08/03/2026
Here in Vietnam 🇻🇳, I often get to treat patients who do not know anything about osteopathy. It was the same in Ireland 🇮🇪, and in Malaysia 🇲🇾, and I am pretty sure that's also the same in many different countries around the world, including India 🇮🇳.
If osteopathy is very common in France 🇫🇷, in the rest of the world people are usually much more familiar with chiropractic and its full cracking approach (and often a high number of treatments). The approach is so different from osteopathy that people can be very surprised by the way I work.
Hence, I always start my sessions by explaining a few things. First of all, I tell my patient that no matter what I do, it shouldn't be painful. I then explain the sort of techniques I will be using during the session.
I usually say that as an osteopath, I am likely to use 3 sorts of techniques:
- cracking techniques
- mobilisation
- soft touch 💆🏻
Cracking techniques and mobilisations are very easy for patients to understand as they are quite demonstrative. But soft touch, that's a whole different story as it feels like not much is being done.
So why use soft touch?
Because a slow, gentle, non invasive touch is often an amazing way to help a being feel safe. Not always, but often. And if you feel safe, you are likely to decrease or give up on some of the mechanisms you implemented to protect yourself, which we call pain and tension.
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I am Jules Rampal, a French-trained osteopath currently working in HCMC, Vietnam. I treat babies and adults. Osteopathy can help with a wide variety of ailments. Do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.