Neurovascular Release

When you have reduced the body’s subconscious need to protect the neural and vascular networks, your client will have less pain, more efficient movement, better proprioception, more productive stretching, and greater freedom. 

This approach to structural integration complements and illuminates traditional methods of SI.

Newly graduated SI practitioners, structural integrators who love Series Work, and experienced SI practitioners who have not yet been introduced to osteopathic-style visceral or neural work should begin their NVR studies with one of the courses titled Introduction to Manual NVR. Either of these intro classes will serve as a bridge between the classically broad, deep touch of SI and the precise and gentle touch of osteopathic-style work.  

Introduction to Manual NVR: Sagittal and Coronal Plane Balance

This three-day class is an introduction to the five-part certification program. It is open to all licensed manual therapists who have an interest in working structurally (not just SI practitioners). All the techniques and strategies can easily be folded into an SI series, but our discussions do not center on the classic SI series. (Depending on your geographic location and dates of courses offered, choose the more convenient intro course.)

Introduction to Manual NVR: Neurovascular Release for Structural Integrators 

This three-day class provides techniques and strategies for each session in a classic SI series, and is open only to structural integrators. 

I don't have one scheduled for 2025, but If an SI school is interested in hosting and bringing this course to their school, I am all ears!

(This course was formerly titled Manual NVR-SI Part 1: Neurovascularly-Informed Structural Integration. If you have taken NVR-SI Part 1 already, your next course is Manual NVR Part 1: Neck, Upper Thorax, and “Roots of Arms.” )

Both of these intro classes are designed to bridge the classic SI approach (broad, deep touch with a pattern-oriented view of fascial manipulation) and an osteopathic style of tissue manipulation (delicate, gentle, tissue-specific manipulation of organs, vessels, fascial support structures, and the neural network). Taking an Intro to NVR class before diving into detailed regional anatomy will help you integrate neurovascular work into an SI practice oriented around the Series. If you are a new SI graduate, the Intro to  Manual NVR course will keep your new NVR skills grounded in Series work. 

Following are the next five courses in the series: 

Manual NVR Part 1: Neck, Upper Thorax, and “Roots of Arms”

Manual NVR Part 2: Lower Thorax, Pelvis, and Hips

Manual NVR Part 3: Lower Extremities

Manual NVR Part 4: Upper Extremities

Manual NVR Part 5: Assessment and Strategy Practicum

Manual  NVR Parts 1 and 2 are best taken close together so that your clients will benefit from your skills in working throughout the central and peripheral nervous system (with cervical, thoracic, and lumbosacral nerves as well as dura). Simillarly, the upper body cannot be fully addressed without lower body arterial work. You may want to take a pause here in your NVR studies after NVR Part 2 (for budgeting reasons, life circumstances, or simply for more time to integrate NVR into your practice).  

Manual NVR Parts 3 and 4 are intermediate classes. We continue working in detail out into the extremities, discussing bodywide patterns and reviewing techniques and concepts from Parts 1 and 2 while improving skill with assessment and strategy.

Part 5 is the capstone course, a clinic-style class only offered in person, our focus is on session flow and bringing together all you have studied so far. You will do full sessions on each other and on outside models with support from fellow students and from Kier, and you will have the opportunity to practice four-handed work.

Returning students (practitioners who studied neurovascular work with Kier before 2019) please reach out to reconnect! I am happy to discuss the best path for your continuing or renewed NVR study.