The Postural Restoration Podcast Postural Restoration Institute

In this episode of the Postural Restoration Podcast I am joined by Jason Miller, PT, MS, CSCS, PRC. Jason graduated from Ithaca College in 1999 and started his career as a Physical Therapist in NY state working with individuals with developmental disabilities. In 2000, he moved to Missoula, MT and began a 20-year career in the outpatient orthopedic setting. After a decade of work in this setting Jason was first introduced to the science of PRI by a colleague, Kevin Vogelzang. Jason has always been fascinated by biomechanics and in 2011 took his first PRI course which was the catalyst for a paradigm shift in his approach to physical medicine.
Jason discusses his early years of integrating PRI into an orthopedic setting while being in on a PRI island. He discusses the difficulties of applying PRI on your own, while appreciating the baby steps along the way. Some of his earliest success was achieved by selecting the appropriate clientele to introduce a new approach to. By starting with the right client, his early integration of repositioning had much better success. We go on to discuss how general PRI treatment looked like for Jason in a large outpatient, post-op setting, and some of the limitations he faced as well as how they affected his desire to treat and integrate areas other than the site of post operative care.
 In 2016, he joined the largest orthopedic practice in western Montana and later became the therapy department supervisor.  He provided numerous in-services and had many discussions with his fellow therapists and AT's as well as the MD's and PA's we worked with.  He has never forgotten the challenge of understanding and applying PRI from an orthopedic mindset and is passionate about helping smooth the transition for others. 
In 2017, he received the designation of Postural Restoration Certified (PRC) as a result of advanced training, extraordinary interest and devotion to the science of postural adaptations, asymmetrical patterns, and the influence of polyarticular chains of muscles on the human body as defined by the Postural Restoration Institute ®. 
Jason opened J Miller Physical Therapy in 2020 and currently practices in Mizzoula. Jason’s ongoing history and passion for teaching others was soon recognized by the Institute and in 2021 began training to teach Myokinematic Restoration which he has now instructed several times as he became a Faculty member of the Postural Restoration Institute. Jason is an avid outdoors man, skiing, fishing, hiking and enjoying all that the state of Montana has to offer!

In this episode of the Postural Restoration Podcast i am joined by Craig Depperschmidt, DPT, PRC. Craig grew up in Loveland, CO and finished his degree in Integrative Physiology from the University of Colorado at Boulder.  After spending a summer biking across the country, he headed to Flagstaff, Arizona, where he graduated with distinction from Northern Arizona University with a Doctorate in Physical Therapy.  From an early age, due to an active lifestyle, Craig became aware how a restriction or injury in one area of his body effected his whole system, and through multiple sports and associated injuries he learned the value of an integrated approach. In 2011 Craig attended the Advanced Integration course and for the first time in over a decade, was able to run without pain through his feet, shins, and low back. Craig credits this moment in his personal and professional journey, to a single technique, the Standing Supported Wall Reach, which for the first time allowed him to feel the effects of respiration in the thorax throughout his lower extremities. From this point on he was hooked.

In 2010 the clinic Craig work for at the time hosted both the Postural Respiration and Myokinematic Restoration courses and this exposure provided a foundation for the rest of Craig's PRI journey. One particular statement regarding the observations of a Left AIC pattern, pushed Craig to prove it within his own clinical setting, and from there his love for the PRI primary object tests was born. From these first two courses Craig has since aimed to perform the associated tests with every patient who came through his door. This A-B-A experimental design of performing the tests, followed by technique intervention and finally re-testing, became standard for Craig and is something he is still passionate about as a provider, mentor, and faculty member today.

Craig and I go on to discuss how he uses a PRI approach within his population of clientele, primarily consisting of endurance athletes and weekend warriors. Craig's own experiences as a triathlete, endurance runner and cyclist allow him to connect with his patients on a personal level. We go on to discuss how to appropriately introduce the concepts of sensory integration and positional education within this population and some of the ways Craig helps his patients make sense of themselves, particularly in the environments and spaces that they may not train or perform in. Craig is also Bikefit trained and uses his passion and knowledge to integrate PRI into cycling.

