"Humility is nothing but truth, and pride is nothing but lying."
​St Vincent de Paul

Osteopathic Medicine is all about being humbled in the face of an infinitely complex, incomprehensible and miraculous natural world. Each individual human body (which is also part of nature) is a finely balanced homeostatic organism, where all individual parts function together to sustain a self-healing whole. In addition, each person is completely unique: having a multitude of intergenerational and personal traits, traumatic memories/events, challenges of daily living/relationships, coping strategies & compensations, and most importantly: the untouched original vitality of Nature (The Health) deep within - the same source of vitality and potential that resides within us all. With sensitivity and patience, a practitioner can be guided by this Health.

An Osteopath is trained to listen with their hands, interpret and be guided by the unique stories and Health contained within each individual's body. An accurate diagnosis will be determined by how quiet and receptive a practitioner can be, and the inner library of past experience they can reference. The long-term effectiveness of treatment will be influenced by a person's openness, and therefore the Health's ability to move unimpeded through the practitioner and patient's mind and body. As the Health within reveals itself, layers will come to the surface to be released. In this regard, each patient plays a important role in their own healing. The keys to helping one's own treatment are humility, the capacity for surrender, and being open to the unexpected.

"It is under the greatest adversity that there exists the greatest potential for doing good, both for oneself and others."
​Dalai Lama

Health (or Nature within us) is universal - it exists within every individual, and within every part of the universe around us - all parts inseparable (like drops within the same ocean).   It is only the human ego, that experiences itself as being seperate from others and disconnected/unaware of something more significant than itself.  

It is the ego that generates inner tension and resistance, because it fears the unknowable nature of change.  This is the same dilemma faced by every human being from the age of 2 years onwards - when the concept of "I" and "me" surfaced for the first time - and where the need to be right (and in control) became more important than knowledge of Nature (The Health) within us.

During times of pain and suffering, it is easy to become solely focussed upon oneself - but the willingness to step beyond one's own skin, provides the opportunity for Nature to flow through us - allowing tension and resistance to ease away.  The willingness to let go and surrender, offers any health practitioner a better chance of helping you heal from within.

The Healing Paradox

When focussing upon yourself (or what someone else can offer you), your body has fewer inner resources available for healing.  This can pose a challenge for any practitioner seeking to address the cause of physical or emotional pain.  It doesn't take much of a shift in perspective however, to make a very significant difference. 

"When you bare your innermost troubled heart and mind to a love beyond what you can grasp or understand, that is surrender."
Adyashanti

"It is the objective of the doctor to find health, anyone can find disease."
~ Dr Andrew Still (Founder of Osteopathy 1876)

If you require advice beyond what you have read above, please feel free to get in touch.  If after reading, you feel more confused than when you started - it is best that you find a practitioner who focuses on symptomatic treatment.

Online bookings

For newborns, babies and very young children: if possible please bring yourself, your baby/child and a helper (grandma, husband or friend) along to your appointment also. It is quite common that mum also needs treatment - and the ability for you to rest and truly relax is an essential pre-requisite.

VIDEO

* Principles of Biodynamic Osteopathy, as taught by Dr James Jealous DO (USA)
Osteopathic Physician and Obstetrician

David Bennett
BAppSc (ClinSc), BOstSc
Registered Osteopath

David Bennett has 22 years clinical experience as an Australian qualified and registered Osteopath. He arrived in Perth at the age of 3, and has called the West Coast home ever since.

David has studied 2 years of Architecture and an Economics degree here in Perth. After being treated and inspired by a Cranial Osteopath, he completed the 5 years of Osteopathy in Melbourne, post graduate training in New Zealand, and has pursued ongoing international training in the US.

David has a natural affinity for both bio-mechanics and spirituality, and combines both ends of this spectrum during his treatments. Osteopathy has a vast array of treatment approaches, and is a profession that very easily accommodates every type of practitioner and patient.

Outside of Osteopathy, David has a natural affinity for animals and an interest in family, nature walks, gardening, fishing and therapeutic product design.



"It is my wish that one day, an understanding of pregnancy,
childbirth and early life will form the basis of preventative healthcare."

Treatment methods

I will always assume that gentle is best. Where possible, treatment will be a soft touch method with no manipulation or physical force being required. Such treatment is guided by a patient's own self-healing potential within, and assists in restorIng inner awareness and an integrated self-healing capacity.

When appropriate for adults, I will use a long-axis decompression method of treatment (given that gravity is the common challenge that we all face); plus a variety of others (including spinal manipulation, muscle energy technique, impulse release and myofascial release). A decompression method of treatment increases the long-axis vertical height within the body, so allowing for an untwisting and unraveling within.

Osteopathic Medicine assists in revealing Health already present within.


In 1876 Kirksville Missouri USA, the name "Osteopathy" was chosen to describe a new medical profession which was to have a special aptitude for "bone-feeling" - or using the hands to understand the relationship between all bones of the body, and everything else that is attached to (and influenced by) them.

The Greek root word "Osteo" refers to "bone", and "path" refers to either "feeling" (as in em-pathy) or "disease" (as is Allo-pathy, the name given to modern medicine) . Osteopathy has little to do with naming bone diseases, and everything to do with feeling for Nature's inner expression of Health.

Osteopathic Medicine involves feeling for restrictions within the deeper tissues and organs of a body - and gently manipulating these structures towards normal function. By returning them to a state of integrated structure and function, an Osteopath reveals the body's natural self-healing and self-regulating capacity. The final health outcome is a restoration of normal osseous (bone), articulatory (joint), ligamentous, muscular, fascial (connective tissue), visceral (organ), neurological, arterial, venous, lymphatic, immunological and cerebrospinal functions - the basic essentials of life.

Osteopathy is a receptive and holistic manual medical system, which considers that each individual has the structural and functional characteristics of body, soul and spirit. Each of these elements are inter-related and inseparable from one another, and so fall within the scope of Osteopathic practice.

PRESENTATIONS OF CLINICAL INTEREST

Preparation for, and during pregnancy.
Optimal function after birth.
Functional development for babies.
Preventative Healthcare for all ages.
Acute and chronic trauma.
For general well-being.

David Bennett has been a registered and practicing Osteopath for the past 21 years. He has a special interest in an approach of treatment that cooperates with the body's own self-healing mechanism. He has undertaken extensive international post-graduate training, and brings this wealth of experience back to Perth, Western Australia.

Member of Osteopathy Australia
Registered with Australian Health Practitioner Regulatory Agency (AHPRA)

~ 3 minute water meditation ~
Dunsborough clinic fish pond