This author has not written his bio yet.
But we are proud to say that Shaun Brewster contributed 26 entries already.
If you’ve sat in a class room with me, you’ve most likely heard me talk about four levels of effect when it comes to manual therapies. I like to break it down this way, because it shows just how vast the mechanisms of effect that we are interacting with actually are. Old school manual therapy education told us that […]
As health practitioners, people come to us for advice and guidance.Our opinion is often considered as “fact” by those seeking our input. Because of this, the responsibility we bear in each interaction is considerable, and must be taken seriously. The old saying “Dr knows best” is obviously incorrect, because no medical / health practitioner will […]
As I travel around the country, teaching the various modalities that we cover in our courses, I often find myself having the same conversation with clinicians, about a very real challenge that they face.That challenge is tied to the realisation that when they learn something new, and decide to change they way they work, that […]
A topic that often comes up in conversation at our courses, but also more broadly within the health professions is scope of practice.We’ve probably all be told at some point that a particular treatment approach, the use of certain tools, or a specific modality is outside of your scope of practice. But what, or who […]
It doesn’t matter where I travel to, every clinic owner I speak to has the same or similar challenges. Paramount amongst those challenges, is finding and keeping great staff. It is so common that clinic owners struggle to find enough staff, or perhaps enough good quality staff, but then when they get them, their next […]
Business has always been a fascination and passion of mine. I love that we can take an idea, something we have created or something we know, and turn it into something that can help others. It is so rewarding when that thing is valued by others, and if we get really good at this, it […]
I’ve been thinking lately about this idea of uncertainty in clinical practice, and the impact it has on us all. As clinicians, we are regularly faced with situations where what we believe will happen, doesn’t. We also regularly see patient problems that don’t fit a particular mould, and therefor are difficult to wrap a solution […]
Bo and I are very fortunate to be able to travel and teach in many locations every year, and in doing so, we get to meet and speak to hundreds and hundreds of fantastic health practitioners. Each person has their own unique experiences and perspectives.In these interactions we get the opportunity to answer many questions, […]
I’ve been reminded of this several times recently, and it has been a good reminder that what we perceive to be the case, is not always the reality.In the world of clinical practice, arriving at a point of mutual understanding and rapport with your patient is very important. This connection and mutual respect is key […]
In business, there is a metric known as CAC – Customer Acquisition Cost. This dollar amount is the cost of convincing someone to buy your services.Many things can go into this cost, much of it is generally advertising and marketing dollars, and some may be the cost of humans answering phones, responding to questions and processing […]
Earlier this week, I heard my mother in-law say the following:“It’s nice to be important, but more important to be nice”As soon as I heard those words, I thought to myself… YES! This is so true. She is a smart cookie 🙂We see this play out in every arena in our lives, and healthcare is certainly not […]
As a health practitioner, we often wear many hats.Some days we are a Clinician, dealing with patients and their issues. Some days we are a business owner, managing staff, ordering stock or solving problems.Some days we are a Marketer, deploying advertising, creating content, spruiking our services.And some days we are just confused… Wondering what to do […]
I was thinking the other day about something I quite often say in the classroom.“Success breeds success”.It’s true that when we succeed at something, we are more likely to try it again and ultimately gain even more success. Though, on reflection, I realised that there is more to this.It is in fact, MINDFUL success that […]
When teaching health practitioners new ways of treating or introducing new ways to work with patients, I’m often met with the following statement…“But my patients expect me to do XYZ, I don’t think they will be open to me working in that way”. It’s true, updating, changing, or shifting the way in which you manage […]
Welcome back to this series on the TMJ in clinical practice. My goal in this series is to introduce you to different factors in the assessment and treatment of TMJ related pain. Today I’d like to bring your awareness to the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disc.Just like the discs in our spine, this disc exists to absorb […]
Temporomandibular Joint Dysfunction… Where do we start?! Such a small joint, but so much to understand and consider when assessing and treating this presentation. I hear from so many of you that the TMJ is just so complex and difficult to work with, and many people will simply refer on, not knowing how to approach it clinically. Not surprisingly really, […]
In my travels I get the privilege of speaking to lots of clinicians from all over the world, and something that often comes up in conversation is their desire to build a big clinic with lots of practitioners.It makes sense of course… Building a large clinic with a broad offering is a great way to scale […]
I bet you can think of someone like this…It is the person who is so very confident in their ideas or opinions that they are incapable (or perhaps unwilling) to see that there may in fact be flaws in their perspective. Don’t get me wrong, confidence is a highly valuable character trait, and one that can serve […]
Ok, picture this… True story. I was in a shoe shop a few days ago, and happened to overhear a conversation with one of the shop attendants (SA) and a customer (C). It went something like this. SA – Hi, how can I help you today.C – Hi, I’m visiting from New Zealand and wanted to drop […]
Such simple advice, but why don’t we all follow it? Be it in the clinical setting, in business or in life, far too often we change course or try something new when the thing we were doing was already working so well for us. It’s easy to become led in a different direction when we are constantly […]
In my experience, often the best and fastest way to a solution is to first get clear about the “real” goal.I say “real” because the first stated goal or the one that seems most obvious is not always the true one. For example, a patient may say that they have come to see you because […]
Ok, this is potentially going to upset a few people… Mostly because what we are discussing today will go against some long held beliefs of many practitioners and their patients. The old “structural” model of understanding in relation to joint position and related pain is far too simplistic and lacking in understanding of modern pain […]
It has got to be the simplest, most accessible, yet frustrating sport known to human-kind. Yep, running… You either love it or you hate it. For me, it was a deep passion for almost 20 years and now is something that I have learned to enjoy with a little more balance and perspective. In the early […]
Are you guilty of this❓ I’m likely to get a few people off side with this article, but it is something that needs to be shared.Overservicing our patients is a problem for so many reasons, and we can fall into this trap in a number of ways. Let’s firstly look at what it is, and […]
Would you agree with this…? Assuming responsibility in any given situation can be a frightening proposition because that responsibility requires you to be accountable to the outcome being sought. What “taking ownership” means? For us in clinical practice, taking ownership means recognising that someone has literally come and placed their time, money and needs in your […]
Advanced Clinical Education (ACE) originally set out to become the most trusted and respected source of quality post graduate education for health practitioners in the manual therapy professions. What followed has continued to blow us away every single day.
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