Craig became a PRC provider in 2012 and through attending PRI courses met his current colleague Brian Benjamin, DPT, PRC. Brian and Craig would go on to create ProActive PT in Fort Collins, CO. Today they are surrounded by an integrative team with the opportunity to mentor not only those interested in PT schooling but also the general public through several yearly events within their community. Outside of his community in Fort Collins Craig is excited to be joining the PRI Faculty and will begin teaching Myokinematic Restoration in 2023. These communities of PRI practitioners and mentorship from faculty and others, have allowed Craig to share his passions with others and we are so excited for him to be able to share them with all of you! 

In this episode of the Postural Restoration Podcast I am joined by Brad Gilden, who graduated with a Masters of Science from New York Medical College in 2000 and a Clinical Doctorate in upper quarter and hand therapy, from Drexel University in 2004. Since his schooling Brad has completed several certifications including the completion of  the Functional Manual Therapy training and Fellowship from the Institute of Physical Art (IPA), alongside many others. Early on in his career Brad knew he wanted more out of his role as a provider, than the 15 minutes he was being allotted per patient. This journey led him to multiple rehab settings dealing with both acute and chronic pain presentations, neurological disorders and amputees. This journey ultimately led Brad to start his private practice, Elite Health Services, in 2005. Allowing him to start incorporating more into his clinical practice working alongside Strength Trainers, Pilates Instructors and many other movement professionals as he built his model around this team approach.
 In 2010 he was introduced to Dr. Michael Gelb as a patient and felt the effects of dental integration first hand, for the first time. This experience opened Brads mind to the power of autonomic regulation via an oral appliance and he knew that many people patterns would be very challenging to dissociate without this missing piece of the puzzle. This experience opened the door to his conversations with dentists as a whole and his appreciation for their role. While realizing for the first time that dentists where not only open to collaboration with him in his role, but they were searching for it as well.
As both Brads integration with dentistry and his collaboration with Dr. Gelb grew, he was quickly surrounded by others searching for the same integration. This led him to Dr. Howard Hindin who together with Dr. Gelb, founded the American Academy of Physiologic Medicine and Dentistry (AAPMD). As their movement of collaboration together grew, Brad was given the opportunity to present at their second Annual Conference. Sharing the stage with people like Mariano Racobato, Roger Price, Jennifer Hobson, and Barry Raphael among many other well known speakers. It was after his presentation focused around the role of the diaphragm and its influence on the orofacial complex as a whole, that Heather Carr first introduced him to the work of Ron Hruska. Shortly after Brad took his first Postural Respiration course.
In 2016, Brad was given the opportunity to organize the PT Track of the Annual AAPMD conference and he knew that he needed to try and get both Ron and PRI as a whole involved. After a series of meetings Ron agreed to present for the first time as part of the 2017 collaboration cures convention. As a result of the series of courses and collaboration through PRI that Brad had completed, including mentorship alongside Ron working together in Manhattan, Brad became Postural Restoration Certified in 2020.
Brad and I discuss the history of our shared collaboration over the past several years. And specifically, his journey of integrating with the field of dentistry and the idea of “standing on the shoulder of giants, and passing their work onto the world”. To end our conversation Brad discusses how the evolution of the Physical Therapy track has grown, which this year will include Myofunctional Therapy and other therapists collaborating together in one place. Brad goes on to discuss this years AAPMD Collaboration Cures Convention on September 15-18th. For more information on this years meeting, the agenda and speaker line up, as well as a PT Track Discount I encourage you to visit the AAPMD Collaboration Cures page for more information.

