Mctimoney  Origin and History

The founder of chiropractic was a man by the name of Daniel David Palmer in 1895. John McTimoney qualified from the Palmer College of chiropractic in 1950. He described his training as “comprehensive and severe” As an engineer John McTimoney began to look at the techniques he had been taught and started to develop his own approach and technique variations. One such adjustment known as the toggle recoil was redefined into the toggle torque recoil which consists of an extremely light and fast movement. The toggle is the thrust, the torque is the pressure applied during the thrust and the recoil is the immediate recoil of the practitioner’s hands which facilitates the patient’s natural response. Thus the adjustment is a gentle one that avoids forcing or stressing the joint or the body and it is one for which McTimoney chiropractors are well known.

In 1972 John McTimoney set up the Oxfordshire School of Chiropractic with 14 students. The school has evolved to become the McTimoney College of Chiropractic, enrolling up to 70 students each year who graduate with a BSc in chiropractic. Students can study to treat humans and also animals and the college is now a premiere institution for teaching chiropractic adjustment technique for animals.

Teatment and how it works

The McTimoney approach to chiropractic is based on a whole body assessment of the individual concentrating not only on structural misalignment and dysfunction 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 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 optimal health.

The way this is achieved is through a series of fast, low –force adjustments of not only the spine, but also the sacrum, pelvis and cranium. The arms and legs are 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 elderly and frail. McTimoney chiropractors will also give postural advice to help the adjustments hold and to ensure that people know how they need to change the things they do, in order to minimise recurrences of problems in the future.

Misalignment of the vertebrae, bones and joints can occur for many reasons such as incorrect lifting, car or sporting accidents, falls, childbirth, stress and poor posture, and these conditions will all worsen over time if not corrected.