Ridgway Method

Just wondering if anyone has attended Micheal Ridgway's exceedingly expensive course? Opinions? Good/bad?

Hi Mitch,

I have been to his exceedingly expensive course ;) Considering that work was paying for it and not me- here are my thoughts:

-overall very good presentation, very professional and good amount of information
-challenging-he likes to be a bit controversial and challenge traditional thinking. This can be helpful but it also means that he challenges physios to basically use his method only because his theoretical background is way different to most other 'methods' we follow in physio. He also challenges the accepted medical model of tissue healing/recovery times.
-not always easy to apply in a clinic situation, unless you want to only practice using his method. Practicing his method in a 'pure' form is risky- can be difficult to explain to clients and it can be difficult to know if you are going to get results and when, although he claims that when you see a result it will be dramatic (50% + improvement straight away).
-I learned some nice skills about whole body assessment and the importance of respecting and treating neural signs- this point alone made it worth it for me, but there again I wasn't paying for it.
-He encourages the use of techniques from a range of schools of thought, lots of Mulligans, triggerpoints and other things thrown in together with the goal of focusing on the outcome rather than the means. Most physios probably already do this- it was good to get a few fresh ideas.
-He has a completely different way of doing S+O's. His Subjective interviews are very short (too short IMHO) and objectives are excessively long (but in the name of being thorough). It is good to be reminded to be thorough and take a broad view-this is probably the main message to take home.

There was nothing really magical or ground breaking about the physio he taught or demonstrated-it is good basic physio. What was different about the course and his method is how he goes about the process of physio- from the S+Os to the whole business side of things and client management. So all in all- I think I would recommend it, even though I feel that I don't use the course material to the fullest extent during day to day work. It did have enough of an impact on me to still be in my mind at some level when I'm treating patients even now, a year later. Whether you want to do it will depend on your situation too- your level of experience, what style of physio you are (personality and how to like to manage your clients). I found Michael a little over zealous in pushing his business model and 'his method' and found that I was always a bit suspicious of things because of that. But the course material itself was good :) PM if you want further info

Mate, that was a fantastic summary. Thanks for the time it took to write that message as I think you just saved me $4K (although work would have covered some of it).

For that money I was looking for something absolutely groundbreaking and by the sound of it, it isn't a bad course but maybe isn't quite as great as it is made out to be. I already went to a brief seminar on his buisness model and walked away feeling like I had just paid to sit through an advertisement. He clearly has read a lot of pop buisness books as his model resonates very clealry with those.

It sounds like you have to integrate both his buisness model and his clinical practice to be succesful? I have been wondering if a great deal of his success relies on a placebo effect i.e. he charges so much and is a great salesman so people are convinced it will work. I am however not denying that there is some truth in what he does as through experimenting with alternative medicine means I have discovered relationships in seemingly unrelated body areas e.g. wrist extensors and p/f pain in one individual, and in fact this has made me want to do his course as I felt he may have a more direct way of getting to body areas seemingly unrelated in allopathic physio.

If work was covering it all I would defintately go as I can see from a 'free' perpective it has definately been worthwhile for you.

Very interesting and I am more than happy to listen to anyone else who has thoughts on this whether or not they are contrary to my perspective or not.

Thanks again

Mitch

12 months + of doing RM and the results continue to get better. I think that Mitch is right. No point doing the course unless you are willing or able to put into practice at least with some of your clients in its full form. There is a learning curve involved which can be both challenging and exciting. I don't think I have seen anyone fully 'get' RM or learn to apply RM fully from the course. It comes from applying the material, reviewing the manual and asking a few questions etc. I would define RM as predominantly a skill based method.
RM does involve moves with movement etc, but they are applied with very different rationale than when applying Mulligans. Hence the the rules in applying them are somewhat different.
Obviously I am biased, but I recon this is the way many MS physio's will be treating the majority of their clients in the future.

i have attended the ridgeway course. i had previous exposure to the manual so when i went i felt like all the gaps were filled in theory havn't been able to complete the one on one time as yet but apparently he is offering a shorter form of the course for 350 bucks which is great.


now the methodology of the ridgeway method i feel is on the right track except for 1 main point .... symptoms ... he states there is no room for symptoms in the method at hand and that it is only signs that are important, such as muscle spasm; on a one to 4 scale, hypomobility and neural tension and motor control abnormalities wg ...

i have a different perspective on things and feel symptoms play a very important part in the treatment session... i use symptoms as a tool for the patient to be involved in the process of treatment while assessing the signs ... together it gives a better picture and a clearer pattern of the issue at hand.

i feel that the lack of symptoms slows down the process and that time becomes a real problem when using the ridgeway method based on signs only.

From what you have written I am not sure exactly how you are using symptoms. You are welcome to pm me if you wish to discuss. My approach has been to trial the method 'as is' in spite of my objections. I have found that I have not realised the importance of some aspects until I try them out 'as is' for a while. That way I get to test out my own theories and beliefs and have experienced more than a few 'aha' moments along the way

symptoms are the behaviour or a condition ... behaviour is the manifestation of emotion ... emotion is the language of the soul ... from the behaviour you can identify relationships between one part of the body and the other. one method i use is two point contact this technique is used in traditional oriental medicine, to apply two point contact is simple as the name implies your contact the area of concern (say shoulder condiiton with muscle spasm of subscapularis) usually the sign most proximal to the condition and contacting the area in question (say medial head of gastrocnemius) which is more distal and will also harbour signs. but how do i know if it is related ... traditionally you will most probably ask the patient to move their arm in the limited direction while holding the trigger point in the calf muscle, to see if there is an immediate improvement in shoulder. if there is an improvement of 50% or more you may attempt to resolve their condition with this spot and assess the long term improvement between treatment sessions. but you have not taken into account the behavioural response .. this could be the most basic response of the body ... the reflex ... or may be a more interesting phenomenon reffered pain of non pathoanatomical basis ... to assess the reflex one can easily identify the contraction and relaxation cycle when presure is applied at the site of question in regards to the proximal sign. or one may recieve feed back from the patient of a referred phenomenon travelling between the two points of assessment. there are other symptoms we can ascertain however, this explains how you may find a trigger point in the calf muscle that affects shoulder AROM because the behavioural response of the trigger point in the calf muscle may have an effect on the shoulder internal rotator... i have found that the behavioural responses dictate the effectiveness of applying treatment of a secondary region in relation to the primary area of concern.

Can anyone tell me what "specialist" physios charge patients per hour. I note Michael Ridgway charges $700.00 per hour and a full course is over $12,000.00 for the course of treatment. Is this a common fee schedule? It seems extortionate but I have no idea if this is a common charge. Appreciate any input.