Osteopathy

Peter Reid

About Peter Reid, Osteopath
Personal Email to Peter
Peter is the owner proprietor of the Crows Nest Complementary Health Centre.

Qualifications
Peter Reid is a graduate of the International College of Osteopathy and is a member of the Australian Osteopathic Organisation. He has been a practising Osteopath since 1989, initially in a single practitioner practice in Bellevue Hill, and since 1990 at the Crows Nest Complementary Health Centre.

Osteopathy Treatment
"We treat all sorts of problems here, said Peter, but my main field of expertise is with musculo-skeletal problems - lower back pain, neck pain and headaches and migraines, shoulder and hip pain... In fact, any joint in the body that causes pain can be treated by a qualified Osteopath - right down to and including the toes." Some of Peter's patients have suffered from various forms of arthritis, and many of those have been very successfully treated. Most problems can be successfully resolved after only three of four treatments, although more severe or long standing injuries may require a more extended treatment regime.

Peter usually treats between eighty and one hundred patients a week, and is available Monday to Friday. Whilst patients can be treated 'cold,' Peter prefers them to be 'warmed-up' by one of his highly qualified masseurs, which loosen the muscles and relax the ligaments, to make adjustments easier and simpler. Initial consultation takes about an hour to seventy-five minutes, with follow-up treatments requiring about fifty to sixty minutes.

Standard treatments begin with a 25-30 minute massage, but an hour massage before manipulation is available. He uses a combination of soft tissue massage, Muscle Energy technique, and High-Velocity Low Amplitude (HVLA) thrust adjustment techniques, sometimes referred to as Impulse Adjustments. All manipulations are performed manually, without the use of spring-loaded tools, wedges, or drop-away manipulation tables. "In my opinion, the hand is still the most effective tool for performing spinal manipulation," Peter says.

Background
Peter's first experience with osteopathy was when he was dragged off - "Unwillingly!" he confesses - to see an osteopath. He had suffered a coccygeal spinal injury winning a ski jumping competition for the Perisher Cup in 1983. A legendary Naturecare masseur named Chris Catsianis - 'Chris Cats' - took him to see Daniel Albert, an osteopath, at Bondi Junction.

"I'd seen five GPs, all of whom prescribed pain killers and anti-inflammatory drugs in ever-increasing doses," reports Peter, "till I was wandering around in a haze most of the time - and still in pain. I couldn't sit down without using a blow-up circular haemorrhoid cushion. It was so embarrassing! The doctors sent me off to visit some specialists - two orthopaedic surgeons and one neurosurgeon. The last two of whom wanted to perform surgery, even though there was no clear diagnosis. I had just about given up on a solution to my pain when after eight months of nagging, Chris Cats tricked me into seeing Dan Albert. In two Osteopathic treatments, my problem was solved! I could sit down again! I had to know how he performed this miracle. Dan Albert warned me it would take me five years at college to find out."

After testing the waters by studying remedial massage at Naturecare college in St. Leonards, Sydney, Peter went on to Osteopathic college in 1984. He knew at once he had found his calling, and his enthusiasm for his work continues to this day. "I love helping people get better," Peter confessed with a grin. "I get a real kick out of taking people's pain away. And I love the look of amazement when after only one or two treatments, they can perform actions that have been beyond them for days, weeks or months - or in some cases, even years."

Health Fund Rebates for Osteopathy
All major health funds - HICAP friendly