Blog Posts in June 2023

Higher Physio is a very special private practice in Uptown Manhattan, New York City.

Julie Zapata, MSPT, the founder and director, specializes in Postural Restoration. She is looking to work with a similarly trained therapist to collaborate and work in order to continue to grow this amazing practice. We are down to earth, caring and compassionate. (Hard to find in a big city like New York)

The practice currently consists of One full time and two part time DPTs, as well as other contractors who provide Massage therapy, Pilates and Yoga training, and Acupuncture.

In addition to PRI, which she only started in 2014, Julie has been extensively trained with Institute of Physical Art and Myofascial Release. She has always believed in individualized one-on-one care. Julie would love to collaborate with and or mentor a younger therapist to become a partner in this journey.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities of the Therapist who joins the practice:

• To perform initial evaluations, PRI based, and establishing a treatment plan with functional goals and treatment progression with discharge planning documented in a timely, compliant manner using web based EMR (webPT)

• To participate in establishing and developing professional relationships with referral sources and the community

Expectations:

• Great patient care and service with a focus on Manual Therapy and Postural Restoration.

• A positive, self-motivated attitude

• LIFELONG LEARNER

• A PASSION for your profession and your patients

We offer:

• Competitive pay

• Paid CEUs and training to be considered

Our practice is friendly and down to earth, and stands out from the competition because of our one-on-one care and compassion. In addition, it is spacious and bright (1000 square feet)

More information about our clinic available at www.higherphysio.com.

Job Type: Part-Time or Independent Contractor or Rent Space.

Julie@higherphysicaltherapy.com for all communication please.

Julie Zapata

Posted June 19, 2023 at 7:28PM

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Postural Respiration - Quincy, IL - Course Review

The Postural Respiration course was tweaked in 2022 to emphasize more neurology and deemphasize some basic orthopedic concepts that had been a staple of previous iterations of the course. Over the last three or four years, much of the course material in PRI has shifted to a more neurological perspective, with extensive research to support this shift. The interesting thing is that the neurology has been present the entire time in PRI course material, but we are now in a position to present the material in a manner that is different than it has been presented previously. The intent of Postural Restoration has always been to use neurology to affect a postural change on the outside of the body by influencing how the body perceives and uses pressure on the inside. Postural Respiration is one of those courses that is now presented in a different manner than it ever used to be.

It was my pleasure to present this material in a new manner to a diverse group of movement specialists. We had half the group who were new to the science of PRI, but we had several attendees who had taken Postural Respiration previously, and in some cases, several times. This time around, we were able to present several of the Respiration concepts in a manner that emphasized the how and why behind the internal neurological influences of external postural changes, such as in the case of Superior T4 syndrome. We were able to spend more time on how to assess and treat individuals with a R BC pattern, as well as how and why the intervention for those who present with pathological respiration patterns needs to be treated differently. This allowed us plenty of time to discuss the process of how to set up a treatment plan and home program.

In addition to a great mix of those who were new to PRI and those who were PRI veterans, it was my great pleasure to have six OT's and a dentist in attendance. Their perspective and feedback was invaluable. Kristin Thompson, PT, and the Quincy Medical Group were fantastic hosts. It was a great venue to host a course. Thank you to Dr. Margie Mannering, DDS, for driving down from Chicago to attend the course. And thank you to the OT Crew; Morgan, Donetta, Erin, Alison, Ashlee, and Claire, for their questions and perspective. My thanks to Leah Whipple, PT, Kelly Gronewold, PT, Joseph Derkits, PT, Tanner Kline, PTA, Dric Davis, PTA, and Maya Venzenkova, PTA, for their questions and willingness to let us learn from their avatars. And my eternal gratitude to Nancy Hammond, PT, PRC, for keeping me honest and helping during our labs. She is a wonderful clinician and person, and it was an honor to have her there.

It was an excellent group of movement specialists, and I hope to see many more PRI courses hosted in Quincy in the near future!

Dan Houglum, MSPT, ATC/L, PRC

Posted June 19, 2023 at 11:48AM

Categories: Courses Science

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Pelvis Restoration - Boston, MA - Course Review

This past weekend I had the privilege of teaching Pelvis Restoration at Northeastern University. Thank you, Steve, Katie, Jai, Mark, and Emily, for hosting. Your enthusiasm for Postural Restoration is evident and I believe this was your 11th course to host for the Institute. You guys are amazing.

I really had a wonderful time teaching a group of health professionals that were open minded to new concepts of normal human asymmetry, polyarticular chain of muscles, patterns and position and respiration as it applied to the pelvis. Over half of the class was attending their first PRI course. Isn’t that fabulous?!! Once you all start to see these patterns and apply PRI concepts, you will start to see improved clinical outcomes with the science of Postural Restoration. I have found PRI to have profoundly impacted my clinical career. I hope it does the same for you. Over the course of the weekend as understanding of the pelvic inlet and outlet were being understood, I appreciated the group discussion and questions with muscles that are “lengthened” and “shortened” in addition to turning muscles “on” with muscle inhibition. Thank you for spending your weekend with me as we learned together. You guys are all amazing.

