Therapist Treatment Strategy and Client Self-Care

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Clinical Orthopedic Manual Therapy (COMT): Therapist Treatment Strategy and Client Self-Care is a 2-day hands-on interactive workshop that is part of a new COMT Intensive Skillset Certification Program offered by Dr. Joe Muscolino. The goal of the Intensive Skillset Certification is to reinforce and hone essential COMT assessment and treatment skills, thereby strengthening your level of critical thinking and effectiveness of practice.

DAY ONE – THERAPIST TREATMENT STRATEGY: Massage is often administered in a pre-set “cookbook” fashion in which every client receives the same treatment regardless of their conditions and needs. But COMT is truly an integral aspect of the health field, and as such, requires treatment strategy skills on the part of the therapist. Day One begins with the tools necessary for therapist treatment strategy to be honed. We will begin with a thorough discussion and workshopping of how to perform an accurate and thorough verbal history. The verbal history is often as important if not more important than the physical exam. We then delve into how to conduct a disciplined and thorough physical examination, concluding with the critically important report of findings to the client. The report of findings is likely the most important communication that the therapist and client will ever have because it determines whether the client signs on for the care plan that will be in his/her best interest to heal. Finally, we discuss how to develop and create the actual treatment plan for the client: what therapeutic techniques will be implemented, how these techniques will be administered, as well as the frequency of care that will be recommended.

DAY TWO – CLIENT SELF-CARE: Client self-care is an essential part of any treatment program when performing clinical orthopedic manual therapy to remedy a specific musculoskeletal (neuro-myo-fascio-skeletal) condition. Even if a client were to see their therapist every day, seven days a week, for a one-hour session of care each time, there are still another 161 hours in the week in which the client is at home, work, or other activities. If the client is engaging in unhealthy postures or movement patterns (actures), all the good of the treatment sessions can easily be lost. On the other hand, these 161 other hours are a wonderful opportunity for the client to support and reinforce the manual therapy care administered by the therapist. For these reasons, client self-care is often the critical piece that is missing in an effective treatment plan for the client. In this workshop, we will discuss and workshop important postures and movement patterns, as well as stretching and strengthening, and other self-care measures for the client. And we will discuss and workshop how to effectively communicate the need for these healthy self-care measures to the client.

The approach of this workshop is to teach from the perspective of critical thinking in a hands-on setting so that you learn to critically assess the client’s posture and movement patterns in relationship to their musculoskeletal condition, and arrive at the proper counsel regarding self-care for the client.

This workshop will build mastery and confidence in your assessment and treatment strategy skills. Coupling this mastery with the mastery of effective communication and implementation of self-care posture and movement patterns, stretching, and strengthening, as well as other aspects of client self-care, into the treatment plan strategy involving soft tissue manual therapy (massage) skills will lift your clinical orthopedic manual therapy practice to a new level!

COMT: Orthopedic Assessment Testing is part of the new COMT Intensive Skillset Certification.

The six courses in the Intensive Skillset Certification series are:
Palpation Assessment
Orthopedic Assessment Testing
Body Mechanics for the Therapist
Stretching: Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced Neural Inhibition Techniques
Arthrofascial Stretching: Grade IV Joint Mobilization for the Manual Therapist
Therapist Treatment Strategy and Client Self-Care