In this episode of the Postural Restoration Podcast I am joined by Joan Hanson who is a Physical Therapist located in Sioux Falls, SD. Joan has been practicing physical therapy for 30 years and for most of those years has done so with Sanford Health Systems. As we navigate her career and how PRI has shaped and directed it, it is clear to see why Joan was awarded the PRI Directors Dedication Award this past April for her ongoing commitment to this science. In 1992, she earned her Master’s degree in Physical Therapy from the Mayo School of Health-Related Sciences in Rochester, MN. Joan started her private practice, Physical Therapy Solutions, in 1999 after several years in various outpatient settings.
Later that year, Joan was introduced to Protonics  and encouraged to take a course. Because of a prior knee injury, on the right side, Joan was selected as a model in this course and sensed what a left hamstring could do for her right sided knee pain for the first time. Joan discusses how this first encounter with asymmetry and using both sides of the body to treat it, shaped her practice from the beginning. In 2001 Joan took her first Myokinematic Restoration course and began applying the science with her patients. Over the following two decades Joan would go on to complete over 30 PRI courses, and discusses how this journey has directly shaped her clinical practice.
In 2008 Joan sold her practice to Sanford Health. This partnership has allowed her and her clinical staff to continue to use PRI  over the years. We discuss both the challenges and opportunities this partnership has provided as well as some of the people that were involved along the way. As she continued to run her practice under the lens of PRI based treatment, Joan has mentored and collaborated with many clinicians introducing asymmetrical concepts, breathing and positional sense along the way.
Although she had this community around her, the science was in its early years and the resources that exist today were not all always available. As a way to get more involved with the PRI community and other clinicians apart of it, Joan completed her PRC certification in 2005 as part of the second class. Joan goes on to discuss how this and other opportunities allowed her to stay connected to the science. Throughout the years Joan has taken advantage of nearly every opportunity available to ask questions, stay connected, and continue to learn through not only course offerings but also the many other resources that have since been created. We discuss how these resources, such as the PRIVY platform, PRI Google group, and many trips to Lincoln have helped Joan answer her questions over the years. Early on Joan recalls taking advantage of one-on-one clinical time spent alongside Ron Hruska, seeing first hand how each repositioning activity was meant to be performed and who they were meant for.
As Joan continued to incorporate PRI activities with her patients, she discusses the importance of relying on the tests to confirm ones ability to alternate, breathe and sense both sides of their bodies. These basic concepts are often the start point of her treatment and we discuss the importance of “the process” and how often times these concepts can be overlooked by trying to progress through integration of systems too quickly, or with patients that may not need integration of multiple systems. Throughout the years Joan has not only desired to learn and grow with this science individually, but has always attempted to share and help those around her learn and utilize it as well.  This has increased her interest in things like dance, sleep, audiology, boxing, and many others as she integrates PRI into her everyday life. 

In this episode of the Postural Restoration Podcast I welcome Torin Berge, PT, MPT, PRC who practices at the Hruska Clinic and plays a vital role in the PRIME Program. Growing up Torin spent countless hours in a Pediatric PT setting with his brother who diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy was in and out of therapy frequently. It was during this time that his love for the profession grew. Torin graduated from the University of North Dakota in 1999 with his Masters in Physical Therapy. Torin was also an avid swimmer and swam throughout college and his entire childhood. Although he appreciates the foundation received in schooling he acknowledges that he was introduced to many "whats" but never really received the "whys" behind the symptoms or diagnosis studied.

To start his career Torin provided care across pediatric clinics, and across both outpatient and acute hospital settings, but he quickly realized there had to be something more, a piece still missing. Torin was led to the PRI coursework through the community in Souix City, including Jane Stanley who got him to his first Protonics course. During which he heard someone discussing the relationship between the lower extremities and the cervical spine for the first time. Even though much of the science was still new at the time, Torin knew that there would be more to come, and slowly the "whys" behind all of his questions started being addressed. During these early years of coursework Torin began incorporating the science within his practice, but like many, continued to hit roadblocks along the way. The inability to incorporate PRI into his clinical setting helped him make the decision to look elsewhere.

