I know what it feels like when your body stops being something you can rely on.
I didn’t come to osteopathy through a straightforward career path. I came through a series of moments that kept pointing me in the same direction until I finally stopped arguing with them.
I spent over a decade in IT. Senior software support, consulting, the whole thing. I was good at it. But there was a voice in my head the entire time telling me this wasn’t where I was supposed to be. I kept ignoring it — because ignoring it was easier, and because I didn’t yet know what the alternative was.
Then, in the space of a few years, everything converged. My cousin took her own life in 2018. She was young, and from the outside she seemed to be doing everything right. Watching that happen — watching someone feel so trapped by their circumstances that they couldn’t see a way out — changed something fundamental in me. I had the ability to change my circumstances. I decided I had no excuse not to.
Around the same time, I ruptured both my MCL and PCL. For someone who’d built a significant part of their identity around being active — training, competing in jujitsu, being the person who could do anything physically — losing that was a particular kind of devastation. It didn’t just hurt. It stripped something away. I had to rebuild from the bottom up, and that process taught me more about what the body is capable of than anything I’d studied since.
Then COVID hit, and I lost the IT job. At the time it felt like another blow. Looking back, it removed the last reason I had to stay somewhere I didn’t belong.
The Real Starting Point
Where This Actually Started
The real starting point is earlier than all of that — back to being fifteen, sitting alone in my room, not talking to anyone, convinced there wasn’t much point in any of it. I was at a genuinely dark place. And the thing that pulled me out of it wasn’t a therapist or a programme or someone showing me the way. It was deciding to take control of the one thing I could actually control, which was my own body. I started going to the gym. Things started to shift. I got a job. I made friends. I came out of my shell. The physical change created a cascade into everything else — confidence, connection, direction, purpose.
That experience is why I believe so deeply in what I do now. Not because I read it in a textbook, but because I lived it. I know what it feels like to be completely stuck, to not believe you’re capable of more, and then to discover that you were wrong about yourself the whole time. That knowledge sits underneath every single session I do.
The Discipline
Why Osteopathy, Specifically
I became a personal trainer first. Four years working in gyms in Mayfair and Canary Wharf, coaching people one-to-one, and I loved it — specifically the coaching part, the talking, the watching someone understand something about their body they hadn’t understood before. When I found osteopathy, I recognised immediately that it was the same thing at a deeper level. The treatment is the vehicle. The coaching is the point.
What drew me to osteopathy over other disciplines was the holism of it. The body as an integrated whole, not a collection of parts to be treated in isolation. That framework made intuitive sense to me from the beginning because it matched what I’d already observed — that when one thing changes, everything changes. That cascade effect, in both directions.
I’ve also watched people I love lose their health. My parents had everything — health, security, stability — and then they didn’t. My brother passed away three years ago from brain cancer. He was young. These things don’t leave you. What they do is make you very clear on what matters and why. I don’t take lightly what it means when someone trusts me with their body. That’s not a figure of speech.
For You
What to Expect from Your Waterloo Osteopath
As a registered osteopath in Waterloo, London SE1, I talk a lot in sessions. That’s intentional. Understanding what’s happening in your body isn’t a bonus on top of the treatment — it’s part of the treatment. The person who understands why their lower back keeps overloading is in a completely different position to the person who just gets worked on and sent home.
My goal is never that you need to keep coming back indefinitely. My goal is that you understand your body well enough to keep it working. And if at any point I think someone else can help you better than I can, I’ll tell you that honestly and point you towards them. I won’t leave you without an answer. That’s a promise I make to every single person who comes through the door.
I reinvest constantly in my own knowledge because my clients deserve someone who’s always getting better at this. Not someone who qualified ten years ago and has been doing the same thing ever since. You can read more about how sessions at this Waterloo osteopath practice work, or get in touch directly.
If any of what you’ve just read resonates — if you’ve been stuck, been through the system, been told nothing is wrong but know something isn’t right — then I’d genuinely like to talk.
Meet The Team
The people behind the practice
Shaun specialises in chronic and persistent pain, musculoskeletal conditions, and the kind of postural and occupational strain that builds up quietly over years of desk work. He’s currently completing his integrated master’s degree in osteopathy, which means his hands-on work is underpinned by a deep, evidence-based understanding of how pain develops and persists. He explains what’s happening in your body as he works, focuses on practical strategies you can use between sessions, and sets realistic goals that are actually about getting you back to the things that matter to you.
Emma came to sports massage via three years as a paramedic with the London Ambulance Service — which means her understanding of anatomy, injury assessment, and how bodies respond under stress runs considerably deeper than most. She holds a Level 3 Sports Massage qualification alongside certifications in kinesiology taping and cupping therapy, and is currently training as an osteopath. She’s particularly good with injury recovery and performance, and brings the same forensic attention to your body’s needs that you’d want from someone who spent years making quick, accurate calls under pressure.
Or email: bow@londonosteopath.com · 91 Westminster Bridge Road, SE1 7HW · Near Lambeth North & Waterloo Station