Happy New Year!

As we approached this New Year, I reflected on the the year that was 2020. As I transitioned into this new role of Executive Director at the beginning of this year, I could have never imagined the challenges we would be facing in just a few short months. I think most people would agree that 2020 was a year that none of us could have ever predicted, but even with the challenges presented from COVID 19, we were determined to make the best of it. And that’s just what we did! The events of 2020 really encouraged us to explore new ways to expand our ‘reach’. Although we already had our primary courses available online, we transitioned quickly to live stream virtual courses for our secondary, tertiary and affiliate courses, and this allowed us to reach interdisciplinary professionals from all over the world. Several live stream courses were sold out with 100 attendees, and many had at least a dozen countries represented. We are grateful that we were able to continue to reach you through PRIVY and podcasts, in addition to some new projects geared towards expanding our reach to the general public, including the ‘Restoring Alternation’ Patient Daily Living Guide. We also took advantage of the circumstances and reached thousands with our ‘PRI Breathing in COVID Times’ 9-week webinar series, which was (and still is) available online for both the general public and healthcare & fitness professionals. The word ‘reach’ has always been a staple of our Institute, and for those of you who are familiar with the PRI non-manual techniques, you have undoubtedly experienced the power of a reach. While our ability to reach you over this past year has been primarily through digital formats, we are excited to get back to reaching (with) you at our live in-person courses. We will be forever grateful for all of you who allowed us to continue to reach you during this crazy, uncertain past year that was 2020. It’s a year that we will never forget, but due to the circumstances that were presented, we now have many new means in which we plan to continue to reach you in 2021 and beyond.

Although we didn't print a brochure this year, you can see that 'reach' would have been the theme carried out within the pages of our Programs and Courses brochure. Please visit our website over the coming year for the most up to date schedule of our programs and courses. In addition to returning to hosting courses across the country this Spring, we are excited to be offerering over 20 live stream courses this year, and we will also have limited in-person attendance available for each of the live stream courses held in Lincoln, Nebraska.

We hope we have the opportunity to reach you, in one way or another, in this New Year!

We are excited to announce and congratulate the Postural Restoration Certified (PRC) Class of 2020! PRC credentialing is the result of completing multiple advanced PRI courses, demonstrating a thorough understanding of the science through completion of the PRC application, and successfully participating in practical and analytical testing. This week, 11 clinicians earned the designation of Postural Restoration Certified (PRC) under the direction of Ron Hruska, Lori Thomsen, Dan Houglum, and Jennifer Platt earlier this week.

The Postural Restoration Institute established this certification process in 2004 as a way to recognize and identify those individuals with advanced training, extraordinary interest and devotion to the science of postural adaptations, asymmetrical patterns and the influence of polyarticular chains of muscles on the human body as defined by the Postural Restoration Institute. The PRC credentialing program is available to physical therapists, physical therapist assistants, occupational therapists, and chiropractors who have attended PRI courses, demonstrated a thorough understanding of the science through completion of the PRC application, and successfully participate in both clinical and analytical testing. To date, 226 professionals have earned the designation of Postural Restoration Certified (PRC).

To view/download the photos click here.

Back Row (L to R): Ron Hruska, Tracey Blain, Molly Miller, Brad Gilden, Amy Brown, Yohei Takada, Dan Houglum;
Front Row (L to R): Jennifer Platt, Corina Carlson, Danielle Cardinale, Deanna Elliott, Danielle Juckett, Nicole Davison Moore, Paige McNerthney, Lori Thomsen

We all have patients that have a tendency to relapse into a previous condition or mode of behavior that was more than likely built around lateralized pattern strength and movement, that affected both horizontal and vertical cycles of compression and decompression at the pelvis, abdomen, thorax, paranasal sinuses and third and fourth ventricles of the cranium. Focusing on reformatting new methods on how to integrate adductors with abductors, internal rotators with external rotators, or flexors with extensors is a challenge in itself, but when someone’s cycles of rhythm are not in synchrony with that effort, the end result of recidivism is more than likely not the result of erroneous effort or program design. It more likely is a representation, to some degree, of the autonomic nervous system’s role in neuromodulation of the patient’s familiar central nervous system’s past effort. Body motor function, in general, has strong somatic nervous system bias, built by positive reinforcement from past voluntary motor patterning. Successful resolvement (self-regulation, self-healing or self-regulation) of this ANS, CNS and SoNS imbalance requires our vagal nuclei and basal ganglia to respond to cyclical oscillatory rhythm, without a response of threat (ergotropic response) from the ANS.

On-going repatterning occurs with every nuance in life. Our asymmetrical design allows us to remain rhythmical because all three of our nervous systems are dealing with input that is received from two sides of the body, that are purposefully designed for different functional cycling; not bicycling but biologic-cycling. Having the opportunity to relate our clinical relapse dilemmas to research that support effort to program activities that harness patterned laterality and cycling threat through cranial freedom from body dependency on the neck, is something I always look forward to.

