Manual Movement Therapy and Biomechanics and the Pelvis

Last August, H&W sponsored a brand-new course, Biomechanical Assessment of the Hip & Pelvis: Manual Movement Therapy and the Myofascial Sling System. This course is written and instructed by Steve Dischiavi, MPT, ATC, MTC, CSCS, and covers advanced training in hip and pelvic biomechanics, functional “slings” created by the myofascial system, and use of high level sports medicine theory and applied science.

The course received excellent feedback from participants, so we are thrilled to be offering this course again in 2014. The course will be offered: August 16-17, 2014 in Arlington, VA. We sat down with Steve to see what he learned from his first time teaching with H&W, and what participants can look forward to in 2014.

PRR: You taught this course for H&W for the first time in 2013. What did you learn from your first time teaching this course with H&W?

I honestly was pleasantly surprised. The initial goal of the class was to bring a sports medicine approach to the women’s health arena. I really wanted the women’s health therapist to see how important that specialty area is to orthopedic and sports medicine type clients. The feedback was great. The class was made up mostly of traditional women’s health type therapists who treat women’s health clients almost exclusively. There were a couple of people who do women’s health and ortho clients and there were a couple sports medicine outpatient orthopedic therapists. The whole spectrum of clinicians was represented and the feedback was just as I hoped it would be. The woman’s health PTs seem to take away a lot of the exercises and maybe gave some consideration to the theory I was presenting. I felt the class was engaged and offered great questions. The thing I learned the most after my first class with Herman & Wallace is that there is a place for this class at H&W and hopefully more outpatient orthopedic PTs will take this class and realize their traditional approaches need to have more of a women’s health influence or they will be missing a huge opportunity at better outcomes with their clients.

Were there any surprises? How did feedback from participants inform the evolution of this course as you prepare to teach in 2014?

The biggest surprise to me was that the class was almost all traditional women’s health PTs. I thought there would be more sports medicine type therapists. I think this will take time because I don’t think the traditional sports medicine PT would look to H&W for continuing education. This is exactly the reason for this class. I am very excited, passionate, and proud to be representing H&W as they help the sports medicine and orthopedic PTs integrate more of the realm of women’s health into their existing practice patterns.

What were the most common questions asked by participants during the course? How does the course address frequent questions/misconceptions therapists might have about this topic?

Most everyone in the course wanted me to continually give examples and discuss cases that were not professional athletes. I work with a pro sports team so the majority of my videos and case examples come from this population. I have tried extremely hard to make sure the theories and ideas I am presenting can be extrapolated to the young and elderly clients. I have done a better job integrating videos from these populations and taking time to extrapolate the exercises progressions for all patient populations. This will continue as I tweak the class materials and I am aware of this and I do make specific efforts to make sure the course covers all ages.

This class is based in human movement and neurology: something all of our clients have in common. There are a great number of examples from the athletic community in the class but this is only because these are the types of clients I work with on a daily basis. As I mentioned I have used clients in my private practice who are both young and old and tried to use these clients as examples as well. This way the class participant can see the thoughts, theories, and exercises with clients of all ages.

If you'd like to read what a past participant thought of her experience at this course, check out the Pelvc Rehab Report by guest blogger Janna Trottier, PT, DPT, CSCS. If you'd like to hear more from Steve, consider joining us in August for this course.