The New Online Home Study Course for the Integrated Systems Model
History of the ISM Series
The traditional 3 part in person ISM Series course, with online video support has now pivoted to a more flexible format!
For many years, Diane has been asked to travel to every continent, state, province to bring the ISM Series to interested physiotherapists. This is simply not possible due to many factors, the primary one being the number of people (assistants) that are required to deliver this course material properly. To improve access to the Integrated Systems Model, a regional interdependent approach that considers, and prioritizes, the relationship between multiple impairments in one individual, this online home study ISM program has been developed.
On your own time, at home, you can take the three parts of this course, integrating each into your clinical practice. Each part must be completed before access is provided to the next. Take your time, there is a lot of material in every lecture in every part.
Each of the 3 parts contains several lectures with ‘skills videos’ embedded in them. There are specific instructions within the lectures themselves which will direct you to:
Anatomy to review – you will need a good anatomy resource for this
Specific chapters/pages of The Thorax – An Integrated Approach textbook by Diane Lee (2018) to read (available through Amazon or directly from the publisher https://us.singingdragon.com/products/the-thorax
Reference articles to read. These articles are provided in this course.
Suggestions for how to begin to integrate ISM into your clinical practice.
There are 8 lectures to watch for Part 1 (total – 11 hours), 9 lectures for Part 2 (total – 13 hours) and 4 lectures for Part 3 (total – 6 hours).
Part 1 introduces the basic principles of ISM and applies it to the functional trunk (3rd thoracic ring to 10th thoracic ring, lumbar spine, pelvis and hips).
Part 2 reviews the basic principles of ISM and applies it to the foot, knee (in relationship to the pelvis), cranium, neck, and shoulder girdle (also in relationship to the pelvis). This part also looks at the relationship between the sympathetic nervous system, fluid flow in the body and dural/neural system impairments (adverse dural/neural tension).
Part 3 covers the assessment and treatment of articular system impairments.
Each lecture has its own page on this platform and each page also contains the resource articles to read, and specific parts of The Thorax to read all of which are relevant to that lecture. A pdf file of the recorded powerpoint slides are provided for each lecture. You can take as much time as you need to complete this online home study ISM Series material.
Still not sure if this is for you? Have a listen to the short video below – are you this type of therapist?
In Person Classes
A completion certificate will be provided at the end of the entire 3 parts of the course, following which practitioners who have manual therapy training, (physiotherapists, remedial massage therapists, osteopathic practitioners, and chiropractors) will qualify to attend the 2-Part in person ISM Series course.
Completion of the complete 2-Part in person ISM Series qualifies one to attend the Advanced ISM Update course which covers the Part 3 material and more advanced work in the cranium/face. The location of the in person courses will be:
English: London, England or South Surrey, BC Canada
Japanese: location to be determined
The focus of our time together in class will be to fine tune the skills presented in these lectures; after all, you can’t interpret a finding you can’t find!
I welcome any, and all, feedback as you go through this journey (dianeleept@gmail.com) and look forward to meeting you in person in the future. I will receive notification when you have completed this material and will provide you with current information as to when and where the in person courses will be running next.
The Integrated Systems Model
The Integrated Systems Model is a framework to help clinicians organize knowledge (evidence and experientially based) and develop clinical reasoning skills that subsequently facilitate best decisions for treatment for those with multiple impairments and persistent pain. A key feature of this approach is Meaningful Task Analysis and Finding Drivers. Briefly, this involves choosing tasks to assess that are relevant to the patient’s story (meaningful to the patient’s complaints and functional difficulties), assessing the whole body (strategy analysis of the task) to find the criminal (the driver), and then developing sound hypotheses as to how the criminal relates to its multiple victims. Learn how to treat the root cause and not the just the region of the symptom
By the end of this series you will have ISM skills to quickly determine, for example:
if a poorly controlled ankle is contributing to your patient’s pelvic girdle pain,
if you should treat the thorax before, or after, or with, the pelvis,
if you should release and align the cranium before addressing the neurodynamics of the spinal dura and its peripheral nerves,
if you should address the clavicle, scapula or upper thoracic rings for better drainage of the venous system of the cranium (pressure headaches)
how to wake up transversus abdominis and the pelvic floor more quickly than ‘finding the best cue’,
how and when to train the pelvic floor – external palpation of the pelvic floor for assessment and training
when to dry needle a muscle, when to stretch, when to strengthen,
when a diastasis rectus abdominis should be referred for surgery and much more.
We will provide you with extensive training in the key components of treatment in the ISM approach namely RACM – release, align, connect and move! We will teach you when and how to use release with awareness neuromuscular techniques and how to integrated them with myofascial and articular releases.
