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- Have you considered the liver's fascial attachments when neck pain lingers after whiplash?
- Do you know how to assess for mobility within the abdominal fascia after surgery?
- Tired of treating back or neck pain without any new tricks?
- Did you know that fascia contains myofibroblast cells that can contract under certain conditions and potentially influence musculoskeletal (MSK) mobility?
Visceral fascia may be the piece you're missing.
This course is an introduction to visceral fascia and is focused on addressing the fascia to help improve MSK presentations. Some techniques may be useful for functional visceral disorders, such as IBS, however visceral symptoms are not the focus of this course.
From the head to the pelvis and beyond, the visceral fascia is one of the most complex fascias in the body, fundamentally involved with distributing the major neurovasculature to the thoracic, abdominal and pelvic systems (Stecco et al 2025*).
The connections of the visceral fascia to MSK structures are often overlooked when considering pain presentations that don't change with usual manual therapy techniques. Visceral fascia has strong connections throughout the body that may be affected with injuries that involve a fast-moving force such as whiplash or blunt trauma. Surgery may also affect the mobility of the MSK system via the connective tissues.
Learning to identify and treat visceral fascia gives you another way to approach MSK presentations you may not have considered.
In this course from Advanced Pain Management Osteopath Liz Howard you will learn to confidently examine and treat visceral fascia contributors to MSK pain or dysfunction. You will practise a range of effective techniques and treatment models for the supportive fascia of the thorax and abdominal viscera, targeting the links to the musculoskeletal system.
Exploring Visceral Fascia has a strong practical focus including mini treatment models (patient education and self-management tools) that you can use immediately in your practice to improve patient outcomes.
The model behind the course
The treatment model proposed is a theory model based on applying the latest neuroscience and mechanotransduction research, specifically how fascial myofibroblasts behave under certain conditions e.g. they can contract and stiffen tissue with pain, infection, bleeding, changes in pH, immobility, hormonal influences and other factors (Schleip et al 2005, Plaut 2022*).
This theory can be applied to all connective tissue throughout the body. It is useful when viewing the body as a tensegrity structure to provide insight into potential areas of adverse tension in the large supportive connective tissues of the viscera, given the individual person's history. Connective tissue is highly innervated and pervades most tissues of the body (Schleip 2003*). This provides another clinical avenue to explore with some patients, particularly those on the hypermobility spectrum (Wang et al 2025*).
Learning Objectives
- Update and extend your understanding of the anatomy, physiology and pathophysiology of the visceral fascia of the thorax and abdomen
- Discover the key questions to ask in the case history to help identify viscero-fascial dysfunction contributing to your patient's MSK symptoms
- Recognise when your patient may benefit from direct or indirect viscero-fascial techniques
- Learn treatment models and planning for common presentations involving viscero-fascial restrictions
- Learn and practise new techniques for treating MSK presentations via the visceral fascia
- Learn simple patient education and self-management tools
Related Learning
This course follows on from Liz Howard’s Myofascial Release or Myofascial Release Online course, though neither is a prerequisite. Myofascial Release explores the functional anatomy and amazing properties of fascia and introduces assessment, protocols and techniques to address myofascial restrictions and contributors to pain.
Attendees can choose to register for Myofascial Release Online as well as Exploring Visceral Fascia and receive 20% off both. Select the Visceral registration + Myofascial Online ticket option.
Course Details
The Exploring Visceral Fascia course is applicable to all allied health manual therapy practitioners. It includes practical examination and treatment models designed for everyday clinical use.
The course will run from 8:30AM to 4PM. Places are limited to 20 attendees. It also includes morning and afternoon tea, printed notes and an e-certificate of attendance for your CPD records. The course can be counted as 6 hours CPD.
About the Presenter
Advanced Pain Management Osteopath Liz Howard practises at the Women's Health & Research Institute of Australia, a specialist pelvic pain clinic in Sydney. She completed a Master of Science in Medicine (Pain Management) at USYD in 2013 and has over 25 years of experience as an osteopath, including pain education and as a clinical specialist in sacral neuromodulation.
Liz has more than 16 years of experience teaching at Australian universities and as a CPD provider. Her teaching experience ranges from course writing, presenting lectures and practicum in Undergraduate and Master’s Osteopathic programs (University of Western Sydney, Southern Cross University), clinical supervision of Osteopathic students (UWS, SCU, SportsMed Mumbai), to presentations at many professional associations including RANZCOG (Royal Australian & New Zealand College of Obstetrics & Gynaecology), AGES (Australasian Gynaecological Endoscopy & Surgery), NSANZ (Neuromodulation Society of Australia and New Zealand), Osteopathy Australia National Conference, Pregnancy Massage Australia, Pelvic Floor Seminars, GP education evenings and international allied health events, most recently in Ireland, Sweden and New Zealand.
Find out more about Liz Howard's experience here.
Attendee Feedback
It had heaps of relevant information which was delivered in a really easy to understand and enjoyable manner. Liz was a fantastic presenter and the printed course notes were a huge help. I found the case studies really useful as they were helpful in terms of understanding how the fascial techniques could be applied and also from the note-keeping perspective.
Fiona Spring
Liz is by far one of my favourite presenters. She is down to earth and very approachable but has such a wealth of knowledge and experience and a great way of distilling and presenting information. The content was perfectly contained, with just the right amount of material to come away with something to use straight away and not feel overwhelmed.
The courses are always a really reasonable price, which I appreciate. The online content was well presented and easy to watch.
Sara Jane Hammond
The information was imparted with clarity and ease. The group was small, which made for a fully engaged learning experience.
Liz is a wonderful teacher. She doesn't come from a place of ego-driven boasting, which many presenters do, but communicates well and shares her knowledge generously.
It was a fabulous course which I thoroughly enjoyed and have put to good use in my daily practice.
Sarah Simpson-Goff
* References
Plaut S (2022) Scoping review and interpretation of myofascial pain/fibromyalgia syndrome: An attempt to assemble a medical puzzle. PLoS One 17(2): e0263087.
Schleip, R. (2003). Fascial plasticity–a new neurobiological explanation: Part 1. Journal of Bodywork and movement therapies, 7(1), 11-19.
Schleip, R., Klingler, W., & Lehmann-Horn, F. (2005). Active fascial contractility: fascia may be able to contract in a smooth muscle-like manner and thereby influence musculoskeletal dynamics. Medical hypotheses, 65(2), 273-277.
Sheets K, Overbey J, Ksajikian A, Bovid K, Kenter K, Li Y. The pathophysiology and treatment of musculoskeletal fibrosis. J Cell Biochem. 2022;123:843-851. doi:10.1002/jcb.30217
Stecco, C., Pratt, R., Nemetz, L. D., Schleip, R., Stecco, A., & Theise, N. D. (2025). Towards a comprehensive definition of the human fascial system. Journal of Anatomy, 246(6), 1084-1098.
Wang, T. J., Stecco, A., Hakim, A. J., & Schleip, R. (2025). Fascial Pathophysiology in Hypermobility Spectrum Disorders and Hypermobile Ehlers–Danlos Syndrome: A Review of Emerging Evidence. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 26(12), 5587.