Crossed-arm syndrome The past decade seems to have been about losing friends. Leagues of MFR-type friends have gone away, no doubt due to my counter-culture statements and posts questioning much of what I was taught in my MFR training. I bid them a happy goodbye. So I suppose it’s time to alienate another cohort group;… Continue Reading
Podcast with The Knowledge Exchange on Biopsychosocial Aspects of Manual Therapy I was fortunate to have had the opportunity to spend an hour today with Sydney, Australia-based personal trainer, exercise scientist, and exercise physiologist Daniel Pablo Arbillo. We spoke at-length about incorporating aspects of the biopsychosocial approach in manual therapy and, specifically, how my approach… Continue Reading
Intellectual Laziness and Dishonesty People like stories and often the simpler the better. However, when we tell patients stories that are too simple, the message gets distorted, often so much so that we start believing these simple stories too. Stories, such as weakness as being the cause of pain/poor motor abilities or perceived tissue pathologies,… Continue Reading
Guidelines for The Foundations Seminar Approach to Manual Therapy After having presented my work this past week to physiotherapists in Doha, Qatar, I was asked to provide a basic guidelines for therapists who are new to this work. While I am hesitant to install protocols for all aspects of this work I do see the… Continue Reading
Summary Paper on the Foundations in Manual Therapy: Voice and Swallowing Disorders Seminar Walt Fritz, PT In response to inquiries requesting information about the Foundations in Manual Therapy: Voice and Swallowing Disorders Seminar and how manual therapy applies to the field of speech-language pathology (SLP), this summary puts some relevant information all in one place.… Continue Reading
Manual therapy is rife with stories, and while some may show some truth, many are simply stories. They are often ones that we, the student, are sold. I bought into a lot of stories over the years though I doubt that I am unique in this endeavor. I spent much of my early days as… 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
Testimonials…ugh Testimonials are a common way of getting the word out about one’s serves and serve to grab the attention of people. While they can be useful for someone seeking input on another person’s satisfaction with a product or service when used in healthcare environments they tend to grossly overstate outcomes. Patient satisfaction should go… Continue Reading
A Day in the Life of an SLP, at Least One Using Manual Therapy as an Intervention Strategy In another article that I wrote for Wilson Nice’s website, NiceSpeechlady.com, you can read of just a small fraction of the feedback stories I’ve received from SLPs who have incorporated the work taught in my Foundations Seminar… Continue Reading
Can touch be non-denominational? If you are reading this post chances are you’ve taken some sort of manual therapy training, or at least are considering taking some. If you are a newbie, consider this warning; no matter what sort of training you undertake you will be dragged down a rabbit hole of beliefs. These beliefs… Continue Reading
Anatomy Matters … But Which Anatomy? As a contribution to the NiceSpeechLady website/blog, I wrote an article about the way we view anatomy. It is important, but how do you view this importance? How does anatomy influence your evaluation and intervention? You can read the article here. Cheers, Walt Fritz, PT Foundations in Manual Therapy… Continue Reading
I can take it… Manual therapy, myofascial release, massage, and the host of other touch-based interventions often rely on the perception of the clinician’s expertise to gauge pressures. Patients will often give up power to the therapist in order to (try to) feel better, though isn’t that an odd arrangement? Allowing someone else to decide… Continue Reading
WHY WE DON’T ELONGATE FASCIA My colleague Whitney Lowe has written what appears to be the first article in a series that unpackages the rather antiquated beliefs that many manual therapists were taught and I believe that this article deserves sharing. Many in my old MFR camp may see this as just more of my… Continue Reading
Full participant feedback from a recent seminar I recently taught three of my Myofascial Release (manual therapy) for Neck, Voice, and Swallowing Disorders seminars in the UK and my hosts from the Birmingham class, SVS Associates, were kind enough to share their compiled survey/feedback results with me in an unedited form. I mention that it… Continue Reading
“Would you pay for that?” As an educator in the continuing education setting, I occasionally get a participant in one of my seminars who seems resistive to what I’m sharing. While I’ve not had any full-blown hecklers (I’m confident that that day will come) but I have had a few who seem utterly unimpressed by my… Continue Reading
Finding my voice: A patient-centered perspective In the latest edition of Massage & Fitness Magazine, I was asked to contribute an article relating to touch. The current issue is devoted to what might be happening beneath your skin (and in your brain) when we touch or are touched. Nicolas Ng, the publisher of Massage & Fitness Magazine,… Continue Reading
