News

Each year our Interdisciplinary Integration Symposium brings many different people and perspectives together for collegiate and collaborative discussion unified around a global topic of interest. This year, not only were we fortunate to welcome attendees from as far away as Australia, but we were also humbled to interact with attendees from at least 30 different states over the course of this two day Symposium. The variety of knowledge and unique approach that each individual brings with them, also strengthens the Symposium as a whole.

 The speaker panel this year included, Dr. Rosalba Courtney, Dr. Brad Story, Ruth Hennessy, Mandy Harvey, Dr. Howard Hindin, Dr. Ingo Titze, and Ron Hruska. Not only were their presentations perfectly in tune with the overall message, but the various backgrounds present allowed for even more resonance to occur between the speakers themselves and attendees as a whole. The power of PRI from my perspective is exactly this. The ability to bring together A Singer, a Myologist, a Physical Therapist, a Student, a Dentist, a Speech Pathologist, a Vocalist, a Optometrist, a Occupational Therapist, and a couple PhD’s in Voice Studies just to name a few. Not only does this Institute welcome all professions and mindsets, but we welcome them with the common goal of collaboration and integration at the forefront of this patient centered treatment approach.

Thank you all for contributing in your own ways, to the success of this year’s Symposium. You will continue to resonate with us all and your voices will continue to be heard all across #prination

The full photo album from these two days can be viewed HERE!

Stay tuned for more from Mandy Harvey’s presentation, and please consider joining us next year for the 2020 Symposium “Extrapyramidal Disorders: An Interdisciplinary Approach in the Management of Involuntary Movement” on April 23-24, 2020 Followed by a celebration of the 20^th Anniversary of the Postural Restoration Institute! See you there!

What a fun weekend of teaching Pelvis Restoration this past weekend in Lancaster. Nearly 3/4 of the class was attending their FIRST PRI course. I know many individuals have opinions what primary course attendees should attend first and many think Pelvis should be the last to attend of the the three primary courses. That being said, these professionals were amazing with understanding new concepts, looking at the pelvis in the detail of position, muscle facilitation/inhibition, and application of PRI tests needed for treatment. Yes, it’s a lot of material, but one must understand it’s the integrator between Postural Respiration and Myokinematic Restoration. If you don’t have a pelvic inlet you won’t get a ZOA needed for trunk rotation (Postural Respiration). If you don’t have inlet and outlet frontal plane control you won’t manage a hip (Myokin). My fellow course participants got it and did amazingly well. What an awesome weekend, learning shouldn’t stop in our careers! Thank you for being open minded to new concepts and I hope you all come to love PRI as much as I do.

A shout out to Cathy Ingram and the rest of the staff at Lancaster for hosting this past weekend. Lancaster had 15 participants from their staff alone attending the course this past weekend. Thank you so much for the set up, tear down and organization. Most importantly, thank you for your passion for PRI.

Also, a huge thank you to Frank Mallon for being a wonderful lab assistant. Frank is humble, approachable, an amazing clinician with a strong passion for learning and PRI.

What a group of course attendees that came to Postural Respiration hosted by Alta Bates Summit Physical Therapy in Oakland, CA! First timers really shined in terms of curiosity and questions to absorb the foundations of PRI. There were students that traveled as far away as Alaska, Hawaii and Washington State. The course started out with definitions. What is posture and how do you define it? What is neutral rib alignment in a dynamic, tri-planer context? What does respiration have to do with posture and alignment?

The veterans with PRI were exposed to the new and revised Postural Respiration course and the feedback from them was really enthusiastic. One of the new attendees wanted just a little more lab time so he was chosen as the subject of a review of all of the AIC/BC tests Sunday afternoon. Non-manual and single person manual techniques did not get him inhibit is neurological system and at 3:45pm on Sunday, a little PRI magic had to appear! After all, it was the bottom of the ninth, nearly 40 pairs of student eyes are watching and is the student going to experience what it is like to be neutral for perhaps the first time since he was an infant? Taylor Lewis, PRT, a veteran lab assistant (And great guy who uses PRI with Cystic Fibrosis patients) assisted with a two person infraclavicular pump. This young athletic man who was demonstrated on was also a prime example of what one would imagine as having perfect posture on visual inspection (could even win an award for it!) standing nice and tall. Problem was, all of his PRI tests were positive and he was neurologically extended head to toe! After this two person manual technique was performed, all PRI tests became negative, much to his delight including class attendees and maybe even the course instructor! He sat up and said “I feel sooo good and relaxed!”.

