Elevate your expertise in pelvic health. By broadening your skill set and knowledge base, this course empowers you to offer more comprehensive care to your patients. We are excited to help you take your practice to the next level.

Dry needling is an effective method used by pelvic health practitioners to treat the pelvic floor and surrounding areas. This technique helps to modulate the central and peripheral nervous systems, as well as local tissues, by releasing muscle tension, improving blood flow, and reducing pain signals. It is an efficient tool that is often incorporated into a comprehensive treatment approach to address pelvic pain and dysfunction.

This advanced course is designed for regulated health professionals who are rostered with their provincial regulatory college to treat pelvic health conditions and use a needling modality in their practice. Eligible professionals typically include:
• physiotherapists
• acupuncturists
• physicians
• nurses
• naturopaths

Important Note: Eligibility is contingent upon each individual professional having met their provincial regulator’s specific requirements (such as post-graduate training and a rostered or annotated status) to perform these procedures.

What you’ll learn:

Building on your foundational dry needling skills, Pelvic Health: Advanced Needling Techniques will teach you to put your needling skills into practice for treatment of pelvic conditions such as:
• Urinary incontinence
• Urgency/frequency
• Fecal Incontinence
• Pelvic organ prolapse
• Constipation (evacuation difficulties)
• Perineal pain (Dyspareunia, Vulvodynia, Vaginismus, Vestibulodynia, Testicular pain, Penile pain, Persistent Genital Arousal Disorder)
• Urologically-based pelvic pain (Bladder Pain Syndrome/Interstitial Cystitis and Non-bacterial Chronic Prostatitis)
• Gynecologically-based pelvic pain (ie. Endometriosis, Dysmennorhea)
• Low Back Pain and Pelvic Girdle Pain
• Pre- and post-partum care

Online and In-Person Components:

The Pelvic Health: Advanced Needling Techniques course includes online and in-person components.
• A 3-week long online component introduces you to the theory of pelvic health needling and the application of advanced needling techniques that can improve pelvic health in both assigned at birth male and female patients, as well as gender re-assignment. The online component is self-paced and includes narrated PPTs, needling resources, research, videos, and a quiz to test your knowledge.
• 2 ½ days of in-person learning where hands-on needling skills are taught and perfected.

You should expect to spend ~20 hours studying the online component, over three weeks. The in-person training is ~20 hours for a total of 40 hours of continuing education. In-person training runs:
• Friday 4:00 – 7:00 pm
• Saturday: 8:30 am – 4:30 pm
• Sunday: 8:00 am – 5:00 pm
In-person includes a practical examination on day three to test your hands-on skills and provide college accreditation. You will work in small groups with expert instructors to become effective, safe practitioners with these sensitive areas. This course ensures you will be fully prepared to integrate these new skills into clinical practice immediately.

Prerequisites include:
• being rostered with your provincial college to treat pelvic conditions
• being rostered with your provincial college to use needles in practice
• successful completion of Acupuncture Canada’s Dry Needling Level 2 course, or equivalent dry needling education program that includes training on these muscles:
– multifidi, quadratus lumborum, lumbar paraspinals, glute min/med/max, piriformis, adductors, iliopsoas, tensor fascia latae, hamstrings, quads, etc.
– proof of lower quadrant needling training is required
• experience with pelvic floor anatomy, assessment and dysfunction

Students will need to bring an educational model of the male and female pelvis to the in-person portion of the course. This is highly recommended to aid in your training while learning the needling techniques.

Pelvic Health: Advanced Needling Techniques has been developed by highly experienced instructors from the Acupuncture Canada faculty team, including pelvic health rostered physiotherapists, a physician and an acupuncturist. This wealth of background knowledge provides a well-rounded, holistic approach to treating complex pelvic health conditions.

Participants will learn to assess and treat pelvic floor dysfunctions using targeted needling strategies. The curriculum emphasizes safety, precision, and evidence-informed practice, equipping clinicians with the tools to support patients experiencing pelvic pain, incontinence, and other pelvic related conditions.

Pricing: $1599.00 + tax ($1499 for Acupuncture Canada members)