Workshops
Myofascial Technique Workshops offered at Swedish Institute with Carrie Taylor are currently $275 for a 6 hour class. Each workshop provides CEU contact hours (NCBTMB). Please call 212-924-5900 and ask for Continuing Education to reserve your spot, as class sizes are limited. These workshops are open to Licensed Massage Therapists, with some exceptions made for 4th semester students.
Suggested reading: Anatomy Trains by Thomas Myers.
Materials needed: 2 sheets (draping demo also included), 1 towel, 1 pillow, pen & paper, comfortable stretchy clothing (shorts and sports bra or tank top)
Sunday Sept.12th, 2010, Myofascial Assessment & Treatment Approaches
-9am to 3pm-this course offers an in depth look at assessment and Tx from a myofascial perspective. Therapists will be taken through a detailed process on how to approach assessing a client, from intake, to movement & posture analysis, palpation & neurological assessment, referral pain recognition, and special tests when needed. This approach is designed to increase the therapist's confidence and expertise when assessing a client, so as to access the necessary info to form an effective Tx plan.
Sunday Oct. 10th, 2010, Myofascial Tx of the Breast & Pectoral tissues
-9am to 3pm-this myofascial approach to Tx of the breast, pectoral girdle, and related tissues, will provide participants with the confidence to perform hands-on techniques in a sensitive, yet highly under-treated area. Learning to work on scar tissue, musculature, and fascia post-surgery, or following any other trauma, is an effective means to improving posture for the client. Improving the pliability and flexibility of scar tissue, has also been shown to significantly decrease pain. Work will be demonstrated draped, undraped, or through clothing/sheet to provide options for comfort.
Sunday Nov. 21st, 2010 Myofascial Tx of the Abdomen, Ribcage, & Pelvis
-9am to 3pm-This course will remove any discomfort felt by therapists when working on the abdomen, ribcage & pelvis, by combining in depth assessment approaches with effective myofascial release techniques. Therapists will spend time doing direct techniques, such as release of the abdominal/peritoneal fascias, and iliac/inguinal fascias, as well as indirect techniques, such as release of groin/pubic fascias. Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF) will be employed, along with passive stretching with traction (limb unwinding), to perform indirect techniques. Once learned, PNF and limb unwinding can be applied anywhere in the body. Patients will experience improved digestion from the abdominal work, improved breathing from the ribcage/diaphragm work, and better flexibility in the back and hips from the pelvic work. Decreased back, shoulder and neck pain can be expected from all of the modalities used.
Sunday Dec. 5th, 2010, Myofascial Assessment and Tx of Temporomandibular Joint Dysfunction & Thoracic Outlet Syndrome
-9am to 3pm-this workshop will take therapists through detailed assessment of the TMJ and Cervical Spine, then progress into treatment ideas to release the TMJ, Thoracic Outlet ,and surrounding fascial tissues. Focus will be on release of the trapezius, SCM, ear, TMJ, sternal, clavipectoral, deltopectoral fascias, and the galea aponeurotica (scalp). Mastoid, jugular foramen, and hyoid release will be shown, as well as direct treatment procedures for the temporalis, masseter, medial & lateral pterygoids. Intra-oral work using gloves will round out the many treatment approaches taught during the class.
MORE ABOUT MYOFASCIAL: Fascia is a Connective Tissue (CT) that connects and compartmentalizes everything in the body. It wraps around the organs, blood vessels, nerves, and bone and becomes tendons and ligaments. Fascia is a combination of cells and fibers suspended in a fluid matrix – a mixture that’s almost 70% water. (When they say the body is 90% water and you wonder, where is all that water? Well, you now have an answer.) The majority of that water is in the fascia which, as we already know, is everywhere. The cells in the fascia are primarily immune cells and the fibers, (suspended in that water mixture), are structural fibers, some of which you may have heard of – collagen, elastin, reticulin.
So where does this “myofascial treatment” stuff come in? When everything in the body is working well, the fascia, which is normally a movable and fluid substance, promotes healing. Healthy myofascia ensures that the muscles tendons and ligaments are well lubricated, and can glide against each other or bone smoothly. On the other hand, whenever the body experiences fatigue, stress, trauma or malnutrition, it can damage the ground substance of the fascia which can lead to increased healing time, increased toxins and increased pain sensitivity. Anatomists have learned that fascia responds well to energy, heat, or charge by aligning along the lines of stress placed on it. This is called the “Piezo Electric Effect”. Whenever we touch the body our hands induce a charge. This charge is normally undirected and undetected; however, when a myofascial practitioner directs her or his hands effectively they can use that charge to heat and soften the fascia, and allow it to realign to its healthy state.
A good way to picture fascia is to use the “SWEATER CONCEPT”. Think about what a wet sweater looks like when you first take it from the washing machine. If you just left it balled up then as it dried it would dry with kinks in it. If you lay it flat then it would dry in that position; but, if you hang it, the weight of the water stretches and elongates the fibers of the sweater. When it finally dries it will be longer than when you first put it into the washing machine. If we apply this concept to the fascia in the body: the way the sweater normally exists is similar to the way our fascia exists in a normal state of functioning – dealing with the normal stressors of everyday life. If you abuse it – through exaggerated stress, malnutrition, trauma or fatigue, your fascia starts to look the way that wet sweater looks when you take it out of the dryer. When you receive a myofascial treatment, your fascia begins to look like that sweater that was left hung up to dry. Although this may not be the desired condition of a $400 cashmere sweater, the elongation and softness of the fibers is exactly what you want from your fascia. Warm, lubricated, elongated fascia is happy fascia.
The other interesting trait of fascia is that it is connected throughout the body. Therefore, a fascial plane (a line of connected fascia in the body), can be affected in many different places and these effects can manifest in different places far away from the point of origin. Let’s try another image, let’s think of a fitted sheet on a bed. Imagine that sheet is the fascia of the body. If you move to the foot of the bed and bunch up some of that sheet in your hand, you’ll notice that the sheet stretches and pulls, and you get long wrinkles that sometimes reach all the way to the head of the bed. Now remember, that sheet is our fascia. If that’s the case and you injure or stress some part of the fascia on the bottom of the feet, think about how that fascial plane will pull all the way up the backs of the legs and the back and the neck all the way to the head. You could end up with a headache because of an injury to your foot!
Myofascial treatment seeks to release the entire fascial plane. By releasing the legs you can get relief in the back, by releasing the jaw you can get relief from a migraine, by releasing the pelvis you can get relief in the shoulders and so on and so on. Myofascial treatment can have remarkable results on everything from normal muscle aches and pains to surgery scars, hernias and deep adhesions. Myofascial treatment is a fascinating field that is only recently starting to be explored by therapists with tremendously successful results for patients!