Tag: therapeutic neuroscience education

Sitting Posture, Hypermobility, and Fear-Avoidance – Movement Debrief Episode 72

Movement Debrief Episode 72 is in the books. Below is a copy of the video for your viewing pleasure, and audio if you can’t stand looking at me. Here is the set list: Does sitting slouch = extended? Why do people appear flexed when they sit? What is going on when someone sits slouched? How should I work with someone who has a hypermobility syndrome? What is Ehlers Danlos? Are isometrics a worthy starting place? What about unstable surface training? What is fear-avoidance? How do I go about using education to reduce fear avoidance? What other tactics do I use to mitigate fear avoidance?

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How to Design a Comprehensive Rehab Program

Just when I thought I was out, the clinic pulls me back in. Though I’m glad to be back. There’s just a different vibe, different pace, and ever-constant variety of challenges that being in the clinic simply provides. This has been especially true working in a rural area. You see a much wider variety, which challenges you to broaden your skillset. I’m amazed at how much working in the NBA has changed the way I approach the clinic. Previously, I was all about getting people in and out of the door as quickly as possible; and with very few visits. I would cut them down to once a week or every other week damn-near immediately, and try to hit that three to five visit sweet spot. This strategy no doubt worked, and people got better, but I had noticed I’d get repeat customers. Maybe it wasn’t the area that was initially hurting them, but they still were having trouble creep up. Or maybe it was the same pain, just taking much more activity to elicit the sensation. It became clear that I was skipping steps to try and get my visit number low, when in reality I was doing a disservice to my patients. This was the equivalent of fast food PT—give them the protein, carbohydrates, and fats, forget about the vitamins and minerals. Was getting someone out the door in 3 visits for me or for them? The younger, big ass ego me, wanted to known as the guy

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Workers’ Compensation, Dealing with Late Patients, Fall Prevention, & More – Movement Debrief Episode 9

Episode 9 was a long one, and I’m so sad if you missed it live. Here were some of the topics: The necessary organizational fix to worker’s compensation Ways physical therapists can have patients simulate work Targeting educational-specific impairments The need to expand scope or collaborate to help clients thrive How to deal with patients who are always late and don’t do their exercises Working on getting up off the ground after a fall If you want to watch these live, add me on Facebook or Instagram. They air every Wednesday at 8:30pm CST. Enjoy. Workers’ Compensation Explaining Pain Simply Expanding Your Scope Dealing with Late Patients Fall Prevention  

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Movement Debrief Episode 1: Meet the Patient at Their Story

A Live Movement Video Series Hey party people. I recently started doing some live feeds on the interwebz. You can check me out on Facebook and Youtube if you want to see me live. Otherwise, I thought I’d share with the very first episode of “Movement Debrief.” Here we dive into the following topics: The importance of reflection Using similar language to the patient. De-threatening that language Restoring sagittal plane control A case for manual therapy Enjoy!

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Come Hang With Me: Courses At My Clinic

Dear Readership  We are hosting several courses at my clinic this year, and we would love to have you, the readers, attend. The three courses that East Valley Spine and Sports will be hosting are all excellent courses. I have taken two of these classes prior, and the third I have taken a prior rendition of. And let me tell you, these courses are boss. Aside from us bringing some excellent content, you will also have the opportunity to hang out with a good group of people, and imbibe in some good beverages with me. Here is what we are bringing. PRI Pelvis Restoration: March 28th-29th  I took this course a little over a year ago (read the review here) and I am very excited to be learning from Lori again. She presents this very complex material in a systematic and understandable fashion. Most importantly, she’s funny! Signup for the course here. ISPI Therapeutic Neuroscience Education: Educating Patients about Pain: June 6th-7th Adriaan Louw is one of the best speakers I have heard, and the material is priceless (read my review here). This course gives several practical insights as well as easy-to-learn neuroscience education that will help you become adept and educating patients on pain. Signup for the course here. ISPI Neurodynamics: The Bodies Living Alarm: October 17th-18th  I took a version of this class when Adriaan spoke for the NOI group, and I am excited to see what tweaks have been made since. This time we are bring Louie