Lab this weekend with testing, non-manual techniques and manual techniques was totally fun for everyone and was a great balance to didactic learning going from concept to experience and then having this last lab to send everyone home with as to what is possible when you just keep exploring treatment options with PRI techniques. Thank you Taylor Lewis, PRT, Keren Cahn, PT, PRC as my lab assistants but also thank you ,Tim Dempsey, PRT, for attending while also helping as a third assistant over the weekend. These courses take a lot of work by the host site. Thank you Shaun Buchanan, PT, Marcela Larrondo, PT, Joan Sheppard-Mellows and the rest of the supporting crew from Alta Bates Summit Physical Therapy.

I had a great weekend in Milwaukee! Nick Rosencutter and his staff were so welcoming. The last time I was in Wisconsin, Nick helped me reinforce the concepts of autonomics as he did the “Ice Bucket Challenge” in a proper Left Stance position of AFIR. He managed to find the video to show this class. Super fun to meet new people and then reconnect at PRI courses!

We once again had a diverse group of clinicians from PT’s, ATC’s, and Strength and Conditioning specialists. The course attendees were mostly new to the science of PRI and taking their first PRI course. Myokinematics is a great first course for clinicians to introduce PRI concepts. I enjoyed integrated discussions about respiration and gait as it relates to an A on F vs. FA activity. I spent Sunday a.m. teaching both the HADLT and HABLT and tying together Saturday’s passive positional tests to help these new clinicians begin their PRI clinical journeys. It is so great to have so many new clinicians and wellness professionals interested in learning PRI. Overall I am proud of my course attendees for opening their minds and practices to the science of PRI!

Just wrapped up a thoroughly enjoyable weekend at the beautiful Minot State University in Minot, ND teaching Myokinematic Restoration. Thank you to Minot State faculty Dr. Heather “Rockstar” Golly and the Beth Marschner “twins” for their help in coordinating this course at their gorgeous third floor facility with a view of the campus. The Minot State team made me feel like family from start to finish. This class included an interdisciplinary group of movement scientists including Maci Severson, ATC, Holly Thompson, PT, Kevin Melby ATC, PTA, Dawn Mattern, MD among others in a largely new to PRI crowd. Many thanks to newly minted PT, PRC Bridget Anderson, who did a great job as lab assistant throughout the course.

Course participants engaged in discussions about PRI theoretical principles, scientifically based rationale for testing and treating the normal asymmetry seen and learned special tests to assess acetabulum and femur relationships. Course participants like Kevin Melby, Micki LaDage, Jodi Swedlund, Samantha Brizee among others volunteered to participate in lab activities to practice PRI special tests and how to use PRI techniques to develop a treatment plan with progression. Thank you to all who helped during lab time by allowing course participants to see examples of normal polyarticular chain patterns of muscle and inhibition techniques that affect them!

A lively, thoughtful and robust group, it helped me really enjoy my time in the “sister state” of North Dakota this weekend. Thank you each for adding to PRI nation and for jumping into the science of PRI with candor and zest!

“That’s another course, for another time.”

According to Kristi Jagels MS, PT, PRC this is a statement that I have made at many of the past courses she has attended. And I believe she is correct. 

Cupidity, or the intense desire for possessiveness, acquisitiveness, and avidness, usually interferes with our respect for the process that clarifies our appreciation for incessant curiosity and pedagogic gratification. We all need to struggle with novel approaches, new relationships and unfamiliar applications. There were thirteen PRI certified and trained clinicians in this course, as well as many more attendees, who have remained altruistic and content with familiar application of PRI principles and were, hopefully, ready for “this course, at this time”. 

