What is Neurokinetic Therapy?

Neurokinetic therapy is a complicated manual movement assessment protocol that can be applied for both assessment and rehabilitation. Neurokinetic therapy or NKT is a series of muscle to muscle testings that tend to find the origin of dysfunction instead of chasing the symptoms. Indeed, NKT is like cracking the enigma code and the practitioner is not chasing the pain and goes to find the origin of dysfunction and correct that. Neurokinetic therapy is based on the concept of the motor control center in the cerebellum and its role in muscle coordination and learning and compensatory patterns. First, we want to shed some light on the role and significance of the motor control center.

“Neurokinetic Therapy is the missing link. NKT identifies muscle imbalances by using unique protocols to determine what muscles are inhibited and what muscles are compensating for them, thereby allowing you to utilize specific treatment and corrective exercise techniques to restore proper movement patterns and reprogram the motor control center.”

HIERARCHY OF MOTOR CONTROL CENTER

•Limbic System- Fill my needs
• Cerebral Cortex- Strategy- Take this route
• Motor Control Center- Cerebellum
                o Where all movement patterns are coordinated
                o Do it this way now
• Spine- Do It
• Myofascial System- Doing it actually occurs

What is the motor control center?

The cerebellum is involved in the training and performing complex movements. The primary function of the cerebellum in motor control is to integrate sensory signals and motor control signals. The cerebellum is the reason why humans can perform precise movements like dancing, performing surgery, and climbing, while robots can’t. Humans’ cerebellum can process a variety of sensory signals and compare them to the body’s current position and desired result of the movement and then apply the appropriate myofascial system to do the task in a more balanced position. such sensory details are called “proprioception” and it’s the duty of cerebellum to interpret the proprioceptive information. In humans, the cerebellum resides beneath the cortex, and damage to the cerebellum impacts both short-term and longterm adjustments and control of movement.

How Neurokinetic therapy works?

In neurokinetic therapy or NKT therapy the practitioner usually starts with history taking. Then, after a thorough understanding of the problem, they do a variety of muscle testings and tries to find the main culprit, here the compensatory pattern causing a cascade of dysfunctions leading to pain. As a manual osteopath who is practicing osteopathy in Vancouver, Canada(and previously medical doctor and fitness instructor in Iran), I have always benefitted from orthopedic examinations and muscle testings in my approach, and neurokinetic therapy has been an interesting addition to my practice. Especially in athletes, the results have been great and they are usually able to get back to their passion sooner.