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The Post Wonderful Time of the Year: 2014 Edition

And That’s a Wrap It’s that time of the year that we get to look back and reflect and what posts killed it (and which bombed). It seems as though my fine fans be on a pain science kick this year, and rightfully so. It’s some of the best stuff on the PT market right now. It’s definitely a topic I hope to write about more in the coming year, and one I will be speaking on at this year’s PRC conference. But without further ado, here are the top 10 posts of 2014. 10. Treatment at the Hruska Clinic: PRI Dentistry and Vision Going through the treatment process as a patient has really upped my game in terms of knowing when to integrate with my patients. It has also been a life-changing experience for my health and well-being. Learn how they did it for me. 9. Course Notes: THE Jen Poulin’s Myokinematic Restoration So much fine tuning occured the second time around. I love how Jen acknowledged the primitive reflex origin of the patterns, as well as fine tuning both lift tests. She’s an excellent instructor (and fun to party with)! 8. Treatment at the Hruska Clinic: Initial Evaluation The start of my alternating and reciprocal saga. Made for one of the most fascinating evaluations I have ever experienced. Ron Hruska is otherworldly. 7. Course Notes: PRI Postural Respiration I love a good foundational course taught by the Ronimal. You always get a few easter eggs that allude to

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Pain Language and other Jive Talk

To All My Clinicians in the Struggle  I struggle with patients. Those patients that I am having trouble with are who I study the most. It’s that whole learning from your failures thing. In studying these folks, I have noticed an interesting trend. It doesn’t involve movement. It doesn’t involve medical history It doesn’t involve stress (though it always involve stress) Instead it involves language. I have noticed a few commonalities in how those patients who are either not improving or have been in chronic pain for some time talk. There is one shift, however, that I notice more often than not. Disembodiment from Your Sports Team  I don’t really watch a whole lot of sports; I’d rather play them.  Sports fans however, interest me. It’s fascinating how much ownership a sports fan takes in his or her team. This ownership is especially noticeable when things are going well.  Think of the language one may use during the following instances: Huge victory – “We finally beat the Packers.” Draft Picks – “Our team got some huge prospects.” Championship win – “We are the champions….my friends.” Notice though, how oftentimes language may shift when a team is not doing so well. Huge loss – “The Bears lost…Again.” Draft flops – “I can’t believe they chose Steve Urkel first round!.” Championship loss – “They blew our chance of winning.” Robert Cialdini discusses this concept in his book “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.” When our team is winning, we manipulate our association to

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PRI and Pain Science: Yes You Can Do It

Questions You may have noticed that my blogging frequency has been a little slower than the usual, and I would like to apologize for that. I am in the midst of creating my first course that I am presenting to my coworkers. It has been a very exciting yet time-consuming process. It makes me excited and more motivated to someday start teaching more on the reg. Ever since I started blogging people started asking me questions. These range from many topics regarding physical therapy, career advice, and the like. Some of the more frequent ones include: What courses should I look at? Any advice for a new grad? Seriously, Bane. What’s the deal? But the one I get asked more often then not is as follows: “Zac, how do you integrate PRI into a pain science model?” A great question indeed, especially to those who are relatively unfamiliar with PRI. With all the HG, GH, AF, FA, and FU’s, it’s easy to get lost in the anatomical explanations. Hell, the company even has the word (gasp) “posture” in the title. Surely they cannot think that posture and pain are correlated. I think there is a lot of misinformation regarding PRI’s methodology and framework. What needs to be understood is that PRI is a systematic, biopsychosocial approach that predominately (though not exclusively) deals with the autonomic nervous system. The ANS is very much linked into pain states, though not a causative factor. But of course, that may not be enough. Perhaps

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