Understanding The Hypermobile Universe — A Two-Day Course for Practitioners
About this Event
This two-day course covers symptomatic hypermobility in full, from what the condition is through to how you work with it in practice. It is built around the latest evidence-based research, alongside real clinical and personal experience. Understanding the complex nature of this condition is necessary for anyone working with symptomatic hypermobility, and this is one of the few courses to look at every aspect of it in one place.
Day One: Online (14 October)
On the 14th of October, we start online with what hypermobility is, covering the genetics and the diagnostic criteria as they currently stand, with discussion of the changes expected in the near future, including hypermobility spectrum disorder. From there we work through the comorbidities in detail, covering pain, fatigue, dysautonomia, gastrointestinal issues, craniocervical instability, and tethered cord, among others. The day gives you the full clinical picture that sits behind the condition.
Day Two: In Person, Sheffield (21 October)
The second day turns to practice on the 21st of October, where we host a day together in person. We look at what hands-on therapies mean for this population, including how the sensory and nervous systems respond to pressure and massage, and then work through exercise head to foot across a set of structured movement sequences. Also available online if you are unable to attend in person.
About your presenter
Bonnie Southgate MSc has worked clinically with people with symptomatic hypermobility for over twenty years and is an international speaker on the subject. Her postgraduate research examined muscle function in hypermobility, she has run support groups for the hypermobile community, and she is MSK Advisor to SEDSConnective. She brings lived experience of the condition to her teaching, and is author of the forthcoming textbook The Hypermobile Universe, from which this course is drawn.
This course is for
Physiotherapists, Sports Therapists, Pilates Teachers, Yoga Teachers, Osteopaths, Chiropractors, and Movement Professionals.
Investment
£250 for the full two-day course.
Agenda
🕑: 09:30 AM - 09:45 AM
Welcome and introduction
Host: Bonnie Southgate
Info: Meet one another, followed by, orientation to the day and how the condition will be approached.
🕑: 09:45 AM - 10:45 AM
What hypermobility is: Marfan and EDS
Host: Bonnie Southgate
Info: The genetics, the connective tissue basis, the diagnostic criteria as they currently stand, and the changes expected ahead. Marfan covered as a differential for recognition and referral.
🕑: 10:45 AM - 11:00 AM
Break
🕑: 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM
Nervous system, somatosensory system, and pain
Host: Bonnie Southgate
Info: Nervous system, somatosensory system, and pain
How these systems are affected and how they shape presentation.
🕑: 12:30 PM - 01:15 PM
Lunch
🕑: 01:15 PM - 02:45 PM
Dysautonomia, fatigue, mast cell activation, and gastrointestinal
Host: Bonnie Southgate
Info: Dysautonomia, fatigue, mast cell activation, and gastrointestinal involvement
The core systemic comorbidities and how they present
🕑: 02:45 PM - 03:00 PM
Break
🕑: 03:00 PM - 04:20 PM
Urogenital and urogynaecology, respiratory, cervical instability, oral and tem
Host: Bonnie Southgate
Info: Urogenital and urogynaecology, respiratory, cervical instability, oral and temporomandibular, Chiari malformation, tethered cord, and eyes
The wider comorbidities worked through in turn.
🕑: 04:20 PM - 05:00 PM
Psychological aspects and neurodivergence, subluxation and dislocation, and cl
Host: Bonnie Southgate
Info: Psychological aspects and neurodivergence, subluxation and dislocation, and close
The psychological and neurodivergent connections, joint instability, and questions.
🕑: 09:30 AM - 09:45 AM
Day two, in person, Sheffield, Questions and Recap
Info: A short return to the key points from day one.
🕑: 09:45 AM - 10:30 AM
Approaching the hypermobile client
Info: Approaching the hypermobile client
Intake and assessment, the questions worth adding to your form, and recognising when to refer.
🕑: 10:30 AM - 11:00 AM
The nervous system and breathing
Host: Bonnie Southgate
Info: The sympathetic and parasympathetic states, how to recognise which state a client is in, and breathing as one of the tools for shifting it.
🕑: 11:00 AM - 11:15 AM
Break
🕑: 11:15 AM - 12:30 PM
Hands-on therapies
Info: How hypermobile tissues, unstable joints, and fascia respond to pressure and massage, alongside the sensory and nervous systems, and what this means for treatment.
🕑: 12:30 PM - 01:15 PM
Lunch
🕑: 01:15 PM - 02:15 PM
Exercise in hypermobility: Is it all about strength, and should we stretch?
Host: Bonnie Southgate
Info: How to approach exercise with the symptomatic hypermobile client, a group that ranges from elite dancers to people who are bedbound with PoTS or ME/CFS. We look at meeting the individual where they are, building strength and joint stability from the right starting point, and the principles that guide it, including strength training, muscle balance, motor control, eccentric and concentric loading, and whether it is appropriate to stretch.
🕑: 02:15 PM - 02:30 PM
Break
🕑: 02:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Exercise sequences, head to foot
Host: Bonnie Southgate
Info: Working through the six movement sequences in turn: head and neck, shoulder, spine and thorax, hip and pelvis, knee, and foot.
🕑: 04:30 PM - 05:00 PM
Integration, questions, and close
Host: Bonnie Southgate
Info: Drawing the two days together, with time for questions.
Where is it happening?
GBP 271.56
