By Ed & Lucy Paget, the founders of The English Osteopaths
Our story begins at the British School of Osteopathy in London. It’s where Lucy and Ed met and studied for four years, both of us coming to osteopathy after previous degrees: Lucy received a degree in cultural studies from McGill university and Ed had a degree in sports science from Exeter University. From there, after a bit of searching, Lucy took a leap into teaching yoga, which led her to osteopathy. Ed used his degree to work with sports teams and then, through personal experience getting help with a knee injury, he too discovered osteopathy.
After graduating with our osteopathy degrees, we stayed on in London and began practicing there. Although London was fun, and on Ed’s motorbike we could explore just about anywhere, after a time we felt it was just too hectic for us. and we also began to be disillusioned with the way osteopathy was being practiced. It felt as though many of the osteopaths we knew had stopped treating holistically because in the UK people know osteopathy only as something to use when you have a bad back. We were and are passionate about the holistic nature of osteopathy. We didn’t want to be pigeon-holed into treating only one condition.
We began to look around for other possibilities. Lucy had a Canadian passport tucked away from her time as a teenager living in Calgary, so after only a short time practicing osteopathy in London, we decided to embrace our pioneering spirits and move to Calgary.
That was in 2007. Our original plan was to see what we could create in a year: if nothing much came of the experiment, we would at the very least have had an adventure and could return to England to settle there. Within just a short time, however, our practice was full and we’ve stayed on. What started as a temporary adventure has become our lives.
The English Osteopaths has grown from its beginnings with just the two of us to having a full team of osteopaths and a team of reception staff. And somewhere along the way, we found the time to get married and have a baby too!
In the time we’ve been here, we’ve heard many stories from people who are in pain about what they’ve done to help themselves. Over and over we’ve listened to their frustrations and have found that there were two common themes:
- People were not having the root causes of their problems addressed or explained.
- People were not being given functional exercises to do at home to maintain the benefits of the treatment.
We realised we needed to show our clients WHY their bodies had gotten into trouble so that they could understand the root cause of their illness or injury. We love showing people how interconnected the body is. We love it when people say “WOW, I’ve never seen it like that before!” It is very gratifying when people understand – and feel – how a tight hip has caused a shoulder injury or how relaxed their jaw feels after we’ve worked on their shoulders. That kind of ah-ha moment is empowering for patients because understanding why something has happened means they can do something about it.
These experiences with what our patients missed elsewhere and what they appreciated from us has informed our practice. Our mission is to deliver health and to educate people about just how amazing their bodies are.
As our clinic has grown we’ve worked to keep our standards high by hiring great people and continuing our professional education and training as a team. We have two different kinds of weekly team meetings. One meeting we call “anatomy time.” During this time, we refresh our knowledge of the anatomy of different areas of the body, which helps us be accurate in diagnosis and treatment. During the second kind of weekly meeting, we share our diverse education with each other or get other specialists in to teach us a particular skill or perspective.
We also have high environmental standards for our clinic because we feel that a place of healing should be healthy to walk into. It’s our continued commitment to demonstrate our respect for our clients and the land and air around us by creating a healthy environment. We want our clinic’s ambience to be one of health, community and learning. We’ve worked with eco-designers and specialists in interior design to use paints that don’t put any fumes into our air. We serve delicious organic teas with health-giving benefits. We offer products that support healthy lifestyles beyond our clinic doors.
We’ve been lucky enough to have the support of some great business mentors. They have helped us grow in a way that enables us to stay true to our purpose: to facilitate health and healing in every way possible and to help our clients understand the interconnected nature of the body through treatment that addresses not only the places that hurt but the places that have contributed to the problem.
We hope that we can help you reconnect with your health,
Ed & Lucy
The English Osteopaths believe that if you give yourself the right environment in which to thrive, you will. Make an appointment to see us, and we’ll help you find that environment.
