NeuroKinetic Therapy corrective movement system is a sophisticated manual therapy modality that combines motor control theory with manual muscle testing. It can be used as both an assessment and rehabilitative technique for low back pain, knee pain, tennis elbow and many musculoskeletal injuries. NKT is also useful for improving walking/running gait, correcting poor posture, preventing injury, and enhancing athletic performance.
NKT interacts with the motor control center (MCC) in the cerebellum, the part of the brain that controls every muscle in your body and coordinates all movement patterns via the somatic nervous system.
An example of how the MCC works is when you’re thirsty and needing a drink. You reach for the drink without having to consciously control the individual muscles that control your fingers and thumb, move your wrist, bend your elbow, lift your arm, and bring the cup to your mouth. Your cerebellum is in full control and carries out these steps for you.
When something disrupts this function (an accident, poor ergonomics, overuse, injury or pain etc), the body creates a compensation pattern, which is necessary to protect the body from that trauma but allows you to still carry out your daily activities. The issue with this is that now the body has no mechanism to let go of the compensation pattern.
The NKT treatment employs a system of specific manual muscle tests which goes to the source of the problem and has the ability to change the stored dysfunctional programmed movement pattern. The protocol will find muscles that are inhibited (non functioning muscles that are not firing) and muscles which are facilitated (muscles that are over active and doing too much).
As a NKT certified practitioner, I can manually release the facilitator within the pattern with advanced massage techniques and follow this up with activation of the inhibited muscle. To complete the treatment, clients are assigned specific rehabilitation exercises which re-program the new functional pattern.
