Continuing Education Courses

What do you do to deepen your knowledge and experience after taking the Anatomy Trains for Manual Therapy or Anatomy Trains for Movement basic course?

• Join the Anatomy Trains Forum on this website is an easy low-budget answer.

• Going for the full KMI Professional Certification is the high end of time and money investment, but the intermediate path is our series of advanced short courses.

Our intermediate short courses offer the same fun, direct, conceptually rich, lavishly illustrated, and immediately applicable spirit that imbues the basic Anatomy Trains classes.

We offer these courses intermittently, and they are on the course schedule. Some may be available to you, others may not currently be scheduled within your reach. We invite sponsorship inquiries to present any of the following courses for your group.


ANATOMY TRAINS - MYOFASCIAL MERIDIANS COURSES
Our entry-level courses in connected anatomy.


Anatomy Trains Manual Therapy
2-4 days, no prerequisite

A revolutionary re-vision of musculo-skeletal anatomy in terms of functionally connected lines of myofascia. The workshop gives a new perspective and a new way to assess clients’ posture and movement. All 11 myofascial meridians are described, built onto the skeleton, palpated, stretched, and used in postural assessment, with many illustrations and examples. 1/3 of the time is spent on presenting new anatomical concepts, 1/3 on visual assessment using the Anatomy Trains system, and 1/3 on fascial plane and myofascial release techniques from the KMI Structural Integration and movement education 'library'.


Anatomy Trains – Manual Therapy Extended
3 x 2 days, no prerequisite

The Anatomy Trains material, spread out to allow for more application time in both postural assessment and myofascial technique.

• Section 1: Intro and the ‘Cardinal’ Lines – Front, Back, and Lateral Lines,

• Section 2: The Spiral Line and Shoulders and Arms,

• Section 3:  The Core and the Deep Front Line. Same material, just an expanded program to allow for 2-day commitments, and more time for hands-on and assessment application.

Anatomy Trains – Movement
2 – 4 days, no prerequisite

In this course the Anatomy Trains map is applied to movement modalities such as yoga, Pilates, dance, or personal training. All 11 myofascial meridians are described, built on to the skeleton, and then applied to postural and movement patterns via demonstrations, stretches, exercises, and inner sensing – all relevant to your personal or therapeutic work with movement.


Anatomy Trains & Yoga
2 – 4 days

The Anatomy Trains material applied specifically to yoga asana. The application is ‘non-denominational’ and works equally well for hatha, vini, or ashtanga practice. The Anatomy Trains concept allows the details of Western anatomy to be more directly useful to the yoga teacher or practitioner, and has great explanatory power for analyzing asana and problems with asana, adjustments in the poses, and therapeutic applications.

Although asana practice and demonstration occur throughout the class, this is not a yoga class, and the leader may or may not be a certified yoga teacher. The intent of this class is to convey a ‘lens’ on anatomy that is immediately useful for the yoga teacher or student, but not to teach yoga itself.


THE BODY3 SERIES
Regional courses in soft-tissue technique

The Body3 Series
2 – 3 days each, manual therapy training prerequisite

Each of the Body3 series is a short intensive course limited to specific anatomy and heavy on manual soft-tissue technique. Each course focuses on 15 – 20 core ‘templates’ for technique, which can be applied in different ways for different patterns in your clients. The courses fully explain the intent and scope of each move.

You may take these courses in any order.

Come out of these courses with new tools for soft-tissue release.


Arches and the Legs

1. This course focuses on good foot and leg support through: The 3 (or 4) arches of the foot, how they act in walking and standing, and
2. The balance of support the arches receive from the long muscles of the calf, and
3. Unwinding rotational compensations in the foot, the tibia-fibula complex and the knee.

