How to Get People Out of Pain: Course Description (click here for flyer)
(Not currently being offered)
Beyond the weekend workshop, here’s an in depth weekly graduate training to prepare you to effectively work with clients in chronic pain, through retraining the brain, not just the muscles.
Explore a unique synthesis of manual, movement and mind/body therapies to successfully treat clients suffering from complex pain patterns and dysfunction. Using dynamic movement-centered teaching methods, including experiential and palpatory anatomy, we will learn how to apply an innovative whole body/whole mind approach to chronic pain relief. You’ll learn to design effective treatment strategies, informed by structural and orthopedic assessments, and encourage the nervous system’s return to equilibrium. This original, multi-pronged system of bodywork, that marries the clinical with the contemplative, may forever change the way you work and serve clients.
What: The takeaways
- You will earn 60 CE credits upon completion of the 12 session course
- Sharpen assessment and body-reading skills with structural/biomechanic analysis, manual resistive testing, ROM, functional, and gait assessments
- Develop effective treatment strategies, not just apply rote protocols
- Increase your mind-body awareness through experiential anatomy, somatic disciplines, imagery, breath work, movement, Structural yoga and mind-body therapies
- Understand and learn to restore healthy myofascial connections and problem solve for multi-layered neuro-musculoskeletal dysfunction
- Seamlessly combine advanced techniques into effective treatments, including myofascial release, neuromuscular therapy, orthopedic and medical massage therapy, Amma therapy, MET, ROM, neural inhibition stretching, positional release and trigger point therapy
- Explore how to unlock trauma to the nervous system, unwind detrimental patterns and retrain the client’s neuromuscular system for equilibrium
- Learn and practice proper biomechanics for your own health, career longevity, and to educate and support clients
- Work using a scientific approach without compromising your deeply humane focused presence and connection
Why: The objectives
- To better understand, treat and support clients in pain
- Evaluate and address imbalances through structural and orthopedic assessments
- Actively listen, observe and embody an environment that supports healing
- Achieve quicker results with more precision and relevance
- Help clients demystify and break free from habitual pain patterns and dysfunction
- Promote lasting change with refined bodywork and holistic self-care coaching
How: The teaching methods
- Live case study model where students, once sufficiently prepared, practice intake, assessment and treatment in supervised group
- Sessions include palpatory and experiential anatomy, therapeutic movement and somatic work
- Multimedia tools and visual aids will enhance academic presentations of relevant anatomy, physiology and pathologies
- Much class time will feature learning and practice of techniques on and off table. This dynamic approach often includes movement, assisted or cooperative with client’s participation
- Be ready to feel with your hands and think on your feet, but using your whole body with increased awareness and appropriate biomechanics
- All learning styles are considered; whether you’re a kinesthetic or visual learner you will feel comfortable while being challenged
- Explore cross-cultural principles and different ways of mapping the body including some from Eastern medicine, myofascial meridians, energy psychology, evolutionary biology, Jungian psychology /movement therapy, and family systems theory as they can be applied to the body and dysfunctional patterns
- Discussion and socratic questioning will provoke critical thinking and problem solving
- All our work is an evolution borne from what others have done before us, which we will honor and use as a springboard to discover, cultivate and launch our own unique contributions.
Syllabus/course outline and reading/resources list are available to students before the first class.
Who: The learning community
- Licensed Massage and manual therapists and bodyworkers with a working knowledge of the human musculoskeletal anatomy and kinesiology.
- Course I in 2014-2015 focuses on preparing therapists, new to this material, for work that requires clinical reasoning, to better serve clients in pain, but is appropriate for any practitioner interested in a more strategic, holistic approach.
- I hope to offer an advanced level for graduates who want to continue training and for more experienced therapists in the future, so call if you’re interested in taking part in any of the learning forums, including short courses or workshop options (see below for more descriptions).
- Health professionals interested in exploring an innovative, eclectic system of bodywork; manual, movement and mind-body therapies for pain relief and management.
When: Next course, Spring 2015. Fridays or Mondays 11:00am to 4pm (but timing is flexible, depending on needs of group) This twelve week course will provide you with a solid foundation of this integrated approach, highlighting essential gems and focus on conditions you are most likely to encounter. Please register asap to guarantee your space, as enrollment is very limited.
Call to see if short course options (2-3 class segments) are available.
This course and other material may be presented in the following formats, depending on interest and availability. Schedule, length and duration of classes may be modified to accommodate students’ needs:
- Twelve session (usually weekly) in depth overview covering fundamental gems. This is Course I (offered in 2014-15) and includes the entire spine, hips, neck and shoulders (part I). Most cost effective option. Content subject to change.
- A la Carte option: Can’t commit to 12 class series? Call me about attending certain segments focused on specific areas. It may be possible to register for individual topics of 2-3 classes each.
- An advanced level of Course I material or individual workshops, to serve graduates or more experienced therapists, , and include deeper exploration of the work, with even more guest client case studies, special topics such as a holistic approach to treating migraines, the relationship between the Psoas, QL, Si Joints, Viscera and Degenerative disc disease, mind/body therapies, practice, personal feedback, self-care, off table work including introducing a new original Authentic Movement Somatic Therapy.
- Occasional refresher classes, mini-workshops (focusing on a theme) day long or weekend, are possible, depending on interest and availability. Let me know what you’d like!
- Future possibilities: Course II would explore further the upper and lower extremities, head, neck and shoulders (part II), feet, abdomen and thorax, plus seated and off table work. An advanced level Course II could be offered for deeper exploration with more practice and personal feedback, including more time for specific conditions. Advanced courses may be offered in varying formats, ie. day long, weekly… Time offered TBD and dependent on students’ interest.