AAMT 2010 6th National Conference in Sydney

Australian Association of Massage Therapists

21-23 May 2010

6TH NATIONAL CONFERENCE Held at the Sydney Hilton

INCLUDING INTERNATIONAL PRESENTERS FROM THE USA & CANADA!

American presenter Whitney Lowe

Whitney Lowe has been a massage professional for over 20 years and is widely
known for his expertise in assessment and massage therapy treatment approaches
for chronic pain and injury conditions. His contributions to the massage fi eld are
wide-ranging and include extensive research and professional publications, teaching,
clinical work, consulting, and participation in national boards and committees.
Research and publication are a priority for Lowe. Lowe’s texts, Orthopedic
Assessment in Massage Therapy and Orthopedic Massage: Theory and Technique,
are used by massage therapy professionals and schools in their massage training
programs. In addition, he is a contributing author to several other books and his
articles appear regularly in professional peer-reviewed journals and popular
magazines, such as Massage Today, Massage & Bodywork and Massage Magazine.

Invitation
On behalf of the Australian Association of Massage Therapists (AAMT), it gives me great pleasure to invite you to attend our 6th National Conference, held at the Sydney Hilton, May 21-23 2010. For 2010, we are excited to announce 5 International presenters from North America offering a diverse and exciting selection of sessions to cover the wide interest of AAMT members: Whitney Lowe (Oregan, USA) – Orthopedic Assessment and Massage
John Barrera (Texas, USA) – Assessment and treatment techniques for the Atlas/Axis/Cranial base
Mya Breman (Florida, USA) – CranioSacral Therapy
Colleen MacDougall (Edmonton, Canada) – The regulatory changes in Alberta, Canada and the effects to membership
Paul Buffel (Saskatoon, Canada) – Yoga presentation
Importantly, I would like to thank those who attended our 2009 national conference in Hobart and took time to fill out session feedback forms and rated the overall success of the conference. Once again, we have created a streamed program, which will result in every delegate having an opportunity to be involved in a hands-on workshop on one of the afternoons. Needless to say, workshop allocations are done on a fi rst in fi rst served basis so please register early to avoid disappointment.
As with all past AAMT conferences, the Gala Dinner ticket is included and I strongly encourage you to attend this important event, which includes a 3-course dinner and beverages. It is also the time to let your hair down and have fun with like-minded people in our industry. Please note that there is no discount on conference fees for delegates unable to attend our Gala Dinner, as we negotiate venue costs based on a variety of expenses and catering makes up a large part of this.
Finally, I’d like to thank our sponsors and trade exhibitors for their generous support and we look forward to seeing you at our 6th AAMT National Conference in Sydney.
CU in Sydney!

David Sheehan
AAMT Conference Coordinator
CPE Points

This is an offi cial AAMT event and will attract 40 CPE points to registered members
of the AAMT. The program in this brochure may be subject to change.

PRINCIPAL SPEAKERS

John D. Barrera

John D. Barrera is a clinical Massage Therapist and International presenter with over 25 years of active medical/clinical massage experience. He has spent the last nine years furthering the development of Atlas/Axis/ Cranial Base balancing for the massage therapist.
John has authored three measurement and treatment strategy flow charts that will further the understanding of the massage therapist and other allied health professionals in this emerging and fascinating field of study. The Atlas/Axis/Cranial Base Connection could be an answer to relentless head, neck and body pain.

Mya Breman

Mya’s career underwent a drastic shift when she left TV and radio to join the Upledger Institute as marketing director in 1989. Impressed by the results, she returned to school to study manual therapy. She has now become an experienced Licensed Clinical Social Worker and extremely fortunate to be mentored by Dr. Upledger in CranioSacral Therapy and Dr. Bruno Chikly in Lymphatic Drainage Therapy. She loves blending structural and emotional therapy in everyday problem solving, as well as, the most complex trauma. In addition to seeing private clients at UI HealthPlex, she frequently lectures at conventions, conferences and schools worldwide.

