Why Include Functional Neurology in your manual therapies?
The short answer is that joint manipulation applied in a setting of not understanding its effect on brain activity and not understanding how brain dysfunction influences joint mechanics can have a detrimental effect on the overall function of the CNS. The negative impact can be significant enough to interfere with a patient’s care leading to poorer patient outcomes.
- Brain optimization relies on balanced proprioceptive input and symmetrical hemispheric activation.
- Disturbances in brain activity, most often of the decreased variety, can contribute to many complaints patients experience. Thus, differentiating the patient’s complaint as brain-based can significantly alter their care.
- Asymmetrical brain activity produces compensatory patterns of joint dysfunction as the brain attempts to alter proprioceptive feedback to reduce asymmetry. Inappropriately addressing these patterns will further the negative impact on the brain.
- Dysfunctional joints classified as fixations, joint position errors, and subluxations can reduce the amount of proprioceptive feedback to the brain.
- Chiropractic adjustments, joint manipulations, and joint mobilizations can either increase or decrease proprioceptive feedback, thus producing either a positive or negative effect on the brain.
- Examination procedures confirming the anatomical localization of CNS dysfunction
- Understanding how to change the variables that alter the net central effect of an adjustment to complement brain activity will produce better patient outcomes
- Treatment applications addressing the anatomical site of CNS dysfunction
- Applying the ten principles of plasticity to any treatment plan
- How to implement Functional Neurology into your practice
- Different management approaches in Functional Neurology. How to decide the best one for you and your patient
What expected outcomes or skill sets would a learner obtain after completing the series?
- The ability to correctly identify and treat Hemisphericity using joint manipulation.
- The correct application of coupled manipulations to specific regions of the body
- The ability to determine the central impact of your manipulations and how to modify them to achieve the desired results
- The ability to identify & treat the top brain-based postural compensations and dysfunctional joint patterns.
- The ability to identify and treat Asymmetrical Overload Syndrome (AOS)
- The ability to identify and treat Frontal Plane Asymmetry (FPA) and the anteriorly rotated ilium
- The ability to apply various combinations of joint manipulations to address Hemisphericity and other functional lesions in the CNS.
- The ability to determine the influences of gaze preference of the eyes on postural compensations and how to correct them
- The ability to look at a specific musculoskeletal disorder and determine the following
- a. How Hemisphericity contributes to the cause of the disorder and its maintenance
- b. Neurological influences from other dysfunctional brain areas
- c. The dysfunctional joint patterns that occur in tandem with various musculoskeletal disorders.
- d. The pattern of joint manipulations to correct for the influencing brain dysfunction and contributing proximal/distal and opposing joints.
- e. The use of adjunctive procedures to facilitate recovery