Manual Therapy for Voice and Swallowing
$215.00
At the heart of this new book is a departure from the norm of expert clinician directing anatomically-based and traditional treatment regimes. Instead, Walt Fritz presents a scenario wherein the client, as an equal, is leading the clinician, through responses to questions, to behaviors, and to touch.
This shared decision-making approach questions and challenges existing manual therapy practice and in the words of the Author, aims to ‘…introduce to you an updated mechanism of action to explain MT effects and then turn to intervention. If you are currently using MT in your practice for voice, swallowing, breathing, oral-motor, or other related issues, the material presented here may challenge what you’ve been taught…’
Eminently practical and profusely illustrated with clear, step-by-step images and text, the Author presents evaluation guidelines, conditions that lend themselves to manual therapy, along with specific and in-depth interventions.
312 pages with plenty of pictures and illustrations
Contents: Introduction. Part one: Setting the scene. Crossing a bridge, Histories, deconstructions and problems. Inconsistencies in the research. Building a model. The patient-centered model. Part two: Practical applications. Where to begin. Communication and dialoguing. Process application roadmap. Laryngeal region. Submental sublingual region. Tongue. Scar and fibrotic regions. The jaw. The neck. Anterior cervical and retrolyaryngeal region. Shoulder and upper chest region. The thorax. The pelvis. Self-stretching. Patient-centered exercise.
Walt Fritz is a physical therapist from Upstate New York, USA. Since beginning work as a manual therapy educator in the mid-1990s, he has more recently evolved into teaching a unique interpretation of manual therapy for speech-language pathology, voice, and related communities. This approach advances views of causation and impact from historical tissue-specific models into a multifactorial narrative, leaning heavily on biopsychosocial influences. Using a model of evaluation and intervention that incorporates shared decision-making rather than clinician-as-expert, his principles apply to a broad spectrum of intervention models. Seeing the utility of manual therapy not as a standalone treatment but as an integral part of clinicians’ more extensive body of work, Walt makes his approach easily assimilated into those treatment protocols.
Review
‘Seeing the patient as a collaborator in their manual therapy has become a critical component of my sessions. When the patient is no longer a passive recipient of manual therapy, the combination of their knowledge of their body and my knowledge of muscular frameworks ensures that I am able to provide truly individualized treatment. Given that every human body is inherently asymmetric with unique lumps and bumps, knowing what the patient feels is relevant to their problem guides me away from red herrings, making the treatment more efficient’. Barbara M Wilson Arboleda, SLP
‘I knew that this idea of ‘no pain, no gain’ that dominates the theatre, voice, and dance rehabilitation scene was probably incorrect, but I couldn’t substantiate it or fight my corner. I had been developing a ‘pain-free’ Vocal Massage technique in London, UK, at the time of our meeting, and after sitting with Walt for a while, discussing and debating Manual Therapy, it was clear to me that this was someone I could learn from. And learn I did’. Stephen King, Manual Therapist
‘For so long, our post-radiation patients have been told progress only comes from pain. If the jaw didn’t open, crank it open. If the head won’t turn, force it. Walt’s method addresses this myth head on by allowing the patient to guide the treatment within the parameters of their tolerance’. Lindsey Wise, SLP
‘…when I came across the Foundations for Manual Therapy Course by Walt Fritz, I immediately took the opportunity to add another technique to my therapy toolbox. I was very excited to start using this technique with my clients both at the clinic and at the singing studio. I was amazed to see the immediate result this technique yielded. What also fascinates me is its application with client groups beyond what research, so far, shows may benefit from it’. Norma Camilleri, SLP; Chair, European Speech and Language Therapy Association
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