Intrinsic Muscles of the Pelvis
This course sheds light on the pelvis – the keystone of human architecture - by organizing the 20 or so muscles of the pelvis into three fans. Get specific with sensitivity. Highlights include:

1. The abductors on the side of the thigh
2. The deep lateral rotators and pelvic ligaments
3. The adductors and ischial ramus, with connections to the pelvic floor, and
4. The psoas complex

Breath – Anatomy and Therapeutics
This course focuses on ribcage and thoracic spine mechanics, and includes:

1. The anatomy and physiology of the breath
2. Various therapeutic views of the ‘normal’ breath
3. Techniques for abdominal fasciae, ribs, vertebral rib joints, and mediastinal visceral tissues, scalenes, and lumbar muscles,
4. Techniques for facilitation of the ‘breath wave’ into the front, back, and sides, as well as into each ‘quadrant’ of the rib cage.

The Tensegrity Spine
This course examines the spine as a tensegrity truss – how the bones float within the myofascial balance. Assessment and techniques for freeing and balancing the spine address:

1. Anterior and posterior curvatures – lordosis and kyphosis,
2. Side bends,
3. Rotations (and counter-rotations),
4. Guy-wires on both the front and the back of the spine, and
5. Balancing trunk spinal work into the cervical spine and sacrum.

Neck, Shoulder, and Thorax
The shoulder rests on the thorax and hangs from the neck. Most long-term shoulder dysfunctions need to consider all three elements in the ‘cure’. In this course, we combine techniques from the breathing workshop and the arm workshop to take a comprehensive look at how to resolve malalignment of the shoulder complex balanced in our upright posture.

Techniques include:

1. Rib cage tilts and repositioning
2. Scalenes and head-neck positioning
3. Shoulder pivots and the balance between stability and mobility in the shoulder
4. The shoulder ‘X’ – the underlying muscles that create shoulder stablity

Shoulders and Arms
In this driving day and computer age, the arms get unique usage these days. This course travels from the shoulder to the hand on the Arm Lines, giving techniques for every station along the way.
These include:

1. Releases for each joint of the shoulder
2. Soft-tissue techniques for shoulder muscles
3. Elbow and upper arm muscle releases
4. Lower arm extensor, flexor, radial, and ulnar releases
5. Wrist and hand work

The Neck and Jaw
This course focuses on key areas of the neck and jaw complex, including:

1. The sub-occipital muscles,
2. The laminar groove and deep cervical muscles,
3. The muscular wires off the front of the neck – anterior scalenes and colli muscles,
4. Intra-oral work for the hyoid complex, the tongue, and the floor of the mouth, and
5. The jaw muscles, TMJ, the palate and facial muscles

VISUAL ASSESSMENT TRAINING
Courses to help you recognize and analyze body patterns

BodyReading 101
2 - 3 days, ATMT or ATM a prerequisite

"Seeing is touch at a distance," said Ida Rolf. Learn to see and understand postural patterns in the body, using the Anatomy Trains updated version of her masterful visual assessment. Work smarter rather than harder, by identifying the strain patterns that underlie the pain patterns. See how the pain in their right shoulder is really set up by the collapse in the left ankle.

The more you can see, the more efficient your work becomes. Develop more holistic strategies for resolving strain patterns and finding the structural ‘keys’ to create longer-lasting effective work. During this course we

1. Develop and practice a simple but effective vocabulary for describing skeletal relationships – tilts, shifts, and rotations in the spine, shoulders, pelvis, and legs,
2. Use the Anatomy Trains as a map for seeing the global as well as local soft-tissue patterns that create that skeletal geometry, and
3. Develop coherent single- or multi-session strategies based on what we see / feel

There is ample time for small group and individual practice, so that you come out of this course with a dramatically improved ability to see, describe, strategize, and unwind postural holding patterns.


BodyReading in Movement
2 – 3 days, ATMT or ATM a prerequisite

Building on the postural assessment, in this course we add more movement:

1. Learn to see and understand gait patterns and pelvic movement,
2. See where holding is limiting the movements of the pelvis, the rib cage, the spine, and the shoulders,
3. Learn to see the arches in action in walking,
4. Learn specific assessments for breathing – standing, sitting, and lying.
5. Learn to asses specific activities of daily life and sport, such as reaching, sitting, running, lifting, and shifting weight from one leg to the other.

Come out of this course never to be bored in airports again, and ready to make sense of complex movement patterns.


Advanced BodyReading
3 – 4 days, ATM or BodyReading 101 a prerequisite

Learn to see and feel advanced patterns in posture and function. Building on previous skills, in this course we add subtle palpation skills to the visual and functional assessment.

