 or £50 an hour.
Ellie Garwood is a freelance writer interested in a host of topics. For a host of complementary medicine, and physical therapy related anatomy books she recommends the range available at Lotus Publishing.
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