A huge shout out to my lab assistants Karen and Cheryl—your experience and input over the weekend was appreciated and valued. Miguel—thank you too for your insights and assistance. Having another credentialed provider was helpful. I also enjoyed exploring and taking in Boston in the evening—seeing the Boston “Harba” and the Boston Marathon finish line. I hope to come back!

Lori Thomsen

Posted June 14, 2023 at 3:25PM

Categories: Courses Science

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Myokinematic Restoration - Abilene, TX - Course Review

“The stars at night are big and bright deep in the heart of Texas.” Or in this case throughout the weekend at the Myokinematic Restoration course at Elite Physical Therapy in Abilene, Texas. The attendees which were all bright made for a wonderful weekend teaching for the first time in my home state.

We started the first morning off discussing polyarticular chains of muscles with the emphasis in this course being the anterior interior chain. (AIC). We have two of these chains of muscles, a left and a right, and due to our inherent asymmetries the dominance of the left anterior interior chain was discussed in-depth throughout the weekend.

These patterns are described by chains of muscles which are neurologically driven and orient our bodies into predictable positions. In this course, we looked at the patterned relationship between the lumbar spine, (hip) acetabulum and femur. We broke out in lab with hands on learning how to identify these positions and if these prolonged positions may have caused some further undesired activity at the hip.

The group was incredibly attentive with thought provoking questions. We had a chiropractor, PTs, PTAs, a massage therapist, yoga instructors, personal trainers, and athletic trainers as well. We ended the weekend “sizzling some glutes” with PRI non manual techniques. There is nothing quite more powerful than experiencing the techniques firsthand and the immediate changes that were made.

It was an absolute pleasure teaching in west Texas, the southern hospitality always feels like home.

Kasey Ratliff

Posted June 13, 2023 at 10:35AM

Categories: Courses Science

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Pelvis Restoration - Munich, DE - Review

Wow! What an experience teaching in Munich, Germany. We had healthcare practitioners from over 10 different countries represented at the course this past weekend!!! Yes, you read that currently—10 different countries. Isn’t that amazing! What is even more impressive is that these individuals were learning Pelvis Restoration in a second language for them. One course participant told me that he had to re-learn anatomy from the English language as the translation was different for the muscles and bones. So unbelievable. It was a gift to have two days of learning and teaching and all of us being unified under the science of Postural Restoration.

I felt this group was “hungry” for more information and understanding with PRI. The energy was palpable. I greatly appreciated the lab assistance and PRI experience from Nadja and Tracy to assist me over the weekend as well. The critical thinking, questions, and openness to the course concepts was fantastic. Thank you to this group for giving me grace with my hearing loss—I mis-pronounced names routinely and you were gracious to repeat your questions a time or two as well.

I had a wonderful time teaching and exploring the cultures in both Austria and Germany. We live in a beautiful world, and I am grateful to had gotten to explore more of it, but more importantly I was blessed to have gotten to teach and meet 38 Healthcare workers who have a passion to learn and undeniable compassion to assist their patients to reach their full health care potential and see that it’s possible with the science of PRI.

Thank you, Lindebergs Academy! You were gracious hosts.

Lori Thomsen

Posted June 2, 2023 at 11:03AM

Categories: Science Courses

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Postural Respiration - Live Stream - Review

Postural Respiration was presented at the Postural Restoration Institute May 28-29 to a large zoom audience of students as well as live participants. It is always a pleasure to have students from around the world in different time zones staying up late or getting up early to participate in this flagship primary course. There were students from Australia, Europe and coast to coast from North America and a large percentage of students were first time attendees to a PRI course, and for the majority of students, first time to Postural Respiration.

Delivery of air pressure sense and its effect on pelvis, ribcage and diaphragm shape, form and function are central themes that are returned to over and over in this course as it relates to neurology and ultimately biomechanics.
I taught Postural Respiration two weeks before in Chandler, AZ and there were similarities in terms of lab and demo with one student in each course presenting with almost exactly the same exam findings and same treatment guidelines as defined in this course for Superior T-4.

Often this patho-mechanical compensation can seem daunting to identify and treat, however, in both courses with both attendees, following the course guidelines with a detailed and repetitive description of both non-compensatory respiration and contrasting with patho-mechanical respiration made this difference very clear. Both students remained positive in their PRI testing on day one even after non-manual and manual AIC treatment regimens. Then, on day two following Page 50 guidelines to determine if these individuals were in fact presenting with Superior T-4, a subclavius release with infra-clavicular pump was performed and all tests became negative with both cases. No pressure, but the instructor is always relived when this occurs!

The overuse of accessory muscles of respiration became very clear to all attendees in both classes knowing that scalenes, for instance, need to act more like initiators of the first rib to signal rostal to caudal sequential rib elevation and not become primary rib lifters attempting to direct and deliver air inappropriately into a right chest wall. Superior T-4 became very clear as to just one more step in the treatment guidelines for effective and balanced delivery of airflow pressure sense. This allows then alternating and reciprocal function into the entire physiological, neurological and biomechanical systems.

All in all it was a wonderful course especially the time and attention all of the students provided and "spot-on" questions that were asked. Thanks to all of our students especially on zoom from different continents and time zones. And the course was facilitated so well by RJ Hruska as he makes the process go so easy for students and instructors!