We often have people ask us about the use of the words PRI and Postural Restoration Institute. Most recently we received this email and decided to take the opportunity to educate everyone on this issue.
“I have been hearing the phrase ‘doing PRI with my patients’ being used by some therapists for a while now. I am not sure this is correct. To me it sounds like the therapist is saying ‘doing Postural Restoration Institute with my patients’. I could understand ‘using PRI methods’, or ‘PRI techniques’, but the active verb of ‘doing PRI’ doesn’t seem like the proper use of the PRI initialism. I highly respect this approach but I also understand how language sometime evolves incorrectly (for example: ATM machines, PIN numbers, ITB band).”
“I have been doing PRI on my patients for years and the PRI has helped me teach PRI!” This statement was said correctly. PRI is a tradename, a brand, a label, etc. that reflects position, process or approach. PRI is also an acronym. The Postural Restoration Institute is the name of an Institute. Our attorneys are well versed in these issues. You use Kleenex to blow your nose. It is a branded soft tissue. Its acronym stands for nothing, that I am aware of. PRI is a brand name, a “Kleenex” of an approach to restore posture or perform postural rehabilitation. It’s acronym in this form, grammatically, is meaningless. Instead of calling this method or approach a different name, we decided to use the acronym of the Institute to “brand” it. “Postural Restoration” does not brand an approach. “Pilates” is a form of postural restoration, as is “Feldenkrais”. There are hundreds of different approaches that could be used to restore posture. Hope this helps you understand the legal world and world of PRI as an acronym and as a brand.
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