How to find a good osteopath in Versailles - Yvelines ?
"I'm looking for a good osteopath in Versailles - do you know one? "
I am often asked about the criteria for finding a good osteopath.
Indeed, there are many osteopaths on the market and it is not always easy to make a choice. Here are some thoughts that will help you choose your osteopath and especially avoid those who discredit the profession.
The training of a good osteopath:
Until 2014, there were more osteopathic schools in France than in the whole world combined. I am sure that the French people have very quickly understood the importance of consulting an osteopath from time to time and that this explains the increased demand for osteopathic consultation. But in reality, it is simply that to become an osteopath you have to study in a private school which costs between 7000 and 10 000 euros per year. So, many people jumped on the opportunity and set up their own osteopathy school with bigger and bigger classes, and nobody was there to stop them...
And yes, there is no order for osteopaths, only a very high number of unions.
And in these schools, there were some that graduated their students in 3 years and others in five years. This is all over since 2014, the state has issued a decree to regulate osteopathy schools and many have lost their accreditation. The big sorting has been done but unfortunately the trainings are still very disparate: some schools are recognized RNCP1 (National Directory of Professional Certification at level 1) which corresponds to the highest level in the field and is equivalent to a master 2 level (Bac +5). After all, you will tell me that it is normal to need 5 years of study to become an osteopath! But in reality only 9 schools out of the 36 currently approved have this qualification, the others are recognized as being bac + 3 while they do 5 years of studies. The studies are not considered complete enough... Except that the osteopaths who come out of these schools have the same status as those who come out of RNCP1 recognized schools: they are all osteopaths registered at the Agence Régionale de Santé and have an Adeli number. So unless you find out which school your osteopath attended, it is not obvious...
Having many patients helps to become a good osteopath:
The other problem is that far too many osteopaths have graduated from schools and the market has become saturated. According to the UFOF, the average salary of an osteopath who graduated less than 5 years ago in 2017 was 642 euros! Besides the financial aspect, the real problem of this situation is that these osteopaths do not practice and thus even a good osteopath who comes out of a good school can become bad by not practicing.
I remember one year after my graduation, I found myself at the end of year gala of my school, I had had the chance during that year to work a lot in the Baronnet-Caillon practice in Blois. At this event, over a glass of champagne, I was told: "Well, Marie, it seems that things are going well for you, how many patients do you have per week?" I remember answering that I was very lucky to have found a job two days after my graduation and that I was working between 50 and 60 patients per week. At this point, a friend of mine spit out his cup and informed me that since graduating (a year ago), he hadn't even had 50 patients.... I felt sorry for him because when you have 50 patients a year or 50 patients a week, the difference in level and skill is considerable and that's only in one year.
A good osteopath must continue to train:
We learn all our life ! This is a certainty in all professions but particularly in the osteopathic profession. An osteopath becomes good at practicing on patients, and so he trains himself throughout his career. To gain time and become a better osteopath, he must continue to follow trainings. Indeed, learning from people who have specialized in a field, who have developed methods that work and who have done the necessary studies, saves you an incredible amount of time and what would have taken you years to reach their conclusions only takes you a few weekends of seminars. It is therefore essential to be a good osteopath to train continuously.
The only problem is that for young osteopaths who only earn 642 euros per month, paying for training remains very complicated and this despite the financial assistance of the FIFPL (Fond d'Investissement à la Formation des Professions Libérales).
The practice of a good osteopath:
There are many discussions on this subject: "my osteo doesn't make me crack", "my osteo hardly touched me", etc.
Although "you can't measure the efficiency of a technique by its number of decibels", I think that a good osteopath must master the different techniques and osteopathic approaches. An osteopath is a bit like a craftsman of the human body and every craftsman needs a toolbox to work with. To remove certain techniques is to deprive oneself of many tools.
I think that a good osteopath must practice on a patient with structural, myotensive, fasciae, visceral, cranial, functional techniques, etc. The practitioner will use these different approaches according to the contraindications, what seems to him the most adapted for the patient at the moment.
The modalities of a consultation with a good osteopath :
Length of consultation with a good osteopath:
An osteopathic consultation lasts on average 30 to 45 minutes to allow your osteopath to do a complete interrogation, precise tests and an adapted treatment. Below this time, it is complicated for a practitioner to perform a quality consultation.
However, too long a consultation and more precisely too much manipulation time is not ideal either because it is important not to overdo it to avoid the patient "decompensating" and taking a week to recover from the consultation. A good osteopath must choose the zones to be treated with precise and adapted techniques and not treat blindly everything that causes problems in the body and thus leave the body its capacity to regulate itself; it is homeostasis! Still, founder of osteopathy, said "the less is more" which could be translated by "the less is more".
Dress code in osteopathy:
I think it is preferable that the patient be in underwear (or soft shorts) because this greatly facilitates the manipulations but especially because it allows us to observe the skin problems and orientate accordingly. Nowadays, doctors are overwhelmed and rarely take the time to undress their patients. A good osteopath then has a role of reorientation in case of suspicious aspect of a mole, varicose veins, redness, etc. Even if an osteopath's palpation is very fine, it is a shame to be deprived of a visual tool such as this one. Many osteopaths do not undress their patients often to save time, I find this really less practical but I do not criticize in any way the quality of their techniques.
Marie Messager
Osteopath in Versailles Chantiers
78 - Yvelines
