What Is McTimoney Chiropractic - McTimoney Chiropractic Facts And Information

John McTimoney (1914 - 1980) was trained by Dr Mary Walker DC a graduate of the original Palmer School of Chiropractic, and as such believed in the vitalist approach to chiropractic i.e. that the body has its own innate self-healing ability and that chiropractors are the facilitators of this healing process. He was trained too in the toggle recoil adjustment, an adjustment that relies on speed and light force, to toggle the vertebrae into the correct position, and this, together with other adjustments based on his own skills as an engineer formed the basis of his chiropractic treatment. He believed in what is now known as holism, and felt that the whole body should be assessed at every treatment, as problems in one area of the body may actually be caused in another area entirely. This whole-body approach, and use of light force adjustments, has become known as McTimoney chiropractic today.

The McTimoney approach to chiropractic is based on a whole body assessment of the individual, concentrating not only on structural misalignments and subluxations, but also on their general wellbeing and quality of life. As the body works as a whole, it seems clear that it should be treated as a whole, and whilst it is certainly true that people usually seek relief from pain, the aim of a McTimoney chiropractor is to stimulate the body's own self-healing mechanism and facilitate a return to optimum health.

The way this is achieved is through a series of fast, low-force adjustments of not only the spine, but also, unusually for most chiropractors, the sacrum, pelvis and the cranium. The arms and legs are also routinely mobilised at every treatment. This series of light re-balancing adjustments are very comfortable for the patient to receive, and mean that the approach is suitable for all age groups from the very young to the old and frail. McTimoney chiropractors will always give postural advice to help adjustments hold, and to ensure that people know how to change the things they do, in order to minimise recurrences of problems in the future. X-rays are not routinely used, and McTimoney chiropractors rely on their finely tuned sense of touch to palpate subluxations in the spine.

Following his first heart attack, John McTimoney was asked to take on students in order to ensure the survival of his work. In 1972 with the help of his family, he opened the Oxfordshire School of Chiropractic with 14 students. The School has evolved to become the McTimoney College of Chiropractic, enrolling up to 70 students per year who now graduate with a B.Sc. in Chiropractic. Students can study how to treat humans and animals, with the College now the premiere institution teaching chiropractic adjusting techniques for animals.

McTimoney taught, as DD Palmer had before him, that health depends on healthy nerve messages, that subluxations of the vertebrae or other joints interfere with these, and that such subluxations can affect not only joints and muscles, but also every cell and organ in the body. He also stressed what would one day be called holism: that human beings are not purely physical but mental, emotional and spiritual beings as well, and that treating the whole body restores health to all these aspects of the patient.