ConnectTherapy™, the Pelvis & the Abdominal Wall, In-Person Course | June 2023, Vancouver

• Please note the pre-requisite for this In-Person course is the Online Virtual ConnectTherapy™ , the Pelvis & the Abdominal Wall Course. The Virtual Course will run Live on April 22 & 23, 2023, then will be online and self-paced, and must be completed prior to the In-Person portion.
• This is an excellent course to take as an introduction to ConnectTherapy™. If you’ve taken courses with LJ in the past, this is also an excellent opportunity to focus on your Pelvis Driver & Abdominal Wall assessment & treatment skills.

Low back pain and pelvic girdle pain are common problems experienced by patients seen in clinical practice, from postpartum women to elite athletes. A challenge for therapists and patients is that often these problems are recurrent and chronic, and research evidence to indicate what the most effective treatment protocol for these injuries is often contradictory and leaves the responsible clinician with more questions.

Furthermore, the physiotherapist may have several patients with the exact same presentation of "SIJ pain" or "SIJ instability" but who do not respond to the same treatment and training interventions. Why do some patients respond to treatment of the low back, pelvis and hip region but others do not? 

The answer lies in understanding not only the function of the pelvis, abdominal wall, and low back, but also how these regions behave in the context of whole body, meaningful movements. By understanding the connections of the pelvis to the rest of the body. The pelvis may be symptomatic, but may not be the underlying cause of the symptoms. 

Effective rehabilitation of any problem facing patients requires consideration of how loads are transferred through the entire body during tasks that have meaning for the patient. An important consideration is that the location of pain does not always correlate to the underlying cause of the problem. That is, dysfunction in other areas of the body, whether painful or not, may be the true underlying cause, or “Driver” of the patient’s problem. The ConnectTherapy™ model provides a total body assessment and treatment framework to connect dysfunctional areas to the painful problem and determine the most effective treatment approach.

This course teaches you the skills to determine when the pelvis is the true driver for the patient’s problem, or a victim from a driver elsewhere.

On this 2.5-day course you will learn and practice the skills related to:

• observational and hands-on skills needed to determine if the pelvis is optimally or non-optimally transferring loads during whole body functional tasks related to daily activities and sport in Meaningful Task Analysis (MTA) (Lee LJ 2008)
• imbalanced Intra-Thoracic & Intra-Abdominal pressure and different zones of a "pressure belly"
•  the diagnostic tests to determine if the pelvis is the patient's Primary Driver, and the signs and skills to determine where to go next. You'll use the Drivers Diagnostics Chart™ clinical reasoning algorithm, unique to ConnectTherapy, that enables you to clearly see the connections throughout the body. 
• the different patterns of non-optimal behaviour of the pelvis and how these correlate to common symptoms in the pelvis, including how to diagnose excessive compression versus poor control of the SIJs
• the different patterns of neuromuscular imbalance that are possible in Pelvis Drivers, and the treatment plan and exercises required to train each different type of Pelvis Driver
• the role of the pelvic floor and when you should consider a referral to a pelvic health physiotherapist for an internal assessment. 
• when you need to specifically prescribe recruitment, or "brain training", for the Transversus Abdominis, deep multifidus and pelvic floor, and when this is unnecessary
• how to assess Diastasis Rectus Abdominis (DRA) and determine the most efficient & effective treatment program to restore balanced abdominal wall function
• understand why "core stability" exercises help some patients with pelvic girdle pain, and hinder other patients - or make them feel worse
• techniques to effectively treat Pelvis Drivers, including neuromuscular release techniques to 3-dimensionally balance the pelvis
• the ConnectTherapy Exercise Prescription Framework & principles to learn how to take the rehabilitation program from the acute stage to restoring full return to sport and activity.

The purpose of this evidence-based course is to enhance your hands-on and clinical reasoning skills to determine the role of pelvis dysfunction in a range of common recurrent problems and to more effectively treat pelvis drivers.

You'll also come away from this course with a clear understanding of the influence of other body regions on the pelvis, including Dr. LJ Lee's innovative proposals from the Thoracic Ring Approach™. Learn about the connections both anatomically and neurologically that underpin thoracic-driven pelvic girdle pain and how the thorax drives abdominal wall problems like Diastasis Rectus Abdominis (DRA), pelvic organ prolapse and other pelvic floor symptoms. 

More dates for the In-Person course are coming for Australia in 2024 - please email Jennie@ljlee.ca if you are interested in early registration!