The 33 virtual attendee’s interaction, through comments and questions forwarded to Jen Platt and directly to me, during this two day course, enhanced the discussion on how the tone of our body is tuned by ANS tension, and how clinical regulation of cyclical flow of air and frequency of sound, can enhance midrange physiologic outcomes for acceptance of novel physical construct. Cathleen deSmet PT, PRC thank you for your inquisitive and thoughtful questioning and verbal reasoning and verbal repeat of the desirable answer we were trying to achieve. It absolutely benefitted every participant. Alice Lam DDS, you have no idea how much I appreciate your attendance and input. It simply helps everyone when you ask a question from a dental perspective. Greer Mackie PT, DPT, your enthusiasm and smile warmed me and reinforced my passion. Jill Maida PT, DPT, MDT, PRC, your title as “oscillatory” queen will remain with you through my eyes for a long time, simply because your presence invokes oscillation. Rachel Smith DPT,PRC your Sunday dialogue on the ‘centric’ elements of patterned autonomic features  was so appreciated and kept us all engaged. And finally, Jessica Tidswell PT, ATC,PRT, what can I say about someone who I believe has integrated, is integrating, and will continue to integrate the “laterality” of all three neurologic systems, simply because you were born to do so. I really enjoyed seeing and interacting with this entire class of dedicated autonomic, asymmetric, autonomous minded people and look forward to teaching it again in May of next year.  

The greatest directional influence on our body’s tensegrity and tempo is forward movement. All of our integration of planar function and neurosensory function is correlated with our environment moving backward; as we cough, speak, walk, reach, chew, listen, sit, watch, etc. The slightest forward movement of the head, arm or leg, is cortically recognized and managed through vestibular related memory and reflex, and cerebellar coordination of the somatic motor sphere. Our ground and space around us are “ours” when we move forward. No one else possesses this personalized biopsychosocial and psychophysiological event. The benefits associated with forward movement, far out weigh those of moving in any other direction. And that would include the wonderful gift of “falling” backward, only to “catch” ourselves, by reaching forward, with a head, arm or leg.

The greatest benefit of having lateralized cortices for integrated visuo-spatial, hemispheric chest, upper limb and lower limb alternation is bipedal, upright forward locomotor movement. Between five million and seven million years ago, some apelike creatures in Africa began to walk habitually on two legs, through savannas, using visuo-spatial propulsion, inter and intra arm pull, and hemi-chest compression.  They never could have walked from Africa into Asia and Europe, two million years ago, if they did not first make and flake crude stone tools with their upper limbs, a half million years prior to that time.   Their arm function was necessary for their respiratory chest endurance to travel and for their peripheral view as a safe voyager.

The modern form of a human, as we know of today, depended on this earlier pre-existent, hemi-cortical dominance, approximately 200,000 years ago, for refinement of existential forward movement that revolved around the establishment of culture and community.  How we shape, grow, pattern and build our behavior and our body, depends on how we move objects that are in front of us and to the side of us, toward us and to the back of us, with inter and intra-limb pull, chest compression, and visuo-spatial propulsion; all allowing us to move forward, like our 200,000 year old ancestors.

(Sarah Petrich, @drsarahpetrich, Instagram)

Our industrial commercialism, capitalism, and careerism, in the present time, has contributed to our heads moving forward, objects in front of us moving forward with us, and objects or environments on the side of us, all moving forward together at some, or all of the time during “walking”. We are on an ecological and evolutionary timeline where the human, in his and her civilization, are doing everything they can to move themselves forward efficiently, in an existential sense. Unfortunately, because of the un-natural commodities around them, they are also moving the entire environment and world around them, with them. Our cortices developed in size because of the need for cortical interplay, as we became dependent on each other, through our sense of movement, space, communication and balance from our eyes and ears, chest walls and cavities and upper and lower limbs. Concrete pavements, straight walls and fast-moving transport systems did not develop today’s unhealthy and unnatural imbalanced forward locomotion. It did however, help bring out the biological rivalry we so often see in our patients, between their two eyes, ears, arms, chests, and legs; and furthermore, contributed to the more recent world of over lateralization for survival of the fittest, fastest and flattest (spine) humans.

(Sarah Petrich, @drsarahpetrich, Instagram)

Homo Sapiens, and the way they move themselves forward, are still evolving and the four components of corollary cortical function are outlined in this course, simply because these four components and the degree to which they are used with and by each other, will reflect on the future’s researcher and anthropologist studies of Holocene human climate of forward movement patterns. Our social climate, our environmental climate and our health climate reflects the demands and challenges we place on our own bodies and thus the environment that encompasses these human patterns of addicted adduction of four of the most precious resources are bodies possess.

I personally, want to thank Jen Platt who consistently and constantly puts up with me and my insane requests to put material together that has never been put together, to my knowledge, in the manner that we have, with outlined research that supports the forward movement, that we should respect. I have been looking forward to teaching a course like this for many years. Therefore, it is hard to summarize my feelings about this topic and the opportunity that this year and the staff around me, presented me. Such a gift. Personal gratification is extended to all you who are observant, and watchful of this journey, of broadening the environment and evolution that is responsible for the patterned world we live with and in, today.

(Nancy Hammond, @integrate360, Instagram)