Note: These modules are being taught as part of ATSI Part 1 in Canada. To sign up for the full program, click here.
Note: Prices are in USD.
The Structural Essential series is a set of intensive soft-tissue technique courses divided into functional regions. Combining movement and manual techniques for the most efficient and long-lasting results, and using the latest research on the interaction between skeleton, muscles, joints, and fascial proprioceptors, this series of workshops will take you to a new level in therapy.
Designed with the busy manual therapist in mind, each Structural Essentials event gives you a new understanding of the relevant area. The content will outline how the structural and functional anatomy relates to many common issues as well as to the rest of the body. Based on many new and established approaches this series will give you the skills in palpation, BodyReading and functional analysis needed for the modern multidisciplinary therapist.
March 30-31, 2027
Shoulders and Arms
In this driving day and computer age, the arms get unique usage these days. Requiring a complex equation of stability versus mobility to balance correctly on the rib cage, the shoulders can easily be used to compensate for thoracic and cervical deviations or be the cause for them. This can lead to issues traveling down into the arms and hands, up into the neck and jaw or even into the spine and rib cage.
You will learn to recognize ‘ideal’ and compensated patterns and how to tie them into the story of the rest of the body. This will allow you to see what work needs to be done to create lasting results for this area.
This course focuses on the area from the shoulder to the hand through the Arm Lines, including techniques for every link in this area.
These techniques include:
- balancing the shoulder girdle on the rib cage
- release of each joint of the shoulder girdle
- release techniques for the shoulder muscles
- release techniques for elbow and upper arm muscles
- release techniques for the forearm muscles
April 1-2, 2027
Head, Neck and Jaw
The neck is a remarkable feat of biomechanical engineering, giving a combination of wide range of movement but maintaining a structural strength. It is often seen as the last site of compensation as it corrects for any alteration from below allowing the eyes and ears to orient to the horizon. Patterns can of course work their way in the other direction and particularly from the jaw and its many possible patterns of movement and holding. This course will focus on key areas of the neck and jaw complex to allow you to build successful strategies to ease these potential problem areas alleviating the issues working in both directions and setting the body up for a longer lasting change.
Highlights include:
- The sub-occipital muscles
- The laminar groove and deep cervical muscles
- The muscular wires of the front of the neck – anterior scalenes and longus colli muscles
- Intra-oral work for the hyoid complex, the tongue, and the floor of the mouth
- The jaw muscles, TMJ, the palate and facial muscles
This course examines the spine as a tensegrity truss – how the bones float within the myofascial balance. An integral part of structure we all know the agonizing effects of incorrect mechanics when it doesn’t work and often fail to appreciate the wonderfully adaptive job it does when the vertebrae are allowed to ‘float’.
We will look at the actions available at each of the sections (lumbar, thoracic and cervical) of the spine and how they may lead to certain dysfunctional patterns. By putting the spine into context with the surrounding structures we can better understand the reasons for its limitations and its wondrous abilities.
Once we explain the logic pattern the soft-tissue patterns that surround the spine then through the assessment and learning our techniques for freeing and balancing them you will be able to address many structural and functional issues in the spine.
You will be able to treat the following:
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- balancing lordosis and kyphosis
- lateral curvatures
- rotations (and opposite rotations)
- supporting structures at the front and back of the spine
- balancing the spinal column with respect to the cervical spine and the sacrum
Note: Anatomy Trains in Structure & Function course MUST be taken before taking the SE courses. Familiarity with the Anatomy Trains lines and concepts is key to getting the most from the program.
The Structural Essentials workshops are most easily absorbed in the order outlined below but you can do them in any order as time permits.
- Arches and Legs – 3 days
- Fans of the Hip – 2 ½ days
- Abdomen, Chest and Breath – 2 ½ days
- Tensegrity Spine – 2 days
- Shoulders & Arms – 2 days
- Head, Neck & Jaw – 2 days
Note:- Please do not make any non-refundable travel arrangements until you have received final confirmation that the workshop is running
