Paul Manley Back Pain and RSI Clinic

I was born in London in 1953 and have lived there for most of my life apart from a few years in the USA in the late 60’s where my father practised as an Osteopath in Los Angeles. I first lived for two months in the then segregated Davenport, Iowa, then in Mexican dominated Downtown Los Angeles for 18 months then in white wealthy Beverly hills for the remainder. Thus, I lived in a wide variety of cultures and sub-cultures and had to try to fit in with all of them, the last being the easiest. When I was seventeen we returned to England to avoid the possibility of me being drafted to go to the Vietnam war.

The first time saw a full skeleton was when I was 3 years old. My Father was studying Naturopathy and Osteopathy in London. He practised his techniques on me throughout my childhood and into my adulthood. He would take me around to various practitioners in order to learn their techniques and perspectives in England and especially when I was a teenager in the USA. From these people not only did Dad learned a great deal but I also got an education. He once took me to a 92 year old Osteopath called Pearl Rittenhouse who had a grip like a lobster, incisive and precise. The most irritating one was a Chiropractor in Pasadena who insisted on testing pain points by poking my spine with a ball point pen and asking which point hurt the most! ALL of them was the answer but I bluffed in the knowledge that the sooner we were out of there the sooner Dad would buy me my reward root beer afterwards.

Upon my return to England in 1970 I was now a true misfit. Imbued with the transcendent culture of the late 60’s I sought like minds but found few if any. Surrounded by skinheads and football fanatics I did my best to fit in. I longed through many recurrent dreams to find my California again. I was dissolute and started doing jobs after school and weekends determined to raise enough cash to at least visit my lost home. So I mopped floors in a Kilburn supermarket, washed dishes, working in a lab at Northwick Park Hospital and turned 17, 18 and 19.

I did return twice and also did a round Britain tour in a rusty 1958 Morris Post Office van that I had turned into a camper van.

I met my Wife to be when I was 19 (1974) and we have been together ever since, she is a very famous textile artist and is thoroughly Portuguese.

We were married and I began to realise that after 3 months of working at Heinz factory would be a lifetime of tedium, okay for a few weeks but not sufficient for the brain that I was about to take charge of.
So in an unusual move for me (stubborn) I asked my Dad for advice. He simply replied “Why don’t you do what I do?”. I thought about it for a few moments and agreed. My interests apart from ignoring school were in the neurophysiology of perception. So given that I would be studying the Central Nervous System on my course I was enthused enough to proceed with Dads suggestion. Thereupon I enrolled in a Diploma course at the London College of Naturopathy and Osteopathy who let me in with open arms. However, I was not yet mature enough to succeed there. They had recently suffered a revolt and half the tutors and a lot of the 3rd and 4th year students had left in order to establish a more technique and skills based course at the European School of Osteopathy in Maidstone (ESO). I had decided that I was not ready educationally to jump in at the deep end again and so enrolled in further education. My grades were high enough to be acceptable to the ESO and thus I began a new start with a brain that now had an intense curiosity and thirst for knowledge.

I graduated from the ESO in 1980 following the completion of a four year full-time course. The four years full time course covered the complete anatomy of everything human, Neurology, Pathology, Orthopedics, General medicine, Radiology, Differential diagnostics and most importantly the study of Form and Function. The ‘Puppet and Strings’ as I call it. My thesis was bravely entitled ‘An Osteopathic approach to cortical pathophysiology’. During my time in practice I have treated thousands of individuals and have given over 50,000 treatments. I use a myriad of traditional techniques, strictly hands-on and work with all limbs and joints. I have developed many specialised techniques (Myo-articulation) especially for Repetitive Strain Syndromes. I also use my own ‘Structural Cranial’ techniques for relieving intracranial pressure and impacted cranial joints.

I speak adequate Portuguese, bits of French, Spanish, Italian, Turkish, Japanese and Farsi. They may be just a few words but they are the important ones.

