As the pandemic lingers, chiropractors continue to have to navigate what the pandemic brings as they run their practices. The busy chaos of dealing with cancellations, demanding patients, and a busy schedule all make it worthwhile to help your patients feel better and healthy for their ailments they present with.

As part of helping your patients, many chiropractors specialize in different techniques to provide the best care one can. One of the techniques, Active Release Techniques (ART), helps patients treat soft tissue injuries (muscles, tendons, ligaments, and around nerves) by breaking down scar tissue in these tissues to improve one’s flexibility, mobility, and pain in addition to chiropractic manipulation. As a result, one’s function will likely improve allowing that person to play sports, exercise, and do what they enjoy.

To begin with, ART is a valuable and difficult technique to learn and master. If you decide to take a seminar, your level of skill with regards to palpation and treating injuries will improve exponentially even after 1 weekend/seminar. Preparation ahead of the seminar is necessary to be successful due to the great deal of material covered over that particular seminar. For those that have never attended an ART seminar, looking at the material ahead of the seminar gives you an idea as to how each protocol will be performed and the approximate placement of the protocol.

Once the seminar begins, ART instructors helps providers learn the anatomy he/she is palpating over the course of the weekend through each protocol with additional time for review throughout the seminar. The seminars are 3 full days of learning all of the protocols to then be tested on the final and fourth day. Additional studying is likely going to occur each night to review the protocols from the day.

The seminars are challenging, but the time and money invested in becoming ART certified is quite valuable to create better health for your patients. As a disclaimer, I have been an ART provider for 15 years and I continue to re-certify annually as an ART provider because of the value and doors it opened. In my sports based practice, I have seen athletes of all varieties, from weekend warriors to professional athletes in large part due to my continued participation as an ART provider. Other providers in the US will refer to my office and patients will find me due to my ART certifications and standing for treatment if they are living in Chicago or in town for a race. Considering the significant investment I made to myself and my practice over these years, ART continues to prove its worth to my patients and allows me to work harder daily to be a better provider for those I am able to help.

For these reasons above, ART should be a technique you consider if you are thinking about enhancing your practice. There is no doubt it will challenge you, but you will become a better overall chiropractor because of the tools you learn from the seminars you take.

Brian Marion, DC, CCSP, ART, CKTP

Lincoln Park Chiropractic 2202 N. Lincoln Ave Chicago, IL 60614 (773) 248-2790

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