Tongue-based manual therapy and sensory receptive preferences Gentle, patient-informed manual therapy through the oral region has become a mainstay of the work I teach and use. With usages ranging from articulation and feeding difficulties to dysphagia concerns, there is good reason to explore gentle, sustained tongue engagements to improve awareness and sensory motor control. In… Continue Reading
Deeper Dives: A Look at Manual Therapy for Voice and Swallowing – Free class with ASHA CEUs A brief introductory online course for introducing the learner to how manual therapy can be utilized within the framework of the SLP’s clinical encounters. After completing this online course, the learner will understand the historical and current inclusion… Continue Reading
Foundations in Manual Therapy Whole Body Online Course A comprehensive foundational course for implementing manual therapy from the context of the massage therapist, physical therapist, occupational therapist, and others with similar interests. This course teaches a slow, sustained style of manual therapy from a shared decision-making perspective. Head-to-toe issues and perspectives are covered, with a… 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
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
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
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
Choosing the right technique. Continue Reading
Seeing the forest for the trees: Putting fascia in perspective when treating the whole person. (Placing individual tissue perspectives into context) Fascia is a hot topic among many health and fitness professionals, but why so? Can we treat fascia? As an isolated structure, can we, beyond a reasonable doubt, be accurate in blaming fascial problems… Continue Reading
References cited in Walt Fritz, PT’s Presentation at the 3rd World Congress of Fascia, September 23, 2023 “Seeing the Forest for the trees: Putting fascia in perspective when treating the whole person.” You can access a downloadable reference list from this link. Continue Reading
A FEES view of manual therapy For most, getting the opportunity to visualize how manual therapy impacts internal structures is a rare event. I’m fortunate to have owners of FEES devices bring them to select Foundations in Manual Therapy: Voice and Swallowing Disorders classes, allowing us to view those images. The methods taught in the… Continue Reading
“What do I do first, what do I do next, and when am I finished?” Walt Fritz, PT/Foundations in Manual Therapy: Voice and Swallowing Disorders The touch-based, shared decision-making model of manual therapy I teach to speech-language pathologists and others is relatively simple, yet some find it complex. It seems complicated to those expecting me… Continue Reading
