Tips and Tricks Series

Tips & Tricks Series with guest teacher, expert and author, Jane Johnson (MCSP, MSc, BSc, BA(Hons) Chartered Physiotherapist)

This aim of this series is to share with you and inform you about assessment and treatment techniques with which you are not yet familiar, techniques which you can easily incorporate into your massage routines to enhance your overall skills and help you work with a wide variety of clients.

A rare opportunity to train with Jane in London and to start the series off:

Assessing and treating clients with a stiff upper back

Have you ever come across a client who complains of a stiff upper back? Could you have a stiff back? In this practical workshop Jane will share a selection of skills with you from her Big Back Book: Tips & Tricks for Therapists.

Working with another therapist and in small groups you will spend the first part of this workshop practicing tests to determine the degree of stiffness in the thoracic region, then you will spend the middle part of the day and early afternoon practicing treatments for upper back stiffness. Finally, you will retest each other in order to determine whether your treatments have been successful.

On this workshop you will learn:

• How to assess the overall range of motion in the thoracic spine — flexion, extension, lateral flexion and rotation – in order to determine if there is a limitation in one or more movements.
• How to determine whether there is stiffness in individual joints of the thoracic spine using palpation and movement of these vertebrae.
• Assessing superficial fascia of the upper back.
• Different ways to measure and record these assessments using charts or client feedback.
• How to ‘rock’ spinous processes to help reduce stiffness in joints of the thoracic spine.
• How to perform “S” strokes to increase pliability of thoracic erector spinae.
• Five techniques to decrease tone in the erector spinae muscles of the thoracic region.
• Teaching your client 10 upper back stretches.