1980: Began practice at 35a Welbeck Street, London, W1.
1981: I was Technical Advisor to the ‘Vogue book of exercise’
1981: I taught ‘The Anatomy and Physiology of movement’ for dance teachers.
1986: As a result of five years of research into the hydrodynamics of intracranial physiology, I had an article published in the Journal of Alternative Medicine This was based on research into breathing patterns and their effects on intracranial pressure patterns.
1993-1995: Another article: Cranial osteopathy and the Pediatric Craniopathies was published by Bastyr University, Journal of Naturopathic Medicine ( Oregon ), and The New Zealand Journal of Osteopathy and by Temple University ( Philadelphia), Frontier Perspectives.
1989-1995: I gave seminars in New York, Philadelphia and Connecticut on 'An Osteopathic approach to intracranial physiology'. I was asked to join a clinic in Philadelphia and Danbury, Connecticut as an ‘expert’ diagnostician. These were short stints, I could not leave my London practice for too long.
2000: Around 2500 seasoned Osteopaths decided to leave the Osteopathic profession disgruntled with the new regime. Thus, I and many others joined the Association of Osteomyologists and various other organisations.
2005: I created my clinic website replete with interactive anatomy illustrations: www.paulmanley.org
2007: I was invited to give a lecture to Post-graduate Voice teachers at the Royal Academy of Music. I turned this lecture into webpages and can be viewed here: voice
2008 to present: working in full time practice in Central London.

Over time I have found myself specialising in Musicians problems, but general practice dealing with low backs, necks, shoulders and legs is my everyday love. Many musicians suffer debilitating conditions which will affect their lives as performers. As a fellow musician since I was 13 I have every sympathy for them and have taken a very special interest in Repetitive Strain Syndromes not only in musicians but also in the general public.

The correlation between what one is habitually doing with their body and the resultant pain patterns has become very clear over my years of studying and questioning patients. Many have found relief through what I deem to be simple, common sense observations. Patients will often present with fairly typical and predictable pain patterns. The noting of these patterns has inspired the creation of the ‘Pain Maps’ used in my online diagnostic projects.

If a patient comes to me who has exhausted all other avenues I will try to research their condition.
As an example a young Turkish Laboratory worker came to see me on the recommendation of her Mother who had seen me some 30 years earlier because I had researched the medications she was taking and brought about a ‘cure’ for her skin condition. Her daughter had been working in a lab in Didcot UK where she was accidentally exposed to a deadly gas. She had consulted a lot of doctors who scratched their heads in puzzlement. She was suffering from fatigue, loss of appetite, loss of co-ordination and dizziness rather like Multiple Sclerosis. I researched specifically and soon found the answer buried in the metabolic pathways of action of this toxin. I prescribed a particular amino acid and gave her some treatment to her cranium and neck and bingo! Her condition improved back to normal in around two weeks.

There are so many cases which stick in my mind. There was a young man who emailed me from Brazil. He had suffered from cerebral palsy which had contractured his limbs to the degree that it was now very difficult and painful to walk. He had been a beggar on the streets of Rio and had been befriended by a man who gave him a career in real estate. Now he was travelling to Italy to do a deal having stopped over in London to see me. I gave him the first treatment and upon his return for a second he told me with great joy that he had never walked so well in all his life. I gave him another and he messaged me from Italy some weeks later to thank me, he still felt the marked improvement. What I did with him was simple for me, obvious and very much worth it for him.

A glass of ice cold water is a miracle in the middle of the Sahara desert, the same refreshment is normal in Mac Donalds. Miracles can be little more than a rarity in an otherwise barren landscape shrouded in medical mystery.

I have treated Hollywood stars, MPs, nurses, GP’s, CEO’s, cleaners, programmers, athletes, writers, composers and of course many world famous musicians. Occasionally I have had the pleasure of helping torture victims.

More recently I have been using my programming skills to create a series of online diagnostic projects: workplacewellness.london, painmapper.co.uk. and musiciansclinic.co.uk

There are many who get benefit from what I do and the way that I do it who have also exhausted all other options. But for the many who know me, I am their first port of call, for others, a refuge in the wilderness of medical double-speak.


I am here if you need me

Paul Manley