Running a business in Alice Springs isn’t easy. Having grown up in regional Victoria, I can’t imagine spending my days in the big smoke, although I did live in Melbourne while doing my physiotherapy degree. I do sometimes wonder if it would be easier to develop professionally in Sydney or Melbourne, with easier access to networks in the manual therapy field.
Luckily for me, I live in the information age, and I’m able to get some of my professional development remotely. Having said that, I’ve been pondering how to go about learning new skills in a hands-on environment. Specifically, I’m keen to get competent in trigger point dry needling, which is something that seems like it would be best taught in a practical, face-to-face setting.
There are definitely dry needling courses for manual therapists, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide all have them. I’ve been considering attending but I’m still unsure. I’d have to take a few days off, though, even though the courses are on weekends – living out here makes travelling to those places expensive and a bit of a production.
It makes me wonder if there are dry needling courses Australia wide. I’m sure professionals would be up for travelling here to host a course onsite at our clinic. I’m pretty sure that some of the other clinicians would be interested in boning up on this topic. It wouldn’t be cheap to fly out instructors, but it might just be cheaper than flying all five of us out to the city and putting us up there.
I’m sure that would be course providers willing to be hosted at regional clinics, but yeah, I have a feeling that Alice Springs might be a bit of a stretch. If that’s the case, I suppose I’m happy to travel if that’s what it takes to learn this technique. I keep hearing about how effective it can be in treating certain kinds of chronic pain and musculoskeletal dysfunction. Since I’m wanting to expand my repertoire anyway, it seems like a good idea.