Online VM Study Group – a new beginning for 2016
Hello Everyone!!
As 2015 comes to a close and you all get ready to spend some quality time with your families over the holiday period, I thought I would take a moment to thank you for being part of the VM Study Group community over the past year, reminisce about what we have accomplished together and drop a few hints about what we can all look forward to in the year to come.
2015 - A year in review...
By now a number of you have had an opportunity to explore the new vmstudygroup.com website and I want to take a few moments of your time to welcome you to this new venture.
In this first blog I will share with you my vision for this new online study group. Not only what inspired me to start this process but also where we are heading over the next few years. This is the first post in a new monthly blog I'm excited to share with you. I've started this in order to inspire you as you continue along this exciting course of study into the world of Jean Pierre Barral and his unique vision of manual therapy.
Although I've been stumbling along for the last year with an attempt to create an online study group, admittedly there were many unforeseen obstacles. My intentions were to deliver the information in a very timely and scheduled way however, the scope of what it is I am creating in some ways exceeded the number of hours in a single day 🙂 Those of you who have been a part of the previous online study groups have been incredibly patient and I'm deeply grateful to you for your faith in me. In this past year I have written two books and completed two layered palpation CD sets, not to mention the development of this new online study group.
This new online study group should prove to be much more fluid and effortless for you as you work your way through the modules.
My vision for creating this new online VM Study Group is as follows:
- I want to provide an intensive study format for the community of truly serious VM students to delve deeper into anatomy, physiology, pathology and clinical applications of Barral’s wonderful work.
- I want to provide a platform where this wonderful community of VM students can grow and push beyond their comfort zones.
- One exercise that may be outside your comfort zone is writing up your cases. Wouldn't it be wonderful to have a streamlined and efficient way in which to record your cases? I want to assist you in the mechanics of writing up these cases. I want to guide you through the steps of how to access the medical literature (Pubmed) and find references that support your hard work. I want to help de-mistify this "seemingly" daunting academic world of writing up case reports. Writing up your cases not only helps to organize your thinking and your hands but also provides a huge service to the community in general. The final goal is that your end-product is something you can be proud of, something you might even, some day, consider submitting for publication. Heck, when we collect a large enough set of cases we might even publish them as a group in a set volume. Wouldn't that be an exciting way to contribute to the VM community!
Please note that there is an enormous amount of information within the pages of this new online study group and it is easy…and natural… to skim over things and focus on the specifics you are currently interested in...this is natural. However, the very things you skim over might be things that will prove to illuminate and enhance your understanding of anatomy as well as your grasp of nuances of the VM techniques. So, throughout this year, via these blog posts, I will be drawing your attention to various topics contained within this online study group, reminding of you of things you might have forgotten, drawing your attention to details you might have skimmed over.
Within this blog I will also be keeping you posted as to new Barral classes and exciting information to help enhance your experience while you're in Barral courses. I'll share with you things I come across in my research, my writing, and my own practice you might find of interest.
2016 - A taste of what's to come...
I have some exciting things in store for you on the horizon I think will help to focus your thinking and ultimately organize your hands.
Over the course of this next year I will be striving to make this online experience even more exciting. There will always be new things to look forward to! For example, I'm aware that the font for the flipbooks is a bit small. I'll be improving the flip-books so they are easier to read online. Originally the chapters were written (and formatted) with a hard copy book in mind. And, yes, in case you are interested, a hard copy book is still in the pipeline. However, the online edition offers some advantages over the hard copy edition. In addition to being privy to a first view of the material ahead of the publishing, you also will be able to view any and all updates immediately as they are completed.
I'll also be working on photographs of all the techniques. I'll be adding to the discussions on surgical interventions. No matter what our practices the patients who come to see you have often been on the receiving end of some sort of surgical intervention. If we, as manual therapists, have a better understanding of what these surgeries entail and how the tissues are altered we will have a better understanding of how to best help our patients, not to mention a better understanding of contraindications.
I'll also be adding a section on the evolution of the organs. I hope you find this topic as exciting as I do. Understanding how an organ evolved serves to inform our thinking and our hands about the nuances of the 3-dimensional motion of the organs. JP has said; "by far the most challenging thing for manual therapists is to FEEL in 3-dimensions. A better understanding of the evolution of the organ will enhance your understanding of the embryology of the organ, which will inform your hands when there is a decrease in this motion in your patients.
We are also currently striving to support streaming on your iOS devices (iPad and iPhone). In this way you can access the material wherever you happen to be.
Have a great holiday break...
Enjoy your holiday break! I look forward to seeing you all in the New Year AND, if you're bored over the holidays... and looking for some mental stimulation...have another go at the Online Study Group. It's a great way to cut through the post holiday fog 🙂
Best Wishes
Ron
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