Sometimes Simple is Enough

Neri Aziz is an osteopath, craniosacral therapist and womens’ pelvic care expert with 15 years of experience. From December 15th 2024 to February 15th 2025, she’ll be conducting a wellness residency at COMO Maalifushi in the Maldives. Here, COMO Hotels and Resorts speaks to Aziz about how her practice works.

“After 10 years, I should be able to explain in a heartbeat what osteopathy is; but even now I still have to pause because the term encompasses so much,” says Neri Aziz. It’s a grey Monday afternoon in London, but the Hackney-based osteopath and craniosacral therapist is smiling as she describes her work: “I like to call it whole-istic manual therapy — to reiterate that osteopathy is a holistic practice that seeks to understand all the factors that are affecting the body, and how they’re playing into whatever issue you might be seeking to treat.” 

Aziz began her training 15 years ago. She’d been studying at university for a degree in advertising and marketing and happened to hurt her back. An osteopath family member offered to treat her. Aziz realised she loved everything about the practice, from its holistic intent to the physical nature of the work: “It was a lightbulb moment for me; I realised I didn’t want to be a city girl or sit behind a desk.” Aziz quit advertising and began a four-year Masters degree at the British College of Osteopathic Medicine. Since then she’s undergone continual professional development — an important premise in the field, which ensures practitioners remain abreast of new developments and other modalities. Aziz’s practice has extended to encompass craniosacral therapy and womens’ pelvic care: “it comes down to curiosity really” she says, “although I trained in osteopathy, health is health — there’s always more we can learn and different methods we can use to treat the body.” 

Aziz explains how tens of clients might turn up with the same symptoms, each with totally different root causes. She tries to treat each individual as completely as possible, beginning with a consultation which covers the case history. A total body assessment follows — ”because you might have a particular pelvic issue which is why you’ve come to see me, but if the rest of the body is screwed up, there’s no point diving straight into the pelvic bowl. You need everything to work together.” Next, Aziz will start body work. She takes a look at the main part of the skeletal system, making sure the spine and respiratory systems are working properly because they’re both integral to the body’s ability to heal itself. Then she dives into the rest of the musculoskeletal system, looking for any areas of tightness or pain. It’s only after Aziz has addressed what she calls “the more superficial elements” that she’ll begin to delve deeper, looking at organ-based work around the abdomen. What exactly is she looking for? “Space. Everything should have room to move, expand and contract. My work is about improving fluid and organ mobility which will in turn improve function.” Craniosacral therapy deepens the experience, anatomically balancing the nervous system through the spinal cord and cerebrospinal fluid. 

Aziz is deeply attuned to the human body’s signals. She can tell if her clients exercise, meditate, eat well or are stressed. The treatment she offers will vary considerably, because each of these factors make tissues react differently. For Aziz, emotional tension feels held deeply “like a frozen lump of tissue, as though everything is clenched so tightly it’s as if you’re holding your breath in fear”. She describes how she can help resolve the rigidity and reinstate a healthy mind-body connection, through a combination of joint and soft tissue mobilisation, education, “and a bit of psychology too!” — what’s making you feel this way, she’ll ask. What lifestyle changes might help? Aziz loves the moment of connection, when someone who has never tried osteopathy or craniosacral therapy before realises it’s helping.

The pelvic bowl is where Aziz’s particular specialism really takes hold. Her interest started when she realised more and more women were coming to her “disconnected from their bodies, disconnected from their voice, disconnected from their power.” Aziz describes the female experience of struggling for self-expression, which builds in tandem with a body “not behaving the way that they think it should behave”, whether that’s to do with fertility or menstruation. Guilt, grief, fear and anger often lodge in a woman’s pelvic bowl — an area which in Eastern philosophy, is vulnerable to stagnation and therefore dysfunction.

 Aziz realised that most women are “frozen” around the pelvic area, due to a combination of modern lifestyle factors and the limited approach of Western medicine (“all too often recommending drugs or surgery as the only fix for womens’ health issues such as endometriosis, cysts or post-birth discomfort”). For Aziz, osteopathy and craniosacral therapy are proof that there are other ways to to take control of your health as a woman: “problems in your body don’t tend to come overnight — they build up over five to 10 years. My work is about unravelling that instead of putting a sticking plaster over it.” She doesn’t call her practise a cure, but successful treatment can help reduce otherwise agonising symptoms, or prevent their initial occurrence. “I’m really excited about how mindsets are changing when it comes to holistic treatments”, she says. “Women are becoming more empowered, asking more questions about their health and expecting more answers beyond mainstream medicine. I feel like we are in a bit of a revolution!”

It’s not only women who can benefit: Aziz says everyone of any gender should consider osteopathy. She works with clients to ensure that they come away from a session with the tools they need to make active lifestyle changes, whether that includes further sessions, a nutritionist or an exercise programme. Some clients visit every day; others once a week; some people simply want a “body MOT” to see if Aziz picks up on anything, others have a specific issue to address such as migraines or abdominal pain. For many, she says, her sessions offer a chance to understand what’s going on in the body, and to learn how it functions with both anatomical and energetic forces. Her ultimate aim? “My clients tend to be intensely active in their work life — very cerebral. I love getting them to slow down and reconnect with their bodies, whatever that might look like or feel like. I know it sounds so simple, but sometimes simple is enough.”

Neri Aziz will be offering holistic wellbeing, including osteopathy, craniosacral therapy and pelvic care for women at COMO Maalifushi from December 15th 2024 to February 15th 2025. Contact our concierge for more information or to book an appointment.