From a personal perspective, I like to know what other people think or feel about an experience. It helps guide me in some of the decisions I make and may influence how I spend my money or time. Sites like Tripadvisor have their modus operandi based around reviews and a several bad reviews can be the death of a business.
I wanted therefore to put some experiences up here that might help, inform or reassure you about what it is that we do and how we do it. You might think that I have only put the positive experiences on this area, but to be honest, I have never had anyone who said that they didn’t like the class or have asked for a refund.
Dear Julian
I thought I would send you a note of thanks for the brilliant course I attended recently. As a very experienced, expert clinician, I cannot overstate the educational value of being able to revisit the dissecting labs. Many of us only attend as students in training, where the experience is useful, but if we are honest most of us would have had very little understanding of what we are looking at, and its implications. Visits to the anatomy labs are hard to arrange, and are often to view pre-prepared specimens which are of limited value. I have previously had to go abroad in order to study anatomy in detail.
The soft-fix embalming you have used gives the opportunity for a greater understanding of the inter-relationship of structures and how they may respond to load and movement. The guided experiential dissection is immensely educational, and beautifully illustrates the variations in “normal” anatomy. Most importantly from my viewpoint, being able to discover and demonstrate the regional interconnections that are almost ignored in the standard anatomy literature (with perhaps the exception of the a couple of papers by Professor Olivier Gagey, with whom I have also had the pleasure of a dissection course). Being able to examine how the connective tissues link structures we have been taught to think of as separate and distinct, was immensely instructive and helped to explain some conundrums from clinical practice.
Finally, I couldn’t help but be impressed with the great care and consideration of the group to treat the cadaver with the utmost respect at all times. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend the course to others, especially experienced clinicians.
Many thanks again, and best regards to you and your team.
Martin Scott MSc MCSP
Clinical Specialist Physiotherapist
Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust
“The 2 days have already altered my practice profoundly and would love to do more.
He presented the days in a considerate and sensitive way that guided us all through
without anyone feeling overwhelmed. I must admit my head was bursting by the end
of the second day.”
VF, Physiotherapist April 2013
Dr Marcin Wytrążek PhD
Marcin is former Dean of Studies at the Kasimiera Milanowska College of Education and Therapy in Poznan, Poland. He has attended two or three dissection classes with me, and in 2017 attended the first course of its kind in Poland. Here he chats about his experience
“Best course I have taken and it’s given me lots of ideas and
thoughts for what I want to try to work with/develop, so very excited about that.”
FB. Sports Therapist
Kirstie Yelland
Kirstie is a nurse practitioner in the highly pressurised environment of a GP’s surgery. Although highly skilled and trained, she is the first to admit that her anatomy skills could be better. She’s not alone. In this interview she talks about how blown away she was between what she had learned and pictured, to how things really are in the body. She also kindly sent me a letter via email, explaining some more background detail that you can read here. Letter from Kirstie Yelland
“Fabulous course. Best thing I’ve ever done, it was amazing. So privileged. I will be back”
LE Physiotherapist
“I was in awe of the information I came away with. Julian made it enjoyable and interesting with his inimitable style of teaching. I was amazed by the construction of our bodies and how so many therapies focus on this thing we call fascia…..it is totally different to anatomical pictures we see in the anatomy books and is a course that all practitioners of bodywork should take…at least once.
It has turned my practice on its head and I now have a much clearer view of how to help my clients.”
SH Massage Therapist
“Your course was THE BEST training I had in years, pretty much since I got into massage and body work over 10 years ago.I learned more in 2 days than in many years combined.” LH Massage Therapist