Peer-to-Peer Mentoring Videos Incorporating manual therapy into current interventions: Tips from peers In the many years that the Foundations in Manual Therapy: Voice and Swallowing Disorders course has been taught, one of the more frequent questions facing new learners is a deeper understanding of how manual therapy (and shared decision-making) is to be incorporated… Continue Reading
A sample chapter from “Manual therapy in voice and swallowing: A person-centered approach“ Writing Manual therapy in voice and swallowing: A person-centered approach has marked a high point in my career. It resulted from decades of experience in the manual therapy tenches, including some difficult life lessons. Documenting many of the underlying problems with typical… Continue Reading
Walt Fritz, PT’s Podcasts, Videos, and Articles Over the past few years, I’ve been fortunate enough to participate in a number of podcasts and interviews that are available for listening. They range from voice/swallowing-specific to more general interviews that speak to various aspects of the manual therapy work that I teach. Strongly represented are principles… Continue Reading
Getting to yes: Using negotiation in the therapeutic process. Walt Fritz, PT(Updated January 2024) In this article, I want to dive deeply into the options available to the therapist, explicitly using a patient-centered, negotiation-driven model of care. A model like this becomes a therapeutic partnership, an alliance for a common goal. Contrast this model with… Continue Reading
21 Questions: Manual Therapy for Voice and Swallowing Disorders July 2023: While this post is dated regarding the title of my work (I evolved away from “Myofascial release/MFR” and into “manual therapy” due to issues of credibility), the content remains quite relevant. The playlist has expanded well beyond the original 21 videos to give the… Continue Reading
Online Course: Rethinking Manual Therapy and Exercise for the Tongue Course Description: Manual therapy has long been seen as an expert-driven stretching or tissue impact model that reduces or corrects local pathology. However, newer research positions manual therapy as a form of communication to the patient’s brain, allowing them to contribute to change. This course… Continue Reading
Tongue to Toes: How Does This Matter? Over the past few years, this graphic has appeared in various groups and is often used to support the promoted group model. The fascial communities posted this graphic to validate the need for whole body fascial work to release the entire person, not just where the problem is… Continue Reading
Tongue to the Toes Meme (Potential) Trigger Warning Over the past few years, this graphic has appeared in various groups and is often used to support the promoted group model. The fascial communities posted this graphic to validate the need for whole body fascial work to release the entire person, not just where the problem… Continue Reading
References Evidence to support the Voice and Swallowing Disorders seminars may be found here. A partial list of head and neck cancer/dysphagia references may be found here. I recently published a paper in Current Opinion in Otolaryngology and Head & Neck Surgery titled, “The mechanism of action for laryngeal manual therapies: the need for an… Continue Reading
Morrison’s Laryngeal Gutters: Why treat the retrolaryngeal region with manual therapy? Manual therapy, of all types, has been included in the voice (and later swallowing) professional literature since 1985 (Aronson 1). Early on, aggressive laryngeal manipulation was the norm, as it was seen to break up and reduce local muscle tension in the perilaryngeal musculature… Continue Reading
Gil Hedley’s 2024 Nerve Tour: A review On Wednesday, July 31, 2024, I participated in an afternoon workshop presented by anatomist Gil Hedley. This Buffalo, NY, area class was a part of Gil’s 111-city tour. “Gil is embarking on a one of a kind, 111-city tour of the United States and Canada to share his… Continue Reading
Reconciling Manual Therapy’s Use (and Teaching) in Today’s Evidence-Based Culture Manual therapies have been minimized over the past few decades (some say demonized), some of which is well-deserved. Reliance on passive interventions of any type disempowers the patient and can potentially create dependency on the clinician and their services. Another negative is the many multi-tiered… Continue Reading
Feedback from a recent Foundations in Manual Therapy: Voice and Swallowing Disorders Seminar Social media buzz often draws clinicians to my classes, as does word of mouth from previous participants, but there are times when one wants to see exactly the feedback that SLPs (and others) report at the end of a 2-day workshop. I’m… Continue Reading
Seminar Registration Form Please note: Payment should be made before completing this registration form. You may access the form here. Continue Reading
Shielded Work for the Win When beginning my manual therapy journey over 30 years ago, I was taught such work (myofascial release) must be done directly on the skin. It was said that if we worked over clothing, we were “releasing” clothing, not the fascia. Most complied with those requests, as group norms and tribal… Continue Reading
Tools for Trismus and Jaw Opening-Related Conditions A few years back, I made a post about self-treatment options for radiation-induced trismus and other jaw-related problems. Since that time, I’ve found more readily accessible items that can help your patients with these conditions. While my preferred treatment method is using a very gentle finger inserted between… Continue Reading
The hyoid. Must we work so aggressively? Manual interventions to the anterior neck take many forms. My early training taught us to grasp the hyoid at the posterior aspect to check alignment and “freedom.” Though never told to squeeze, when I received this work from other students and later, as part of treatment, the grip… Continue Reading
The mechanism of action for laryngeal manual therapies: the need for an update. In general, laryngeal manual therapies and manual therapy models tend towards narrow explanatory perspectives. Yet the various touch styles involved with such therapies have not been proven to be more than nonspecific. Having been taught through a modality that claims to target… Continue Reading
Foundations in Manual Therapy: Whole Body Seminar Continue Reading
Choosing the right technique. Continue Reading