In 2011, Torin joined the Hruska Clinic in Lincoln, Nebraska and has been growing ever since. Shortly after accepting this position and moving his family, Torin became credentialed as part of the 2012 PRC Class. The timing of Torin's presence here coincided with a time period of tremendous growth within the Integration of PRI concepts. Not only was he surrounded with great colleagues who had been using PRI for decades, but he was now also a part of integrating with Optometrists, Dentists and Podiatrists on a regular basis. PRI Vision underwent its foundational years with his involvement, and the incorporation of dental integration was being explored like never before. These were the early days of integration, "pre-PRIME", and the level of exploration, integration, and evolving treatments, were at an all time high.

As time went on, similar patterns of patient care became apparent. Patients came from international places because no other provider could find the "why" behind their "what" problem. The pieces of these patients' puzzles were not being put together, and even when each piece of dysfunction had been appropriately managed, they still failed to manage the  integration long term. Out of these years, working alongside Ron Hruska and the entire integrative team, the Postural Restoration Institute Multidisciplinary Engagement (PRIME) Program was founded. It too continued to evolve over the years and has remained a focal point of the PRI community when looking for models of integrative care. Today Torin and his team work not only with extremely hard to manage cases, but also with other PRI Providers, to provide guidance, support and treatment for patients and their providers they may already be working with. Through PRIME the pieces of the Podal, Occlusal, Visual and multiple other systems are put together and continuously managed by Torin and his colleagues, "The Integrators".

In this episode of the Postural Restoration Podcast,  I sat down with Dr. James Carlson who will be presenting at our 13th Annual Interdisciplinary Integration symposium on April 21-22nd. Dr. Carlson began studying gnathological principles while still a student at the University of Minnesota dental school nearly 60 years ago. While there, he had the opportunity to study under one of the top gnathologists at the time, Dr. Charles Stewart, and learn his techniques using the Stewart Articulator. From then on, he knew he wanted to pursue a dental career studying these principles. Following his dental schooling, Dr. Carlson spent 3 years in the Navy, eventually settling into his first private practice in Alaska. In his early years of  clinical practice, he began studying and applying the concepts of Centric Relation (CR) of the temporomandibular joints, and Centric Occlusion (CO) of the bite. Around this time, he was also introduced to the concept of "Dental Kinesiology", published by George Eversaul. These studies and others, allowed Dr. Carlson to see the influence that the neuromuscular system has on jaw position. Throughout these early years his "patients became his professors" and he has continued to learn from them and numerous other integrative minds throughout his career.

Dr. Carlson began introducing these concepts within his appliance fabrication  and began to see an even greater influence of the neuromuscular system on dentition. His appliances at the time were meant to calibrate the maxilla to the mandible through the use of vertical height, anterior/posterior guidance and other qualities. This led him to the work of Dr. Barney Jankelson, who is widely known as the founder of Physiological Dentistry. From this point, his career was focused on Form vs. Function within the Stomatognathic system. This thinking led him to collaborate with not only numerous other dentists, but also included a 20 year partnership with an integrative chiropractor who also introduced him to the influence of Podiatry and the foots influence on posture. Through these collaborations, he was introduced to the Acculiner System which he spent many years selling and training others on its use. During this period he learned the importance of a level bite plane, and has promoted the concept ever since.

Throughout his career, Dr. Carlson has authored numerous papers and publications. Starting off with "Beyond Dental Care", which he summarizes as "everything I wasn't taught in Dental School". We then discuss his original publication which was titled "Physiologic Occlusion" but was retitled "Orthocranial Occlusion & Dentition Design" following the release of a new edition. And "Analyzing the Stomatognathic System", in which the concepts of "Form vs. Function" of the entire system is addressed more globally. These publications played a large role in Ron's own study of the stomatognathic system and Dr. Carlson's experience and passion for these concepts were a primary factor in the decision to host this years symposium,  "The Stomatognathic System - An Interdisciplinary Approach in the Management of Spatial Navigation and Structural Strength". We end our discussion joined by Ron to discuss how they plan to navigate these concepts through their presentations next month. We are very excited for the opportunity to introduce our PRI community to Dr. Carlson and these topics as Ron Hruska, Dr. James Carlson and Jason Masek collaborate throughout this years symposium.