Whenever the hands are used for examination and treatment, one can speak of manual treatment – this term is not reserved for only one particular form of therapy, nor does it say anything about the training of the practitioner. Manual medicine, on the other hand, is a form of treatment reserved for physicians who have completed a specific additional training. In the German-speaking world, manual medicine is also called chirotherapy – so manual medicine and chirotherapy are the same thing.
What is behind the different terms?
So while chiropractic is practiced by physicians, alternative practitioners, as well as other non-physicians with additional training in manual handgrip techniques, may call themselves chiropractors, they practice chiropractic (or chiropractic).
A further development of chiropractic is kinesiology with its many sub-forms (e.g. Touch for Health, Applied Kinesiology, Brain-Gym, Psychokinesiology). Some forms are practiced by trained physicians, chiropractors and physiotherapists, others by health-conscious lay people.
Manual therapy, on the other hand, is the term used to describe various forms of treatment, including both certain manual medicine treatments delegated by medical chiropractors to specially trained physiotherapists (physiotherapists) and various manual treatments that have nothing to do with chiropractic, but in which the hands are used therapeutically – so when using this formulation, one should question exactly what it means.
On the one hand, various physiotherapy techniques belong to manual therapy, among others the techniques according to Brügger, Brunkow, Cyriax, Janda, Maitland and McKenzie. On the other hand, another very common manual therapy method is osteopathy with its subtypes parietal osteopathy, visceral osteopathy and craniosacral osteopathy (craniosacral therapy).
Osteopathy recognized as a form of medicine in America
While osteopathy is recognized as a form of medicine in America – meaning that some universities teach medicine according to osteopathic ideas – in Great Britain there is a separate profession alongside physicians, chiropractors and physiotherapists. In Germany, neither the training nor the practice of osteopathy is uniformly regulated, so that in individual cases one should inform oneself exactly about the training of one’s therapist.
In addition, there are various, more regional forms of manual treatment. In Germany, for example, the Dorn therapy or the manual neurotherapy belongs to it, from Australia comes the Bowtech, from America the Rolfing. They are not so widespread, the training is carried out by various providers, a special previous training is usually not necessary.
