What do you do when the patient presents with complaints of pain in multiple body regions? Where do you start your exam to determine what the actual pain/dysfunction generators are? I know that when I was starting my physical therapy career, this type of patient would totally overwhelm me, and I wouldn’t know where to start or what to do. Eventually I learned that if you can just segment into smaller regions, it no longer seems quite as overwhelming.

In the part I and II videos below, watch NAIOMT senior faculty, Erl Pettman as he reviews functional body regions that can help you scan a patient with complex presentations. And don’t worry if this seems like a lot to comprehend at one time–we have all experienced that feeling! 🙂  In the words of Dory from Finding Nemo…just keep swimming! Keep moving forward and challenging yourself, and one day you will look back at those patients that once seemed so complicated and see how far you have come with your physical therapy practice. In the meantime, boost your clinical reasoning and manual therapy skills in a host of areas with a NAIOMT Manual Therapy course in your region!