This course is designed to be attended live during the specific dates and times listed. By attending live, you’ll be able to harness the benefits of live discussions, timely feedback, and a collaborative environment.

Course Description: 

Do you get frustrated with your persistent pain patients who don’t respond to your biomechanical approach? Transitioning to a biopsychosocial framework has been a challenge for many clinicians despite the competency of our biomechanical training. When patients have a sensitive nervous system, measuring psychosocial distress as objectively as we measure range of motion, muscle strength, proprioception and joint mobility is important when profiling their sensitive nervous system.

This course will teach you how to reframe your persistent pain patients by treating the “whole person” using a psychologically informed framework.

The use of distress questionnaires (SAD CLLIFSS) and skills training for the psychosocial components is lacking in many physiotherapy-based training programs.

This course teaches you how to use distress questionnaires to assess the drivers of central sensitization. Clinicians need to do better than simply prescribe yoga and meditation to their patients with a sensitive nervous system. Explore the strong evidence behind matching evidence-informed treatment techniques such as pain education, yoga, qi gong, meditation, sensory-motor retraining, expressive writing exercises and cardiovascular exercise to each patient’s “driver” of their sensitive nervous system in order to improve patient outcomes. Barrier-breaking strategies of integrating psychologically informed practices into our treatment approach for persistent pain is a key competency of the modern, evidence-informed clinician.

Upon completion of this course, participants will learn:

• To move beyond “talking” about a biopsychosocial model of care to truly incorporating this model into your practice.
• To define central sensitization and how to measure the characteristics of central sensitization in your clinical practice.
• To understand a clinical framework for treating persistent pain that expands on your current biomechanical skills (from new grad to seasoned clinician).
• How to assess various drivers of a sensitized nervous system and to “match” evidence-informed psychosocial skills to these drivers.
• Novel movement exercises including six qi gong routines for the upper body, lower body, breathing and pelvic organs to help to address sensory-motor changes as well as generalized tension.

This is a lecture-format and lab-based course. Included in the cost of the course are handouts and resources for each of the techniques learned. The audiovisual resources presented during this course for meditation, progressive relaxation exercises and qi gong will be made available as free downloads but can also be purchased through Embodia Academy for easier patient prescription.

Audience: This course is open to all healthcare professionals.

Prerequisites: None

Date/Time: September 27, October 4, 11, & 18, 2026, from 5:00pm – 8:00pm ET (Toronto). Please convert to your local time zone. Each course runs for 4 sessions.

Participants who register for this course have the option to attend the course live-online and/or watch the recording later. The recording will be available to all registrants for a 6-week period and access is provided on the next business day following the course. This allows participants who may not be able to attend live-online to still benefit from the course content. 

Course Description:

A vast number of children, and their families, are currently struggling with the anxiety and the discouragement that surfaces when bladder and bowel functional development is not what they anticipated. The International Children’s Continence Society (ICCS) outlines that “involuntary wetting at an inappropriate time or place in a child 5 years old or more” (Society, 2011) is not considered normal. According to Ramsay et al., incontinence “negatively affects self esteem, and impairs children’s development” (Sophie Ramsay, January-February 2017).

Bladder and bowel dysfunction (BBD) is extremely common but likely underreported and in turn, underdiagnosed. There are several lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) as well as bowel grievances that separately, or collectively, appear as dysfunctions of the bladder and the bowel in the pediatric population. These LUTS may include “dysuria, urgency, urinary frequency, hesitancy, daytime incontinence, enuresis, dribbling, straining, voiding postponement, and urinary retention” among others (Joana Dos Santos, Roberto I. Lopes, & Martin A. Koyle, 2017). Constipation and encopresis may also be included under BBD when looking at our pediatric population.

As healthcare providers, we need to do more to assist our pediatric populations and to reduce the symptom carry over that may occur into adulthood. As pelvic physiotherapists, we have the ability to significantly improve a child’s quality of life, reduce both the child and their family’s levels of stress and anxiety, and utilize solution-based learning  and treatment techniques to support normalcy in person-specific bladder and bowel function.

This course will focus on the assessment and treatment of children struggling with bedwetting, daytime incontinence, dysfunctional voiding, and difficulties around bowel elimination. Beginning with an overview of the anatomy, and the study of how the human body works, we will dive into how normal urinary function develops and how we achieve urinary control. Participants will learn terminology around bowel bladder normalcy and dysfunction and will learn how pelvic physiotherapists are an integral part of a pediatric healthcare team. Participants will also feel confident knowing when to refer to other members of the pediatric team.

There will be a comprehensive introduction to dysfunctions in voiding and defecation as well as the common causes of urinary and fecal incontinence. Participants will learn and become confident in both assessment and treatment approaches in working with this population. The course will include videos, demonstrations, as well as instructional labs and case studies.

Course Objectives:

Upon completion of this course, participants will:

• Have reviewed and understand the anatomy of the pelvic floor and its relationship to bladder and bowel function specifically in the pediatric population.
• Understand how normal urinary function develops and how urinary control is achieved.
• Understand the role of the pelvic floor as it relates to bladder and bowel voiding reflexes.
• Have a clear understanding of dysfunction that may require a referral to a member of the pediatric healthcare team.
• Understand proper pediatric bladder and bowel terminology as outlined by the International Children’s Continence Society
• Understand the LUTS and bowel dysfunction that may present in the pediatric population.
• Be introduced to diagnostic tools used in determining potential dysfunction.
• Understand constipation in the pediatric population and how it directly relates to urinary incontinence.
• Learn about the behavioural and lifestyle modifications that can assist with pediatric pelvic floor dysfunction.
• Know how to use bladder logs to assist with bladder and bowel retraining.
• Know how to observe the effects of posture on pelvic floor muscle recruitment and relaxation and educate on proper positioning to assist with urination and defecation.
• Understand the psychological impact of bladder and bowel dysfunction and incorporate appropriate referrals to assist.
• Know how to use surface EMG and biofeedback to both assess and treat pelvic floor dysfunction in pediatric clients.
• Know how to develop individualized treatment plans as well as progressions for treatment to assist with bladder and bowel training.
• Be introduced to the Modified O’Regan Protocol (MOP) program and understand its role in treatment.
• Obtain the tools to confidently assist the pediatric population in becoming continent and provide confident evaluation and treatment.
• Develop a toolbox of educational information, treatment techniques, and solution-based problem-solving skills to improve the quality of life of pediatric patients.

Prerequisite: None – this is a beginner level course appropriate for healthcare professionals that have an interest in exploring and understanding bladder and bowel disorders in the pediatric population.

Audience: Healthcare professionals may include, but are not limited to, Physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists, Pediatricians, and Pediatric Nurse Practitioners. The content presented in this course is intended for use within the participant’s scope of practice and regulatory licensing and should not be used by individuals who are not licensed or regulated.

Time: Two-day course from 10:30am – 6:30pm ET (Toronto). Please convert to your local time zone.