Last weekend was memorable for several reasons. The first one was the new facility we were blessed to be welcomed into for the weekend. The Children's Health Andrews Institute for Orthopedics is a new facility in Plano, TX, and it is gorgeous. It's a relationship between Children's Health and Dr. James Andrews, and the facility has physical therapy, EXOS Sports Performance, and is state of the art. Thank you to Alex Lopez, Brittani Cookinham, and Stephen Laplante for their hospitality and all the set up they did for us.

We had a great group of mostly first-timers to the science of PRI. And we had a great diverse crowd of athletic trainers, strength and conditioning specialists, and physical therapist/PTA's. We even had one Physician Assistant.

Myokinematic Restoration provides a great foundational platform that allows us to explore the mechanical ramifications surrounding the hip and pelvis as a result of the dominant L AIC pattern. We were able to relate normal positional mechanics and normal compensatory patterns that occur as a result of the right diaphragm's influence on the L AIC pattern. After that foundation, moving into pathology and Myokinematic relationships that exist due to the pattern became an exploration of polyarticular chains of muscles. These concepts allowed us to build our assessment and treatment framework for the rest of the weekend.

I greatly appreciate John Key and Katrina Earley for allowing us to learn from them during our demonstrations. There were so many great questions during the weekend, and I appreciate Paul Monje, Rayanne Garcia, Michael Wright, Joni Robertson, Andrew Gallucci, and Meka Venkatanaresh for their enthusiasm and re-states. And a special thank you to Kasey Aikin, PRC for her help assisting throughout the weekend! I thoroughly enjoyed my weekend in The Lone Star state, and the course attendees were a huge reason why. I am looking forward to seeing many of you in future PRI courses!

Each year our Interdisciplinary Integration Symposium brings many different people and perspectives together for collegiate and collaborative discussion unified around a global topic of interest. This year, not only were we fortunate to welcome attendees from as far away as Australia, but we were also humbled to interact with attendees from at least 30 different states over the course of this two day Symposium. The variety of knowledge and unique approach that each individual brings with them, also strengthens the Symposium as a whole.

 The speaker panel this year included, Dr. Rosalba Courtney, Dr. Brad Story, Ruth Hennessy, Mandy Harvey, Dr. Howard Hindin, Dr. Ingo Titze, and Ron Hruska. Not only were their presentations perfectly in tune with the overall message, but the various backgrounds present allowed for even more resonance to occur between the speakers themselves and attendees as a whole. The power of PRI from my perspective is exactly this. The ability to bring together A Singer, a Myologist, a Physical Therapist, a Student, a Dentist, a Speech Pathologist, a Vocalist, a Optometrist, a Occupational Therapist, and a couple PhD’s in Voice Studies just to name a few. Not only does this Institute welcome all professions and mindsets, but we welcome them with the common goal of collaboration and integration at the forefront of this patient centered treatment approach.

Thank you all for contributing in your own ways, to the success of this year’s Symposium. You will continue to resonate with us all and your voices will continue to be heard all across #prination

The full photo album from these two days can be viewed HERE!

Stay tuned for more from Mandy Harvey’s presentation, and please consider joining us next year for the 2020 Symposium “Extrapyramidal Disorders: An Interdisciplinary Approach in the Management of Involuntary Movement” on April 23-24, 2020 Followed by a celebration of the 20^th Anniversary of the Postural Restoration Institute! See you there!

What a group of course attendees that came to Postural Respiration hosted by Alta Bates Summit Physical Therapy in Oakland, CA! First timers really shined in terms of curiosity and questions to absorb the foundations of PRI. There were students that traveled as far away as Alaska, Hawaii and Washington State. The course started out with definitions. What is posture and how do you define it? What is neutral rib alignment in a dynamic, tri-planer context? What does respiration have to do with posture and alignment?

The veterans with PRI were exposed to the new and revised Postural Respiration course and the feedback from them was really enthusiastic. One of the new attendees wanted just a little more lab time so he was chosen as the subject of a review of all of the AIC/BC tests Sunday afternoon. Non-manual and single person manual techniques did not get him inhibit is neurological system and at 3:45pm on Sunday, a little PRI magic had to appear! After all, it was the bottom of the ninth, nearly 40 pairs of student eyes are watching and is the student going to experience what it is like to be neutral for perhaps the first time since he was an infant? Taylor Lewis, PRT, a veteran lab assistant (And great guy who uses PRI with Cystic Fibrosis patients) assisted with a two person infraclavicular pump. This young athletic man who was demonstrated on was also a prime example of what one would imagine as having perfect posture on visual inspection (could even win an award for it!) standing nice and tall. Problem was, all of his PRI tests were positive and he was neurologically extended head to toe! After this two person manual technique was performed, all PRI tests became negative, much to his delight including class attendees and maybe even the course instructor! He sat up and said "I feel sooo good and relaxed!".

