I have worked in osteopathic practice in Clitheroe, Lancashire with babies and children for over thirty years. From tentative beginnings in using the involuntary mechanism and attending a course with the late Viola Fryman, and working at the Osteopathic Centre for Children in London, I began to treat children with a myriad of conditions. I have been both humbled and inspired by the way that osteopathy can make such profound changes with such a gentle approach.

There was always one overriding niggle, what made a child develop normally or not? Was it all genetic programming? Was it a hindrance in their anatomy, like a brain damage, and why did that not always correlate with what we can see on MRI imaging?

I began to explore the relationship between programmed development in a baby and child, the role of physiological functioning anatomy, and the role of the parents in correctly handling the child to optimise its development. I find that these parameters working together have spearheaded the effectiveness of my osteopathic treatment and the changes for the better that I can make.

I have had the very great privilege to teach Paediatric Osteopathy in Britain and Europe, as far afield as Russia, and have also been involved with setting up the paediatric diploma course for the Sutherland Cranial College of Osteopathy. While I continue to enjoy this, it is my clinical work with children and families that inspires and teaches me the most.