Dry Needling Program - Perth

What is Dry Needling? How does it differ from Acupuncture? Looking for a new tool to add to your Clinical Kit? Have you noticed your hands ache after a day of soft tissue work? Hypermobile thumbs perhaps?

All important considerations and all have been asked by the 1000s of manual therapists that have previously attended our range of courses that make up our Anatomical Acupuncture Dry Needling Program.

a personal experience......

One of my earliest dry needling experiences, which was literally transformational, involved a young netball player who presented on a Friday and "had torn her calf" 6 weeks prior. She had been receiving standard physiotherapy care 3 times a week and was still ambulating on crutches, with minimal weight-bearing and in nearly as much pain as the first day of injury if she tried to put her heel down. (It still amazes me how these challenges seem to always present on Friday afternoons).

Her physiotherapists were pretty frustrated with the lack of progress and asked if I could assess and provide some treatment suggestions. At the time I was very new to dry needling, had just completed my post-graduate in manipulative physiotherapy, and wondered what I could offer this seemingly recalcitrant calf tear. Logically, a muscle tear would have resolved, yet she had a major functional limitation and still pain.

Following my assessment, which revealed a localised trigger point in her medial head gastrocnemius, I recommended trialling a dry needling approach. She agreed and a single 0.25 * 40mm needle was inserted. A strong, local twitch response was achieved. She was instructed to use heat, perform regular range of motion exercises, walk as much as able and make a follow-up appointment for Monday.

On Monday I noticed that she had cancelled her appointment. Concerned about her situation, I rang and asked how her weekend had played out. She stated, that after being sore that afternoon, she woke able to walk without crutches and through the course of the weekend, had resumed normal walking. As she was now able to go to work on Monday, she figured she no longer needed her appointment, "thank you so much, you are a miracle worker". I replied, "actually, thank you, because you have helped me learn so much".

Key Features of our Introductory (Level 1) Dry Needling Program

Step 1.  Please note the following if you are considering our Program - Course Participation Requirements

• Due to the presumed anatomy knowledge, advanced palpation skills, and structure of these courses, our minimal education standard is a degree course or higher in an area of the clinical medical sciences (e.g. physiotherapy, osteopathy, chiropractic, medicine, podiatry)
• You are required to provide current registration with your national professional body (not an industry body like ESSA)
• You are required to have public indemnity insurance as per your professional bodies minimum standard
• For these reasons, graduates of human movements, exercise physiology, nursing, remedial & therapeutic massage are ineligible to apply and AAP Education recommends you seek a course focused only on simple dry needling techniques

Step 2. Choose Your Course

Select from one of the following course links for further specific information. We recommend you start with our Level 1 Introductory Course.

Other courses available include;

1. Level 2 Spine & Lower Quadrant Course
2. Level 3 Spine & Upper Quadrant Course
3. Level 4 Master Needling Course

Key Features of our Advanced (Level 2 & 3) Dry Needling Program

Step 3. Enrol in Your Course

After completion of course enrollment, you will be granted access to the appropriate preparatory materials, course outline, course eManual, online technique video library, and Anatomy Quiz.

Attendee's Comments

"I attended the AAP Education Level 2 Spine and Lower Quadrant and Level 3 Spine and Upper Quadrant Dry Needling Courses in 2017. I found these courses to be exceptional as they equipped me with the necessary skills and confidence that I require to get great results with clients on a daily basis. The course is ideal for a health professional who would like to incorporate dry needling into their clinical toolbox.

The course was great from a legal point of view, as this training provides you with great skills to clinically reason when/ when not dry needling is appropriate and to also ensure that your dry needling technique is precise and safe with every client.

These courses apply to any clinician who feels that their knowledge of anatomy is lacking, as it will enhance your understanding of human anatomy and therefore objective skills which are often essential for understanding the cause of the client’s symptoms.

The structure of each dry needling course is set up so that you can implement heaps of new skills straight away. They are very interactive and engaging from start to finish. These courses are some of the best courses I have completed to date and dry needling is now a skill I use every day confidently and effectively. I cannot speak more highly of Doug's knowledge and eagerness to share it with all who attend the dry needling courses."

Abbie Norrish - Physiotherapist

"Good morning Doug, I have been meaning to email you for some weeks now, but as you stated, time does fly by! So far I am finding the dry needling to be an incredibly useful tool in my practice.

