We are so very pleased to announce that Christopher Fred Thurston, Jr, PT, DPT, OCS, CSCS, COMT has completed the NAIOMT Fellowship Program as our organization's 128th fellowship graduate!

His fellowship project, also presented at the AAOMPT 2018 Conference, is “The Manubrial Test: A Novel Assessment for Regional Interdependence in Adolescent Overhead Athletes.” Here are a few reflections from Christopher on his goals and experience with the NAIOMT Fellowship Program. We congratulate him on all his hard work and this great career-enhancing accomplishment. 

"When I started the program, my short-term goals were to obtain my COMT certification and benefit from the one-on-one mentoring. I have achieved both of these goals. I underestimated how much I would grow from going through the process of both. The COMT certification process pushed me to challenge myself outside of my comfort zone and really be able to effectively communicate my thought process. 

I have a much more grounded treatment approach to patients. I have become very systematic in how I approach complex patients and my ability to articulate my findings. I am no longer intimidated by having the results of my assessment not fully match up with my initial hypothesis. To me, this means I am more fluid in my thought process and thorough in application of my foundational knowledge. I find myself utilizing proper referral options better, such as with physicians." 

A patient came in with complaints of dizziness, facial tingling, disturbed vision/hearing and pain in her neck.  She had history of a bad MVA approximately 25 years ago and her symptoms had persisted since the accident. During subjective history she mentioned that all of her previous physicians thought she was crazy. As I was performing the subjective examination, I thought her symptoms sounded like what Erl Pettman has described as “trigeminal symptoms.” It occurred to me she might have a C2/3 dysfunction that was contributing to trigeminal convergence creating these symptoms.