1. Learn to assess neural, fluid, and fascial vitality,
2. Learn to recognize embryological types – endo-, meso-, and ectomorphy - and some forms of arrested physical development,
3. Build your skills in membrane assessment for visceral, cranial, and fascial plane disruptions, and
4. Learn to feel the subtle shifts in the tidal flows of the human being.

Come out of this course as a more finely tuned antenna for your clients.



ADDITIONAL COURSE IN MANUAL THERAPY:

Introduction to KMI Structural Integration
3 – 4 days, no prerequisite

KMI – Kinesis Myofascial Integration – is an evolved version of Dr Ida Rolf’s pioneering multi-session series designed to progressively and permanently change your body about your mind. This introduction ot the 500-hr certificaiton includes an overview of the fascial system and the 12-session series, an introduction to the KMI method of bodyreading, and manual skills in contacting and moving fascia. This course also includes the rationale behind emotional and developmental unfolding in KMI work.


Soft –Tissue Master Classes
1 – 3 days, ATM and manual therapy prerequisites

Learn advanced techniques and put holistic treatment strategies into practice in this soft-tissue master class. These short soft-tissue classes are often placed at the end of Anatomy Trains or other classes for experienced practitioners to get more detailed and focused hands-on exploration of a particular area or issue. Each day concentrates on a particular area such as the neck, low back, groin, etc. If appropriate, students may bring in models or problem clients for consultation on a new approach.


THE YOGA SERIES
Courses designed particularly for the yoga teacher or advanced student

Although asana practice for demonstrational purposes occur throughout these classes, this is not a yoga class, and the leader may or may not be a certified yoga teacher. The intent of this class is to convey a ‘lens’ on anatomy that is immediately useful for the yoga teacher or student, but not to teach yoga itself.


Anatomy Trains & Asana
2 – 4 days

The Anatomy Trains material applied specifically to yoga asana. The application is ‘non-denominational’ and works equally well for hatha, vini, or ashtanga practice. The Anatomy Trains concept allows the details of Western anatomy to be more directly useful to the yoga teacher or practitioner, and has great explanatory power for analyzing asana and problems with asana, adjustments in the poses, and therapeutic applications.

This class focuses on the classical standing and sitting poses, with application to the Front, Back, Lateral, and Spiral Anatomy Trains lines.


Using Your Arms as legs – The Anatomy of Inversions
2 days

Proper support in inversions - from downward dog to the shoulder stand, headstand, and forearm balance - requires a unique and unusual use of your anatomy – you are essentially asking the arm to act like legs. The scapula, clavicle, shoulder joint, and ribs all contribute to this equation. In this course we examine the complex anatomy of the shoulder girdle, and how it can be properly stabilized to provide firm and lasting support. Also included is work with the ‘natural’ posture of the shoulder girdle in tadasana and common occupational patterns.

This class focuses on the Arm Lines and the Spiral Line in the various inversions, with reference to common shoulder injuries from carpal tunnel right up to the neck.


Breath, Banda, and Core Integration
2 days

This course concentrates on opening the mysteries of the core, or Deep Front Line in the Anatomy Trains system. From the inner arch to the jaw, the deep musculature surrounding the organs is explained, felt, and brought into the deeper asanas. Various views of the bandas are explored in a non-judgmental inquiry, using the anatomy of the pelvic floor, diaphragm, and throat muscles as a starting point. Various views of breathing are likewise explored using the anatomy of the rib cage as a reality check.

This class exposes the details of core anatomy in a uniquely understandable and applicable way for the yoga teacher or adept.


Touching to Educate, Touching to Change
2 days

Touching your students skillfully is not often a major feature of many yoga-teacher trainings. Yet your touch - correctly applied - can make all the difference when added to your verbal directions. This course is designed to educate the yoga teacher in unique and varying ways to adjust students in order to deepen the poses and help students find new space in the body or in the asana.

Add to your touch ‘vocabulary’ by learning to convey movement and space through your hands in differing ways: - ‘directional’ touch (including the use of a yoga belt), - deep touch to help students find ‘lost’ part of their core, and – touch for movement to help stuck part of the body move in proper sequence..