Namely in the following areas;

• Gastrocnemius and soleus pain
• Wrist extensor pain, commonly related to RSI injuries as we see many Workers Compensation patients in our practice
• Rotator cuff soreness

My ability to perform DN has helped me to increase my patient load which makes me (and the boss!) very happy. I thank you for presenting a very enjoyable 2-day course; I believe it is quite a skill to make the theoretical side of DN so interesting and stimulating, and you managed to do just that. I and other colleagues are attending the Rehabilitative US course this weekend, as we were so pleased with the quality of the DN course.

Have a lovely day, and thank you again for a very beneficial 2-day course."

                                                                                                              Kate Fitzsimons - Physiotherapist

"I have completed three Anatomical Acupuncture courses, travelling from Brisbane to Perth for each course. Before the first course, I researched the available Dry Needling courses and based on participant feedback and course outlines decided the Anatomical Acupuncture course best suited my professional requirements.

It has been well worth the travel - the courses are of high quality and each course has not only provided me with useful clinical skills that I use daily in practice but also challenged me to consider analytically my treatment options. Another benefit has been in providing my patients with a more thorough anatomical analysis of their problems.

I have become a better skilled and more confident practitioner as a result of attending these courses."

                                                             Denise Krklec - Physiotherapist

YOU RISK NOTHING! Attend an AAP Education course and if you are not convinced that it will improve how you treat your clients, we will provide you with a complete refund. Try doing that with one of our competitors. We are the only ones who give a 100% No-Risk Satisfaction Guarantee. Why? Because we are sure the course content quality and clinical insights you receive, guarantee you exceptional value for your money. 

LIFETIME SUPPORT. Why go through the same pitfalls? Why reinvent the wheel? Your dry needling skills will develop through a series of progressively challenging courses, from Introductory to Master Needling. Along the way you learn in a supportive environment, combining theory practical, case studies, and clinical reasoning. Even when not at a course and you have access to the course director for answers, post questions on the Members forum, receive fortnightly emails packed with clinical information and have access to a large online Resources Library with webinars, documents, and research papers. Why? Learning shouldn’t be threatening! We want to learn to be clinically relevant and fun. We offer the only progressive, COMPLETE dry needling program with LIFETIME support.

EXPERTISE. You will benefit from a presenter who is a specialist musculoskeletal physiotherapist (member of the Australian College of Physiotherapists) with 25+ years of full-time clinical experience, teaching dry needling for 20+ years. Doug has been an invited speaker at the 2011, 2013, and 2019 Australian Physiotherapy Association biennial conferences, the 2015 Australian Hand Therapy Association conference and as a guest speaker on ABC radio. You will obtain practical insights that cross the spectrum of research into clinical practice and can be applied immediately in your clinic.

BONUS LEARNING TOOLS. Most people don’t recall everything. For this reason, you have access to the Anatomical Acupuncture Dry Needling course-specific Online Academy with technique videos of all the techniques demonstrated during your course. Isn’t that a great resource? In addition, you will practice only with premium Seiren needles and update your anatomy palpation using our legendary body marker program.

COMPLETE LEARNING MATERIALS. From the moment you enrol, you are learning. You receive access to online anatomy quizzes and online articles. All to maximise your day(s) of learning. Living Anatomy Wet Laboratory workshops are available, to enable an important review of anatomy ‘in the flesh’. No other course provides access to anatomy workshops with a dry needling emphasis. You have access to an eManual with full text (no PowerPoint handouts) and it is fully EndNote-referenced  (Value $85). You can sit back, take notes, absorb information, and review references later. It all makes your learning easy and for your PD portfolio, we provide individualised Course Completion Certificates (Value $25). No extra charge.

TIME CREATION. I find when using dry needling to treat clients, it creates 3-4 EXTRA minutes for every client if I am treating pain, trigger points, or muscle spasms. Over a day of 15-20 clients, this is an extra hour, which I choose to spend providing more comprehensive client education and home exercise development. In this way, dry needling improves client outcomes through short-term pain relief and long-term functional improvements.

Some of the key benefits you will receive from completing this program include;

• Learning important safety, technique, legal and regulation aspects of acupuncture and dry needling
• Learning and practising dry needling of the spinal, upper limb, and lower limb muscles
• Developing superior levels of palpation and soft tissue handling skills
• Enhanced awareness of functional, surface, and depth anatomy
• Learning post-treatment and client management strategies

Continuing Professional Development Credits 

All courses are AAP Accredited and provide between 20-22 hours of National Registration CPD requirements.

Text Recommendations

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