More importantly, they hopefully appreciate that this PRI course, which is about human dysfunctional oscillatory patterned behavior, would not have resolved their discipline outcome based discontentment, without trusting a thalamic process that was outlined by PRI objectives offered by previous courses that were required for this course attendance. The tag line following the title of each of those required courses, as well as this course, is “An Integrated Approach to the Treatment of…”  An appreciable understanding of human patterns is helpful in building a cognitive framework for the interplay between Autonomic and Central Nervous system integration in “treatment”. 

I believe the framework offered by the PRI Primary and Cervical Revolution courses guides this interplay. Clinical “integration” of the Autonomic Nervous System and the Central Nervous System, using PRI based concepts, can have a significant influence on clinical interdisciplinary design and outcomes. After reading the comments from these course attendees, I believe they have gained a better understanding of the magnanimity associated with the words “that’s another course, for another time”.

Cranial Resolution IS that course, and worth your time!

To see more photos from this course CLICK HERE

Paula Webster, PT, invited us into her Canton, CT, clinic for the weekend to host Postural Respiration. This was one of the most unique clinics I’ve seen: a renovated 1812 home, with its original bee hive fireplace, whose previous owner was involved in the abolitionist movement.

 This was the first PRI exposure for close to half of the participants. It was also a first for me to have a gastroenterologist in attendance, Dr. Kiran Sachdev, who provided insights into the connection between GI issues and patterned respiratory mechanics.

 Discussion opened with the asymmetrical diaphragm and its role in patterned lumbo-sacral-pelvic mechanics below and rib and humeral-glenoid mechanics above, driving us into L AIC and R BC patterns that direct air flow patterns and influence every physiologic system in the body.

As always, the concept of the Zone of Apposition, as needed on the left, was thoroughly defined. This left ZOA indicates left lower ribs that are held down, in, and back to lateralize the body to the left and enable healthy air flow directed into the left posterior mediastinum and right apical areas. With a sufficient ZOA, the left hemi-diaphragm is able to regulate and balance thoracic pressure and abdominal pressure so that its dual roles of respiration and stabilization are preserved.

 We emphasized the three-dimensional function of the abdominal-pelvic and thoracic cavities, and discussed numerous examples of “deflated, converged” cages and thoracic flat back posture, presentations that require over-activity of necks, bellies, and backs to breathe.

Then it was off to the gym for lab time, to practice PRI’s objective tests, including the new "posterior mediastinum respiratory reach test", along non-manual and manual techniques. Attendees put their hands and minds to work to facilitate and experience the powerful sense of rib cage expansion and freedom. How apropos to sense this freedom within a former abolitionist’s home!

Thank you to Paula’s Canton PT colleagues, Jeanne Daubert, DPT, Heather Mogielnicki, OT, and Shanya Stearns, DPT, for welcoming us into your clinic and tending to the nitty-gritty to help the course run smoothly. Thank you to Robert Barksdale, DScPT, FAAOMT, for your crucial A-V assistance. I also appreciate the willingness of everyone to act as models for various demonstrations. You were a fun group to hang out with all weekend!

We are beyond excited to have Mandy Harvey as our Featured guest for this years Interdisciplinary Integration Symposium!

Mandy will be presenting, “Sensing the Rhythm: Exploring Music without Hearing”

I encourage you to read more about Mandy and all the incredible endeavors shes a part of on her Website!

America’s Got Talent Season 12 Finalist!

Featured Songs:

We are excited to announce a couple changes to the application process for our PRC and PRT credentialing programs.

• Rolling Admissions Process – We will now accept applications throughout the year, and applicants will receive feedback from the application review committee within two months. This will allow applicants who complete their application early the opportunity to have more time to prepare for testing
   
• PRI Credentialing Scholarship – This scholarship is available to candidates who may otherwise be dissuaded from applying for PRC or PRT credentialing solely by their current financial circumstances. Scholarship essays are due on June 15th each year, and the essays will be reviewed by the PRI Directors. The scholarship recipient will be notified by July 15th. If the recipient does not accept the scholarship and complete the credentialing application and testing that year, the scholarship will be awarded to an alternate. Depending on the number of applications each year, the Board of Directors may choose to select more than one scholarship recipient.