Susan Davis

Susan Davis is a registered nurse, holds a B.HSc and several diplomas in the practice of remedial massage therapy. She has been in the massage profession for over 30 years.
Susan has continued her education at the leading edge of developing knowledge. She teaches
practical massage at Sydney University and has been a mentor to many young therapists through the Davis Health Centre. Susan is completing her Masters in Lifestyle Medicine under Professor Garry Egger. Her thesis on the relationship of musculoskeletal pain and disorders as an indicator of more serious chronic lifestyle issues is the cornerstone of her presentation at the conference.

Paul Hermann

Paul is an Osteopath and one of Australia’s leading experts in Swiss Ball Training and Exercise Rehabilitation. He is the owner and Director of Stay Tuned Sports Medicine and has worked in the Health and Fitness industry for over 17 years as a Gym Instructor, Personal Trainer, Coordinator of successful exercise rehabilitation programs, and lectures nationally and internationally.

Richard Hill

Richard Hill is internationally regarded for his knowledge and understanding of the workings of the brain, body and mind. He specialises in the interplay between the mind and the body and how the conversation in both directions alters the way we function both physically, behaviourally and neurobiologically. He has spoken at the AAMT National Conference in 2008 and at the National Health Practitioners of Canada Conference in 2009. He lectures to the psychotherapy profession and the business community making the very complicated
processes of brain, mind and body easy to understand.

Brad Hiskins

Brad is a veteran of the Sports Soft Tissue Industry with 11 years at the Australian Institute of Sport, four Olympic Games (two as Head Soft Tissue Therapist), two Commonwealth Games (both as Head STT) and 19 world championships with varying teams. Brad is the founder of the website ‘soft tissue therapy’ and the STT eMag. He currently operates Clinic 88 and also treats in 8 health clinics in Canberra and the East Coast while teaching nerve assessment and treatment at Canberra Institute of Technology. Brad has 55 published articles in numerous
magazines and journals and was a contributor to the development of Australia’s national competency standards.

Paula Nutting

Paula has been involved in the musculo-skeletal fi elds in many facets; nursing, remedial massage, personal training and cemented her studies with the Musculo-skeletal Degree. Her work concentrates in the muscle timing dysfunctions and how it creates many of the common conditions seen by practitioners.

2nd International World Fascial Congress October 27-30th, 2009

http://www.fasciacongress.org/2009/index.htm

The second conference at Vrije Universiteit will continue the high level of scientific presentations set in the first conference. The Amsterdam Congress will be a four day schedule followed by an additional day of post-conference clinical workshops. This will add new dimensions – presentation of the clinical practices, both in lecture/demonstrations and in small group sessions, and integration with academic faculty conducting rehabilitation research. Vrije University has a main auditorium seating 900 and numerous smaller rooms for concurrent sessions.

The Fascia Research Congress 2009 in Amsterdam will be hosted by Faculteit Bewegingswetenschappen (Faculty of Human Movement Sciences) at Vrije Universiteit.

The Scientific Chair of the conference is Peter Huijing, PhD, a physiologist and keynote presenter from the first fascia research conference who is the recipient of the prestigious Muybridge Award for his work on fascial connections and force transmission within muscle tissue. The Administrative Chair is Peter Hollander, PhD who was dean of the School of Movement Sciences from 1998 to 2007 and has been active in sports related exercise physiology with an emphasis on swimming.

IMPORTANT UPCOMING DATES:
Research Abstract Submission Deadline…February 15, 2009.

Fascia Background

Fascia has both generalized and specialized functions in the human organism. As such, it is the subject of a wide range of scientific research with many specializations of focus and emphasis. Similarly, fascia and its properties are of central importance to clinicians practicing in various conventional therapies and in the wide range of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) modalities.

Recent scientific research in the field of the human fasciae has resulted in several significant findings. Combined, the results from the worldwide research activities constitute a body of significant and important data. It is our shared vision that it is time to gather together all the latest and best scientific information about the body’s connective tissue matrix.

Future conferences will continue to provide collegial settings for the mutual benefit and collaboration of basic scientists, academicians, and professionals engaged in the many clinical practices where fascia is an important consideration.