For those of you with extensive manual therapy training, Part 3 of the online home study course (the articular system) will introduce a different way of interpreting your arthrokinematic mobility tests. Restricted joint glides DO NOT mean the joint is always stiff.
Post-course testimonials confirm that this is a ‘practice-changing’ course that will organize YOUR current closet of knowledge and facilitate best decisions for treatment of a whole person using an integrated whole body/person approach, the Integrated Systems Model.
Simon Sinek suggests that for all we do, we consider WHY, HOW and WHAT to explain ourselves.
Why do we offer this course? We love helping clinicians be better at what THEY do so they can provide more effective therapy sessions for their patients. We love seeing clinicians become passionate and excited about their profession once again.
How do we do it? By providing a supportive, creative learning space and relationships that foster peer and mentor learning. In other words, we learn together both in-class and online.
What are we: A dedicated group of physiotherapists who play at work and work at play – there is no difference. Come play and learn with us!
ISM Series Grads
The 2016 ISM Series Akasha group bought Diane ISM t-shirts and made a video!
This online package contains over 300 videos beginning with an explanation of what ISM is, how it developed and who it is appropriate for. It then goes through the new ISM graphic – the Lotus flower flow – in great detail with videos for each step of the way.
Taking ISM early in my career has been by far the best decision I could have made
5
As a new graduate from physiotherapy school, starting out in clinic I felt really overwhelmed with how to assess a patient efficiently and effectively. I quickly realized that the gap between what I had learned in school and who I saw in the clinic grew as more complex medical histories and multiple meaningful complaints were encountered. Although school provides us with a necessary list of skills, I wasn’t sure when each of these skills was required, nor did I quite understand how to use each of the data points I collected to inform the treatment plan for the unique person sitting in front of me. Taking ISM early in my career has been by far the best decision I could have made. It really helped me to organize my assessment, learn why I was assessing something and inform my treatment plan. It took me out of collecting information to thinking critically and being able to see the person as a system of regional interdependence rather than isolated regions of the body. I was worried when I first took ISM that I would not have the right skills required to be able to use it or understand it, but the way it is designed is that it meets you where you are at with your assessment and clinical reasoning skills. The preliminary skills that I learned in school fit into the model and allowed me to organize my thinking. The best part is that it opened up the world of reflection for me and from this I have felt myself grow exponentially in the last year. I would highly recommend ISM for newer graduates, as it can give you a great starting point and as you add skills and courses to your resume, it only enriches the ISM model. Additionally, having access to clinical mentors to help me integrate and work through using ISM in the clinic has been invaluable. I feel really grateful to have had the opportunity to learn from the ISM team and feel so thankful that I have been able to start my career on such a solid foundation.
I just wanted to email to say thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with us. I have been solving puzzling bodies so quickly now. And people’s symptoms make so much more sense now. It is so much fun too. I knew the course would be good, but it has far exceeded my expectations. I can’t wait for the rest of the pieces of the puzzle.
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Taking ISM early in my career has been by far the best decision I could have made
As a new graduate from physiotherapy school, starting out in clinic I felt really overwhelmed with how to assess a patient efficiently and effectively. I quickly realized that the gap between what I had learned in school and who I saw in the clinic grew as more complex medical histories and multiple meaningful complaints were encountered. Although school provides us with a necessary list of skills, I wasn’t sure when each of these skills was required, nor did I quite understand how to use each of the data points I collected to inform the treatment plan for the unique person sitting in front of me. Taking ISM early in my career has been by far the best decision I could have made. It really helped me to organize my assessment, learn why I was assessing something and inform my treatment plan. It took me out of collecting information to thinking critically and being able to see the person as a system of regional interdependence rather than isolated regions of the body. I was worried when I first took ISM that I would not have the right skills required to be able to use it or understand it, but the way it is designed is that it meets you where you are at with your assessment and clinical reasoning skills. The preliminary skills that I learned in school fit into the model and allowed me to organize my thinking. The best part is that it opened up the world of reflection for me and from this I have felt myself grow exponentially in the last year. I would highly recommend ISM for newer graduates, as it can give you a great starting point and as you add skills and courses to your resume, it only enriches the ISM model. Additionally, having access to clinical mentors to help me integrate and work through using ISM in the clinic has been invaluable. I feel really grateful to have had the opportunity to learn from the ISM team and feel so thankful that I have been able to start my career on such a solid foundation.
Far exceeded my expectations
I just wanted to email to say thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with us. I have been solving puzzling bodies so quickly now. And people’s symptoms make so much more sense now. It is so much fun too. I knew the course would be good, but it has far exceeded my expectations. I can’t wait for the rest of the pieces of the puzzle.