Gut Health, Trauma and Adolescence

Gut Health, Trauma and Adolescence

Supporting digestive and emotional development

This course explores key themes related to the infant and childhood gut. It introduces how the developing gut, from embryology through to childhood, can play an important role in general development outcomes, such as attention deficit disorder, autism, and diabetes.

The gut is explored through the anatomy that forms the gastrointestinal tract, mapping out the gross anatomical plan to allow for accurate palpation and access to osteopathic treatment.

Key Areas of Exploration

• The Maturing Gut: Following the journey of the gut as it matures with post-birth milk feeding and the transition/weaning onto solids, starting from the mouth and tongue to the anus
• The Path to Continence: Examining the development of the anatomy, including both kidneys, the bladder, and neural control, and the mechanisms that can alter the journey to childhood continence
• The Adolescent Lens: Looking at adolescence through the lens of pelvic pain, anxiety, depression, and sports injuries to help practitioners evaluate these factors with more confidence. Adolescence can be a much-neglected part of childhood, making it vital that we are able to approach and treat these problems.

Course Delivery & Learning Focus

Teaching is delivered through a carefully integrated mix of online lectures, in-person lectures, guided practicals, perceptual exercises, and anatomical body landmarks.

The learning focus will include:

• Application of specific techniques for the childhood gut and the neurology that supports it
• Techniques for accessing the anatomy and biofeedback loops of continence
• Approaches for working with pelvic pain in the teenage years
• Active integration of clinical reasoning, including child development
• Finding language understood by both a child and their caregiver, while recognising appropriate consent, therapeutic boundaries, and adapting them accordingly
• Structured opportunities to reflect on your perceptual experience, integrate feedback, and align it with paediatric clinical practice and professional osteopathic standards

Clinical Practice

In addition, The Dove Children’s Clinic provides dedicated time to use the skills you have learnt and apply them in a clinical setting under the guidance of experienced clinical tutors, with the expectation to gain hands-on experience wherever possible.

Together with experience in The Dove Clinic, this course deepens your understanding of the child as they journey to adulthood, from milk feeding to solids, through the experiences of gaining continence, physical trauma, and the changes in physiology, morphology, and anatomy that come with adolescence.

SCCO Course Providers: All SCCO courses are run by a resident Course Director, who is an Osteopath and a member of the SCCO Faculty. Pathway courses are delivered by SCCO Faculty and may be supported by guest speakers. Short courses are usually delivered by a visiting guest lecturer.  SCCO Faculty members all hold recognised osteopathic qualifications but may not be GOSC registered osteopaths.