Course Description:

This course is designed to challenge and enhance the participants ability to manage individuals with lumbar and/or thoracic spine pain/dysfunction.By the end of this course, participants should understand the biomechanics in 3 planes of motion that occur at the spine in gait and functional movements. The goal of this course is to challenge traditional methods for the treatment of spine dysfunction and to provide a new lens for therapists to both view and treat spine pain/dysfunction. We will discuss traditional and innovative treatment techniques for specific diagnosis such as chronic low back pain and scoliosis. Participants will learn to assess and treat dysfunction at the spine in functional positions specific to individual needs. Participants will learn creative manual therapy techniques performed in functional positions and exercises specific to the individual. Participants will learn new loading techniques to improve muscle strength, endurance and/or neuromuscular coordination/motor control. This course goes beyond traditional table-based techniques and will have a heavy lab component for practical application of functional based assessment and treatment techniques. All functional movements, assessments and treatments taught in the course will be firmly grounded in knowledge of biomechanics.