These changes are effectively immediately. If you have any questions with these changes, or any questions with the PRC or PRT credentialing process in general, please contact me at platt.jennifer@posturalrestoration.com or 888-691-4583.

"A PRI Approach to Chiropractic Alignment of The Spine", was presented by Ron Hruska on March 10^th at the ACA Rehab Council! The two days prior to this presentation were as significant as the topics being discussed. What culminated as a room full of Chiropractic Doctors Blowing up a Balloon, started with collaborative discussions revolving around concepts such as rotation, orientation, respiration and, perhaps most prevalent, alignment of the spine. Coincidentally these concepts aligned themselves well with what was already being discussed by other vendors, presenters and most importantly Students.

After recently attending the APTA Combined Sections and then two months later this conference, it is apparent that the desire to collaborate and integrate among professions is at an all-time high! The students of these organizations are approaching their careers with an Integrative mindset and an overall interest in collaboration. Ron enjoyed discussing the future of this integrative approach with each of the student chiropractors in attendance and was able to show the powerful potential that PRI has within their profession. The group from Keiser University had a strong student presence and a few poster presentations even discussed topics such as the “Zone of Apposition” and Respiration as primary concepts! It was so awesome to see this PRI activity occurring without previous knowledge or awareness of its incurrence!

On the second day we were met by PRI Faculty member Dr. Robert “Skip” George, which allowed us to strengthen the Link between the Director of our Institute, a Physical Therapist, and the Chiropractors in attendance. Skip is a walking Reference Center of clinical knowledge and experience, and his input within our discussions was unprecedented. PRI truly is a common language that can be used and utilized by us all, not just one group or another. This particular group of Rehab professionals understood that long before our arrival.

They were not only excited and welcoming of our Institute but embraced the collaboration and encouraged it within their own organization. It was quite frankly refreshing to be a part of. With Ron’s presentation falling on the last day of this conference we were excited to see how many attendees stayed around to hear the culmination of Ron’s career. Skip gave a wonderful introduction about his relationship with Ron and this Institute to over 60 filled seats! PRI objective testing and core concepts were strengthened and the use of a few Non-Manual techniques allowed the group to appreciate the ability to integrate it into their daily practice.

Thank you to President Dr. Jeff Tucker, and everyone at the American Chiropractic Association Rehab Council for inviting us to this symposium. I would encourage anyone that appreciates this Science to strongly consider reaching out to an integrative minded Chiropractor in their area to collaborate with, converse with and possibly be challenged by, in order to strengthen the relationship between us all! We are excited for the future growth and collaboration between our organizations, and are hopeful that your patients and clients will see a direct increase in their results!

Last weekend I enjoyed a warm welcome in the warm climate of New Mexico that provided a welcomed pause in the coldest winter in my state since 1931. Truly can’t thank Nancy Allen and the attendees at UNM Lovelace Rehab Hospital in Albuquerque for their time, energy and attendance to the many details and nuances of Pelvis Restoration. With nearly all course attendees attending their first Pelvis Restoration course and the majority attending their first PRI course, this was a unique opportunity for this instructor to be able to gear the course slightly more focally to a specific perspective.

This entire group embraced tangible lab time and during labs we had the opportunity to look at many facilitation techniques and demonstrate a series of inhibition techniques for those whose 8 Pelvis Restoration special tests revealed specific need for inhibition in 4 quadrants of the pelvis, two in the inlet and outlet respectively. Thanks to Colin Kidwell, Mary Claire “Intensity” Aaron, “athletic play Ben” Hendricks, Amy Link and nearly every attendee for volunteering for demonstrations for everything from a posterior mediastinum with volume to a left posterior outlet in need of inhibition.

Case studies and application questions abounded and there were many discussing integration concepts, feeling the principles of Pelvis PRI while practicing techniques intermittently throughout the back half of day two…reminding me how much I enjoy seeing the eyes of new attendees light up when the science of PRI “clicks” for the first time.

 Thanks again Nancy for staying the course with PRI and providing a great weekend of learning for all of us. Warm weekend on many fronts!