Course Description:

Dry Needling--a Tool for Physical Therapy Practice, Course 1 is a 3-day, 28-hour course delivered via on-site lectures and extensive hands-on lab/practical instruction using a regional approach in order to facilitate participant learning. The purpose of this course is to learn about trigger points and the different interventions used to treat them, focusing heavily on the intervention of dry needling. While dry needling is emphasized in this course, it is presented as one intervention or tool that the clinician can integrate into his or her treatment program. The participants will learn palpation skills to effectively identify trigger points and then learn how to employ dry needling and their hands--to include evidence for soft tissue manual therapy--to resolve trigger points and restore function in the spine, lower, and upper quarter musculoskeletal disorders. This course will also investigate the emerging evidence/research regarding the treatment effectiveness, proposed mechanisms of action, and safety considerations for trigger point dry needling. Participants take a didactic test and a hands-on practical test that investigate the participant’s palpation skills to accurately identify trigger points, correct hand placement for dry needling, knowledge of landmarks, safety considerations for various muscles, and correct and safe handling/disposal of needles. A heavy focus is placed on the integration of these techniques in clinical practice using clinical reasoning