Continuing education classes for physical therapists/massage therapists
August 21, 2018 2:24 PM Subscribe
Where can I learn about/compare continuing education classes for physical therapists?
There is a whole field of continuing education classes for physical therapists, chiropractors, massage therapists, and other body/movement specialists out there. Hundreds and hundreds of classes promising better results for your patients. Trigger Point Therapy, Muscle Energy Technique, Neuromuscular Therapy, Postural Restoration Institute, NeuroKinetic Therapy, Egoscue, McKenzie, Active Release Technique, Active Isolated Stretching, Selective Functional Movement Assessment... and on and on.
Many of these methods claim that they are the miracle cure for any injury BUT many of them also directly contradict each other. Some of the methods say stretch every day, and others say to strengthen instead of stretching. McKenzie promotes lumbar extension for a healthy back while Postural Restoration promotes lumbar flexion. But I haven't seen any direct comparisons between the methods.
I'm looking for a blog, subreddit, Facebook group, or even a formal study where I can compare these modalities to each other. Where do physical therapists, massage therapists, etc. hang out online? Ideally, I want to find people who have taken a bunch of these continuing ed classes and ask them which ones worked the best. (I'm not a PT myself, but I do work with posture.)
I've looked at r/physicaltherapy but it doesn't address this issue much.
Even a FB group that you can only join after taking a specific class would be helpful, as long as you can talk about other classes in that group.
There is a whole field of continuing education classes for physical therapists, chiropractors, massage therapists, and other body/movement specialists out there. Hundreds and hundreds of classes promising better results for your patients. Trigger Point Therapy, Muscle Energy Technique, Neuromuscular Therapy, Postural Restoration Institute, NeuroKinetic Therapy, Egoscue, McKenzie, Active Release Technique, Active Isolated Stretching, Selective Functional Movement Assessment... and on and on.
Many of these methods claim that they are the miracle cure for any injury BUT many of them also directly contradict each other. Some of the methods say stretch every day, and others say to strengthen instead of stretching. McKenzie promotes lumbar extension for a healthy back while Postural Restoration promotes lumbar flexion. But I haven't seen any direct comparisons between the methods.
I'm looking for a blog, subreddit, Facebook group, or even a formal study where I can compare these modalities to each other. Where do physical therapists, massage therapists, etc. hang out online? Ideally, I want to find people who have taken a bunch of these continuing ed classes and ask them which ones worked the best. (I'm not a PT myself, but I do work with posture.)
I've looked at r/physicaltherapy but it doesn't address this issue much.
Even a FB group that you can only join after taking a specific class would be helpful, as long as you can talk about other classes in that group.
"Many of these methods claim that they are the miracle cure for any injury BUT many of them also directly contradict each other. Some of the methods say stretch every day, and others say to strengthen instead of stretching. McKenzie promotes lumbar extension for a healthy back while Postural Restoration promotes lumbar flexion. But I haven't seen any direct comparisons between the methods."
I don't agree with your assertion that these methods claim they are the "miracle cure" for injuries. Selective Functional Movement Assessment is not a manual therapy technique at all, it's a screening tool so it doesn't claim to cure or fix anything, it identifies what corrective exercise and soft tissue work might be helpful. Of course the teachers and practitioners of each method will always say "my work is safe and effective for a wide variety of complaints," but that's not the same thing as claiming it is a miracle cure.
Each of those approaches will have their own contraindications and clients who are not a good fit for the work. Not every client is a good candidate for everything you listed, depending on the overall situation they will respond better to some approaches and not others. I have some familiarity with McKenzie and Postural Assessment as a patient; exercises from both worked for me because it was two different times in my life where I was having a two different kinds of movement problem/back pain.
I am an LMT, not a PT, but I think the most effective thing you can do to make sure your money spent on continuing education is well spent is to learn assessment skills, in any specialty. We are not allowed to diagnose, of course, but being to able to thoroughly assess a client will help you determine what tool to use and will increase successful outcomes, regardless of which continuing ed you pursue/tools you have. And clients love to see assessment being done because it reassures them of your competence even if they don't have a detailed understanding of your specialty. It can also give them a greater understanding of what is going on with their body beyond their firsthand experience of symptoms.
As for a way to compare the methods, I do a lot of myofascial release and cranial work and am in practitioner's FB groups for both, we discuss those methods and others in the FB groups. The whole Functional Movement community has a practitioner's forum you can participate in to see what other people are doing what kind of results they are getting. Active Release Technique also has a practitioner's only forum for troubleshooting and professional development - they also won't release their textbooks unless you're signed up for a course, and you can't keep them after the course either, but that is unusual in my experience. Some of these organizations also publish case studies you can read (the Upledger Institute does this for craniosacral therapy for example) which are more detailed and have more medical context than client testimonials.
If you are curious about something and want to see how it compares to what you already know without signing up for a class, maybe book a treatment for yourself with an experienced provider & ask lots of questions. Another thing to be aware of is most of these techniques have study groups around the country you can join once you've taken a class or two, it's a chance to practice the work and talk to more experienced practitioners. You can also see what other techniques people are using and why they learned them, etc.
posted by zdravo at 4:06 PM on August 21, 2018
I don't agree with your assertion that these methods claim they are the "miracle cure" for injuries. Selective Functional Movement Assessment is not a manual therapy technique at all, it's a screening tool so it doesn't claim to cure or fix anything, it identifies what corrective exercise and soft tissue work might be helpful. Of course the teachers and practitioners of each method will always say "my work is safe and effective for a wide variety of complaints," but that's not the same thing as claiming it is a miracle cure.
Each of those approaches will have their own contraindications and clients who are not a good fit for the work. Not every client is a good candidate for everything you listed, depending on the overall situation they will respond better to some approaches and not others. I have some familiarity with McKenzie and Postural Assessment as a patient; exercises from both worked for me because it was two different times in my life where I was having a two different kinds of movement problem/back pain.
I am an LMT, not a PT, but I think the most effective thing you can do to make sure your money spent on continuing education is well spent is to learn assessment skills, in any specialty. We are not allowed to diagnose, of course, but being to able to thoroughly assess a client will help you determine what tool to use and will increase successful outcomes, regardless of which continuing ed you pursue/tools you have. And clients love to see assessment being done because it reassures them of your competence even if they don't have a detailed understanding of your specialty. It can also give them a greater understanding of what is going on with their body beyond their firsthand experience of symptoms.
As for a way to compare the methods, I do a lot of myofascial release and cranial work and am in practitioner's FB groups for both, we discuss those methods and others in the FB groups. The whole Functional Movement community has a practitioner's forum you can participate in to see what other people are doing what kind of results they are getting. Active Release Technique also has a practitioner's only forum for troubleshooting and professional development - they also won't release their textbooks unless you're signed up for a course, and you can't keep them after the course either, but that is unusual in my experience. Some of these organizations also publish case studies you can read (the Upledger Institute does this for craniosacral therapy for example) which are more detailed and have more medical context than client testimonials.
If you are curious about something and want to see how it compares to what you already know without signing up for a class, maybe book a treatment for yourself with an experienced provider & ask lots of questions. Another thing to be aware of is most of these techniques have study groups around the country you can join once you've taken a class or two, it's a chance to practice the work and talk to more experienced practitioners. You can also see what other techniques people are using and why they learned them, etc.
posted by zdravo at 4:06 PM on August 21, 2018
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posted by sutureselves at 3:34 PM on August 21, 2018