Meet our osteopathy mum

Over the years we have developed an expert team at Purus and Sian Eaton is an integral part of this. She has worked for us for the past eight years and in that time has got married and had her first baby, Oscar, who is now two.

She now manages to juggle being one of the lead osteopaths in Covent Garden, tutoring at the British School of Osteopathy whilst looking after a husband, baby and dog. Hats off! Here she talks about how she got into osteopathy and who she would recommend it for. Sian works at the Garden Studios clinic and can be contacted on [email protected]

How did you get into osteopathy?

I first found out about osteopathy when I was 16 years old and my dad went to see an osteopath for neck and shoulder pain. I was interested and my dad asked if I could go with him to his next session, I then did a day of observation and the rest is history. It turned out that all the osteopaths at the clinic were lecturers at the British School of Osteopathy (BSO) which was where I ended up studying.

Coincidentally, the osteopath that treated my dad then ended up interviewing me and giving me a job, 15 years later, for a role at The BSO as a clinic tutor. Small world!

Who would you recommend osteopathy to?

I would recommend osteopathy to everyone….of course I would!

Modern life puts a huge strain on our bodies and for the majority of the time we get away with it, then one small thing can change and it can result in an injury that takes a long time to get over.

If you know that you take your body for granted and don’t have the time to give the attention it deserves, then seeing an osteopath can help to avoid the issues that may arise.

My top 5 types of people that take their body for granted:

Desk workers – spending 8 hours a day sitting hunched up at a desk doesn’t do you any favours. When was the last time you stretched out those poor hamstrings and hip flexors after a long day at your desk?

 

Gym users/sports people – good on you for getting away from your desk and doing something active. But can you honestly say you manage to stretch and if you do, is it effective? So many issues we see arise from muscles being in a poor condition, you might be able to dead lift 100kg but can you touch your toes?!

Parents- mostly those of under 5s. Have you ever thought about what you put your body through just getting your kids out of the house in the morning?! The lifting, the carrying, the wrestling into the carseat/ pushchair?   All of it takes its toll. And for parents of older children- do you think you have recovered from all those shoulder carries and piggy backs?

Mums to be – An expanding waist line is one thing but what about your changing posture to adapt for it, not to mention the expanding breast size too. On average pregnant women in the UK  gain approximately 30lb, that’s over 2 stone! Imagine if you carried a 30lb bag of sugar around with you all day? Back pain, shoulder pain, sore feet?

Arthritis- it is simply not true that ‘if it’s arthritis there is nothing that can be done’. No, you can’t reverse the ageing process that happens in joints to all of us at some stage of our lives but you can help to slow down the process and ease some of the pain from the muscular guarding.  A diagnosis of arthritis isn’t all doom and gloom.

Most enjoyable part of the job?

The most enjoyable part of the job is meeting all the people I do and getting to know them.

I end up learning the most interesting things from them- I didn’t realise that the Isle of Man has its own government until last week, who knew?!