This course includes how to ‘treat’ excess curves with font-back touch, shifts with side-to-side touch, and rotations with asymmetrical touch. Also included are spots to invoke core awareness and images to evoke new movement.



DEVELOPMENTAL

Ultimate Beginnings – Embryology for the Bodyworker
2 days

The miracle of our embryological creation is packed with insight into the person we will become. This course traces the development of the human from before conception to birth, with an emphasis on the development of body structure and movement. And psychobiology. Follow the complexities of the strange origami that folds and unfolds a single cell into a human being.

In this course, illustrated lectures alternate with inner space meditations and movement explorations.


Kinesis - Spiraling Into Alignment
2 - 4 days

This course is a fabulous and simplified training in guiding developmental movement. This work was originally designed for new parents to teach them ‘handling skills’, the better to interact with their infants during the first non-verbal year of life.

This course teaches the same skills for health professionals who deal with any-sized clients, but especially for midwives, nurses, doulas, or peri-natal teachers. The information is also easily applicable in the bodywork-client or teacher-student relationship, as assessment or in applications such as getting clients effortlessly off the table..

Learn the non verbal language of movement as we trace the developmental moves and positions in the womb, as well as the spiraling and flexion-extension progression toward independence through the first year of life.

Practical applications abound - to play, putting on clothes, changing diapers, as well as general applications to walking, standing, and alignment. This work is so necessary to the proper education of the 21st century child, and is especially recommended to new Dads to help them learn to touch and move with their new child.


The Physiology of Emotional Release
2 days

This course charts the progress of emotional release and resolution in the bodywork session. The somatic component of emotional release – shaking, crying, strong emotions - can be scary for some clients – and for some therapists as well. This course brings a depth of understanding to the inner process of body memories and how overwhelming events can get trapped in the neuro-muscular system. Follow the cycle of charge and discharge in the autonomic nervous system. Learn to track where a client is on this cycle through reading the subtle signs in breathing, skin tone, sweating, pupil dilation, etc. Become more confident in handling the emotional issues in your practice – not be ‘playing psychotherapist’, but by becoming an observant and knowledgeable guide through the complex valleys of the soma.

Learn the ancient roots of our modern repression of emotions in the autonomic nervous system, and how the ‘fight, flight, or freeze’ process can get unhooked and released for good. Filled with practical information on stress, distress, and how to comfortably and confidently guide a client through somato-emotional release.



COURSES FOR THE PUBLIC


The User’s Guide to the Human Body
2 - 3 days

A new view of human structure and function, a feast of fascinating facts and new outlooks on our form, our formation, and our possibilities. See your inner systems from an entirely different viewpoint than the one you were taught in school. This tour includes current research findings in embryology and movement, posture and evolution, exercise and health, and the situation for the contemporary planetary and personal healer.

Guaranteed to change your point-of-view on your self and your work in the world.


The World According to Fascia
2 days

“Fascia 101” covers the properties, development, and anatomy of the ubiquitous, important, and largely ignored connective tissue net, including various manual and movement approaches to spatial change. Profusely illustrated, this workshop brings the ‘organ of form’ alive, connecting it to our shape, function, memory, consciousness, growth, and movement / exercise. The extensions of the fascial net into the brain and organs, and its fascinating role in their formation and regulation are explored.

This class includes a guided tour through the various therapeutic approaches to hands-on work affecting muscles, myofasciae and the fascial planes.


The Resilient Human - Stress, Distress, and ‘Prostress’
2 days

‘Stress’ is a commonly thrown-around term these days, but the underlying issue of making peace with animal selves in an electronic world is perhaps the predominant challenge of the 21st century.

This course explores the relation between our body, mind, and emotions, and charts the way toward release and resolution of historical and current stressors that tend to ‘nail a shoe to the floor’ of our emotional lives. Understand the cycle of charge and discharge in your autonomic nervous system. See how your history – the good, the bad, and the ugly – have shaped your bodily responses to certain situations. Learn to track where you are on this cycle through reading the subtle physiological signals. Become more confident in turning your distress into prostress.