Lab this weekend with testing, non-manual techniques and manual techniques was totally fun for everyone and was a great balance to didactic learning going from concept to experience and then having this last lab to send everyone home with as to what is possible when you just keep exploring treatment options with PRI techniques. Thank you Taylor Lewis, PRT, Carol Kahn, PT, PRC as my lab assistants but also thank you ,Tim Dempsey, PRT, for attending while also helping as a third assistant over the weekend. These courses take a lot of work by the host site. Thank you Shaun Buchanan, PT, Marcela Larrondo, PT, Joan Sheppard-Mellows and the rest of the supporting crew from Alta Bates Summit Physical Therapy.

This past week, at our Annual Interdisciplinary Integration Symposium, we presented the PRI Director’s Dedication Award to three very deserving individuals who have had a tremendous impact on our Institute over the years; Donna Parise Byrne, Dan Houglum, and Josh Olinick. The PRI Director’s Dedication Award was established by the Board of Directors (Ron Hruska, Janie Ebmeier, Jennifer Platt and Bobbie Rappl) in 2012 to recognize individuals’ ongoing dedication to their advancement in PRI.

Past PRI Director’s Dedication Award recipients include: Susan Henning and Joe Belding (December 2012); Kyndall Boyle and James Anderson (April 2014); Michael Cantrell (December 2014); Jason Masek (April 2015); Michal Niedzielski (December 2015); Jennifer Poulin and Lori Thomsen (April 2017); and Kentaro Ishii and Sayuri Abe-Hiraishi (December 2017). An award recognition plaque is displayed at the Postural Restoration Institute® in Lincoln, Nebraska, recognizing each of the PRI Directors Dedication Award recipients.

Donna Parise Byrne attended her first PRI course in 2009, and has taken 28 PRI courses since that time. She was a member of the 2012 Postural Restoration Certified™ (PRC) class. Donna's background and love for Pilates led to discussions with Ron Hruska about PRI's integration with Pilates very early on in her PRI journey. This later led to her involvement with the PRI Affiliate Course, PRI Integration for Pilates, which was offered for the first time in 2017. Those who have attended this course, have loved it, and we look forward to watching it grow in attendance in the coming years. Donna owns Pilates Central in Wilmette, Illinois, where she has hosted several PRI courses over the years.

Dan Houglum attended his first PRI course in 2004, and over the past 16 years he has attended 45 PRI courses. He was also a member of the 2012 Postural Restoration Certified™ (PRC) class. Dan spent much of his early career working in corporate PT/rehab settings, and in 2015 he opened Houglum Physical Therapy so that he could offer one-on-one hour long patient care at two locations: Pilates Central (with PRC colleague Donna Parise Byrne) in Wilmette, Illinois, and The Trainer's Club in Deerfield, Illinois. Dan joined the PRI Faculty in 2016, and teaches Myokinematic Restoration. His students love him, and his background in athletic training, corporate PT, and now private practice offers a great blend of experience to all of those attending. He has put together a wonderful white paper to help colleagues and students further titled, Hruska Abduction and Adduction Lift Tests as Related to the Gait Cycle.

Josh Olinick attended his first PRI course in 2006 as a PT student, after being introduced to PRI by Kyndy Boyle (a past PRI Directors Dedication Award Recipient) who was on faculty at Elon University. Josh and his wife Katie own STEPS for Recovery in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, a clinic which offers physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy. Over the past 14 years, Josh has taken 31 PRI courses. He was a member of the 2011 Postural Restoration Certified™ (PRC) class. In 2010, Josh co-authored "The Value of Blowing up a Balloon" with Kyndy Boyle and Cynthia Lewis, which was published in the North American Journal of Sports Physical Therapy. Josh's background in engineering makes his brain fit for PRI, and he is always askign great questions, he frequently submits ideas and white papers (see all of his papers on his bio here) to help others learn and understand PRI better, and he always has his patient's and other PRI colleague's back. In his spare time, he has hand-crafted around a dozen PRI logos in all kinds of woods, which are proudly displayed in clinics across the country.

Congratulations to all three of these wonderful individuals. We are so honored and proud to know you and have you associated with our Institute! CLICK HERE to view all of the photos from the award presentations.