Functional Bodywork with James Earls:
4–point kneeling & sidelying
Functional Bodywork with James Earls is a progressive course blending movement principles with hands-on soft tissue work. It offers new assessments and treatment strategies. This approach helps practitioners address motor control, joint, and soft tissue issues using the same technique. Clients are assessed, treated, and re-educated simultaneously with pain-free interventions.
The Functional Bodywork series has two workshops: Functional Bodywork in Standing and Functional Bodywork in Sidelying & 4-Point Kneeling. This course focuses on working with major joints and tissues in sidelying and 4-point kneeling.
You will learn to modify client positioning and movement for predictable responses. The techniques suit any position based on comfort, strength, balance, or treatment goals. By the end, you will know how to create movements that support client needs.
These workshops teach key treatment principles while providing an in-depth understanding of functional anatomy. You will feel, assess, and work with the body’s tensegrity and movement patterns directly. There are no fixed models or theories—only the client’s system guides the work.
What is Functional Bodywork?
James Earls developed Functional Bodywork by blending myofascial and movement principles with hands-on techniques. This approach creates various therapeutic effects. James trained with Tom Myers, the founder of Anatomy Trains, and studied functional movement with Gary Gray and David Tiberio. His work combines both models to create effective treatment tools.
Functional Bodywork has been developed by James Earls, blending his understanding of myofascial and functional movement principles with hands-on manipulation of the soft tissue to create a variety of therapeutic effects.
James trained with Tom Myers, the originator of the Anatomy Trains model, and studied functional movement principles with Gary Gray and David Tiberio of the Gray Institute. Functional Bodywork aims to bring the best of both these models together to give you an immediate and effective treatment tool.
What will you learn from Functional Bodywork
- Understand and apply key principles: touch, layering, movement.
- Select positions that work best for each client.
- Use movement drivers to create specific reactions.
- Enhance movement range effectively.
- Integrate structural and functional assessments.
- Develop local and global movement strategies.
- Improve soft tissue touch skills through movement.
Presenter: James Earls
James Earls is a writer, lecturer, and bodyworker specialising in myofascial work and Structural Integration. He blends movement and manual therapy for a functional approach.
For over 25 years, he has studied with experts like Tom Myers, Art Riggs, and Gary Gray. James’ blend of movement and fascial understanding led to the publication of his well-received “Born to Walk”, an introduction to the interconnected mechanics of the body, ‘Understanding the Human Foot’ and the newly released book “Functional Anatomy of Movement”.
James has taught worldwide, sharing his knowledge with therapists from various disciplines. His relaxed and engaging teaching style makes complex topics accessible.
Suitable for; This course is applicable to all hands on therapists including Soft Tissue Therapists, Sports therapists as well as Physiotherapists, Chiropractors and Osteopaths.