About Fascia

Fascia is the soft tissue component of the connective tissue system that permeates the human body. It forms a whole-body continuous three-dimensional matrix of structural support. Fascia interpenetrates and surrounds all organs, muscles, bones and nerve fibers, creating a unique environment for body systems functioning. The scope of our definition of and interest in fascia extends to all fibrous connective tissues, including aponeuroses, ligaments, tendons, retinaculae, joint capsules, organ and vessel tunics, the epineurium, the meninges, the periostea, and all the endomysial and intermuscular fibers of the myofasciae.

There is a substantial body of research on connective tissue generally focused on specialized genetic and molecular aspects of the extracellular matrix. However, the study of fascia and its function as an organ of support has been largely neglected and overlooked for many years. Since fascia serves both global, generalized functions and local, specialized functions, it is a substrate that crosses several scientific, medical, and therapeutic disciplines, both in conventional and complementary/alternative modalities.

Among the different kinds of tissues that are involved in musculoskeletal dynamics, fascia has received comparatively little scientific attention. Fascia, or dense fibrous connective tissues, nevertheless potentially plays a major and still poorly understood role in joint stability, in general movement coordination, as well as in back pain and many other pathologies. One reason why fascia has not received adequate scientific attention in the past decades is that this tissue is so pervasive and interconnected that it easily frustrates the common ambition of researchers to divide it into a discrete number of subunits which can be classified and separately described. In anatomic displays the fascia is generally removed, so the viewer can see the organs nerves and vessels but fails to appreciate the fascia which connects, and separates, these structures.

Clinician Perspective on Fascia

There is increasing interest in certain therapeutic communities in the role that fascia plays in musculoskeletal strain disorders such as low-back instability and postural strain patterns of all types, fibromyalgia, pelvic pain, and respiratory dysfunction, chronic stress injures, as well as in wound healing, trauma recovery and repair. The Fascia Research Congress seeks to present recent findings that advance knowledge of biomechanical and adaptive properties of fascia that may account for clinical observations in health and dysfunction.

The expanding worldwide scientific research on the human fascial tissues forms a body of knowledge pertinent to a wide range of professionals engaged in conventional and CAM modalities who serve individuals afflicted with specific pathologies or injuries of fascial tissue. The latest research will further the mechanistic understanding of many manual therapies and CAM modalities which contact, mechanically manipulate, penetrate, or otherwise involve fascial tissues.

AAMT 5th National Conference Hobart

The AAMT 5th National Conference will be held in Hobart May 22 – 24 2009.

On behalf of the Australian Association of Massage Therapists (AAMT), it gives me great pleasure to invite you to
attend our 5th National Conference, held at the Wrest Point Convention Centre in Hobart Tasmania, 22-24 May 2009.

The theme for 2009 is focusing on core stability, including topics such as structural assessment for and injury due to lack of.

For 2009, the Bowen Therapists Federation of Australia is participating in collaboration with AAMT to present this
event to their membership, which reflects positively on our conference program by increasing the number of
opportunities for delegates to participate in afternoon breakout sessions.

Importantly, I would like to thank those who attended our 2008 national conference in Adelaide and took time to fill
out session feedback forms and rated the overall success of the conference. Once again, we have created a streamed
program, which will result in every delegate having an opportunity to be involved in a hands-on workshop on one of
the afternoons. Needless to say, workshop allocations are done on a first in first served basis so please register early
to avoid disappointment.
With a diversity of interest within the membership comes the challenging task of creating a program that caters
for everyone and I would like to extend my sincere thanks to this year’s Conference Committee and Chief Executive
Officer, Tricia Hughes for the discussion and program input which began soon after our Adelaide conference.
As with all past AAMT conferences, the Gala Dinner ticket is included and I strongly encourage you to attend this
important event, which includes a 3-course dinner and beverages. It is also the time to let your hair down and have
fun with like-minded people in our industry. Please note that there is no discount on conference fees for delegates
unable to attend our Gala Dinner, as we negotiate venue costs based on a variety of expenses and catering makes
up a large part of this.
Finally, I’d like to thank our sponsors and trade exhibitors for their generous support and we look forward to seeing
you at our 5th AAMT National Conference in Hobart.

David Sheehan Conference Organizer

To register your interest please visit the AAMT for a registration form: here

NHP Canada National Conference

Presentation at the 21st NHP Canada National Conference
October 25th, 2009
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

http://nhpcanada.org/pages/home/default.aspx