about the course

The moving spine is an array of mini-brains, doing their best to integrate skeletal, myofascial, and neurological constraints.  We can learn to converse with these segments, teach them new behaviors, and enfold them more artfully in our movement and bodywork practice.

Thinking in this way offers us a useful departure from false categories --  Are movement and postural patterns determined by fascial architecture, by joints and ligaments, by ascending reflex patterns, by emotions, by mental concepts, by the social and physical environment?

Think of the pitfalls of choosing just one of these.  The real question is not which of these is determinative, but how they interact and when to focus on one aspect versus the other.

Nowhere in the body is this dilemma truer than at midline -- the Spine and its Movements -- where small compensations often result in big changes elsewhere in the body.  

We will make a close examination of anatomy, palpation, and assessment.

info and skills covered

• Embryology & Evolution of the Spine:  Movement Needs Structure

• Bones, Ligaments, and Fasciae:  The Passive Constraints on Movement

• Somatic Neural Segments: How Skin, Myofascia, and Viscera talk to each other

• Movement Issues from a Neurofascial Perspective (Hint: The Brain doesn't think in muscles)

• Assessment of Midline Movement within a Meaningful Activity

• Muscle Energy Techniques in the Active Spine

continuing education certification

• This 8-hour Continuing Education class is open to all healthcare practitioners licensed in Manual/Massage Therapy.

• Other practitioners are welcome to join for the first 2 hours of class. (i.e. Movement Teachers, Allied Healthcare Practitioners, and body nerds).