This last week, I took the certification exam for Neurokinetic Therapy (NKT) Level 1 and passed!
Up to now, I had associated a lot with NKT practitioners: Kathy Dooley, Bob Gazso, among many others. It seemed that every seminar I went to, I would be in company of many of them. Thus, I found some good common ground with this very diverse group, ranging from clinicians to trainers to therapists.
However, it took a few years before I finally went and took the course up in San Francisco with its founder, David Weinstock. I even went to see him for treatment years ago!
Not sure why I waited so long. I think timing had something to do with it, as well as just simple knowledge that I had to get first, like a good grasp of anatomy for example – which I got from Dr. Kathy Dooley’s Immaculate Dissection series – I highly recommend these courses as its a unique way to learn anatomy without cutting open cadavers! I also got a smattering of knowledge on movement chains, although I never took any Anatomy Trains courses, I got them through courses like Perry Nickelston’s Primal Movement Chains Course and other places. I never took any formal training in school in this kind of thing so I wanted to beef up that knowledge first.
I also got to experience the power of NKT firsthand. These days, I always try to be a client or patient of a system before training in it. Resonance with a system is key and I want to have a good experience on the receiving end of a therapy first before training to apply it. NKT generated some good results in me over the years and so I had some good understanding of it prior to signing up for the class.
So many years in the making, and when I got to the class, I wasn’t uncomfortable at all. Sometimes when you get to these weekend workshops, the deluge of information can feel overwhelming. However, thankfully my years of exposure to it didn’t make me feel overwhelmed at all. I could get past the basic understandings and start moving to the finer points. It’s nice when you’re sitting in a course and not struggling to keep up!
Briefly, NKT is a method by which you can determine dysfunctional movement patterns and figure out how to correct them. It uses an understanding of how the nervous system works, coupled with muscle testing to determine the dysfunctions and produce corrective prescriptions.
Very cool stuff.
In preparing for my NKT L1 test, I had worked with some test clients and had gotten some pretty good results in helping them move better. Think swimmers who have problems forming the catch, or problems with rotation, or restricted shoulder range of motion. NKT is a welcome addition to my toolkit in addressing the physical issues of all my athletes.
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