Osteopathy was founded in the USA during the late 19th century by physician Andrew Taylor Still. The profession emerged at a time when many medical treatments were limited in effect and sometimes associated with significant risks.
Still therefore developed an approach where careful clinical examination, ideas about the interaction between the body's structure and function, and the patient's overall health situation were given a central place. Manual techniques came to play an important role, but they were developed as part of a broader clinical reasoning rather than as standalone methods. According to the archives at the A.T. Still University Museum of Osteopathic Medicine, Still formulated his fundamental ideas during the 1870s, and in 1892 he founded the American School of Osteopathy in Kirksville, Missouri, the first organized training in osteopathy. The founding of the school marked the transition from an individual clinical practice to an organized profession with structured education.
Over the following decades, osteopathy spread through new training programs, professional organizations, and international contacts. An important figure in the European development was John Martin Littlejohn, who had previously studied under Still in the USA. Littlejohn emphasized education, scientific grounding, and professional organization, which came to have great significance for the continued development of osteopathy in Europe.
In 1917, Littlejohn founded the British School of Osteopathy in London, the institution that later developed into the UCO School of Osteopathy at Health Sciences University. Over time, the British development became highly significant for how osteopathy was organized and taught in Europe and Australia. An important milestone was the Osteopaths Act 1993, which established statutory regulation of the profession in the UK and gave the General Osteopathic Council responsibility for registers, educational standards, and professional regulation.
Today, osteopathy is practiced and taught in many parts of the world. According to international reports from the Osteopathic International Alliance, it is estimated that nearly 200,000 clinicians worldwide work with osteopathic care in about 46 countries. Of these, approximately 79,000 are osteopaths with specific osteopathic training, while the others are physicians with osteopathic competence, the latter being found primarily in the USA. In Europe, manual medicine osteopathy is particularly well-established, and a large proportion work in countries where the profession is state-regulated or recognized within the healthcare system.
In the Nordic region, osteopathy has developed through both national educational institutions and growing regional cooperation. A central forum for this is the Nordic Osteopathic Alliance (NOA), where osteopathic associations in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden collaborate on professional development, educational standards, and patient safety. With the exception of Sweden, all Nordic countries have already introduced national regulation of osteopathy. The Nordic cooperation aims, among other things, to strengthen the profession's visibility, harmonize educational levels, and facilitate the mobility of osteopaths between countries.
In summary, this means that anyone training to become an osteopath in Sweden becomes part of an international profession with a global reach, established educational environments, and growing research activity. Although the profession is still relatively small in Sweden, it is part of a larger European and international context where osteopathic education, clinical practice, and professional development continue to evolve in dialogue with research, education, and the needs of society.
