Muscle damage creates tension in the myoskeletal system, causing misalignment.
Stretching only temporarily releases muscle tension. The misalignment reoccurs.
If this is your experience as a manual therapist, then this workshop is for you!
Your instructor, Madeline McBride, is a professional engineer and Canadian expert in restoring myoskeletal alignment.
Learn her approach to eliminating muscle tension causing nerve compression and misalignment, without stretching or equipment.
Find the Muscle Damage & Fix it
The Need for Therapists Who Can Restore Alignment is Enormous
If people had access to therapists who knew how to restore pelvis alignment soon after falls, sports injuries and accidents, those clients would never experience joint deterioration caused by long term misalignment. Excess muscle tension twists or shifts bones out of alignment and compresses joints. Inevitably, the result is pain, osteoarthritis/joint damage, and eventually back surgery, and/or hip or knee replacements.
Madeline’s goal is to increase the number of manual therapists with the knowledge and skills to restore alignment. Frankly, the need from children to seniors for fast* and effective restoration of pelvis, femur and knee alignment is overwhelming. She cannot handle the demand, and needs to teach others to achieve lasting results.
If deterioration has not progressed to hip or knee replacement eligibility, manual therapy can mitigate most people’s back, hip and knee pain, and prevent progressive deterioration.
Madeline’s approach is to:
use biomechanical “the-body-is-a-system” principles to zero in on specific muscles misaligning the lumbar vertebra, ilium, greater trochanter, femur and tibia, and
manually resolve the muscle damage causing the tension, torsion, and joint compression. Stretching does not hold.
*Please note: some therapists expressed concern that they will lose income by “fixing” people in only 2-4 sessions. That is not Madeline’s experience. Word spreads. Clients’ friends, family and their colleagues will even travel from out of town to book appointments with you.
Why will you be in such demand? Because there are so few therapists who:
a) understand which muscles are the culprits, and
b) can resolve the muscle tension causing the misalignment.
What You Will Learn
In the seven (7) hour hands-on workshop you will learn:
anatomy of the lumbar spine, pelvis, hip and knee joints and attached muscles, and the major nerves that pass through them;
types of innominate (ilium) rotations (4) and upslips (2);
types of muscle damage;
the principle of tensegrity (how the body’s muscles interact as a structural system);
the biomechanical impacts of muscle tension, compression, torsion, and vector (force in a specific direction) acting on the bones, resulting in scoliosis, back pain & sciatica, bulging discs, osteoarthritis, etc.;
a three minute assessment procedure combined with palpation to quickly identify pelvis rotations and upslips, and the muscles causing that misalignment;
an effective manual technique to address leg, iliopsoas and lumbar muscle damage (and relieve pain quickly); and
a step-by-step strategy to assess and treat a client with a complex combo of muscles that are damaged, over-stretched, and/or locked in contraction.
NEW in 2026: video of the assessments and treatment.
Please note:
She does not teach practitioners to use, or who intend to use, a device to treat muscles. (Acupuncture and dry needling are complementary to this technique.)
This workshop is an expansion of the 1/2 Day Iliopsoas Damage Workshop to 1 day.
Who Can Attend
This workshop is targeted to massage therapists, Bowen therapists, osteopaths, and physiotherapists who treat muscles manually, and preferably offer sessions 45 minutes or longer. Physicians, nurses, occupational therapists, and those with anatomy knowledge are welcome to attend to gain insight into how muscle tension and resulting misalignment cause pain. For those in need of treatment, unfortunately you can’t fix yourself - you’ll need someone to work on you. Ask your favourite massage therapist to consider taking the workshop with you.
The in-person workshop includes instruction in the manual technique. (Scroll down for details of an on-line lecture version via Zoom.)
To acquire and effectively use this manual technique you will need:
palpation experience,
sensitive fingers that can locate muscle damage (knots, strains, scar tissue) in muscle, and
patience. (Madeline has spent 20 minutes or more releasing tension in severely damaged muscles.)
Feedback
“This is the best training I have had yet re the importance of treating for pelvis misalignments – with very clear in-depth explanations and visuals. Concise and to the point, distilled down to the essentials.”
“I learnt a lot about the pelvis - how it moves, what affects its rotation, pain and alignment. I learned new ways to assess the body. A must do course that brings plenty of information together in one workshop.”
“This workshop gave me techniques to use to help my clients in addition to, and beyond my skills as an RMT.”
“Great for practitioners who feel stuck or overwhelmed by frustrating cases, especially with low back/pelvic/knee issues.”
“Logical hierarchy from assessment to treatment to reassessment… So much pertinent info. Maybe the most important: treat the source to fix the problem.”
“This workshop helped me to better understand what muscles could be causing dysfunction to the pelvis. Although the class was on-line, Madeline explained things very well with various props and a great presentation.”
“Madeline knows her stuff and offers real solutions to practice challenges.”
“Assessment and palpation helped me get to the core problem, not just “symptom remediation.”
“You (Madeline) are an integrator between engineering principles and massage therapy. You are a great instructor. You explain things clearly, have the right pace and the diagrams you produced/found are very helpful.”
“Thank you for this amazing workshop, Madeline. You are thorough and very patient.”
“I liked the step by step instructions for assessment and work on the body.”
“It is powerful info for getting to the root of clients’ issues and addressing layer by layer.”
“I would take any of Madeline’s workshops. She is a very good instructor & adamant that content & practice are well received. I had the opportunity to put this workshop in practice two days later with a client… Success!!!”
“The gentle approach is fantastic. The assessment component was great as it’s quick to do.”
“Workshop helps with connecting the dots and bringing clarity to problems that re-occur with clients - why they keep getting tension in the same location. Now I can treat the problem correctly.” RMT
“Madeline was helpful with assessments and determining what areas needed to be addressed first.”
Instructor
Madeline McBride has a B.Sc. (Civil Engineering) from Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, and a Master’s degree in Applied Science (Civil Engineering) from the University of Waterloo, Canada. After retiring from her engineering and management career, she became a Certified Bowenwork Practitioner and Neuromuscular Therapist. Her cross-discipline skill set of mechanics + manual training resulted in this North American expert in restoring pelvis, jaw and spinal alignment after falls, accidents and other injuries. Learn more about her training and experience.
Madeline’s Blog Posts
Posts on the topic of alignment.
WORKSHOPS
Subscribe to Madeline’s e-newsletter to be notified of upcoming workshops.
JANUARY 2027 - 7 hour lecture workshop on ZOOM
at a time suitable for North America and Australia.
Note: the on-line workshop does not include practice. The content is exactly the same as the in-person workshop. You will learn the assessments and the treatment protocol, but must practice unsupervised. You will receive a PDF of the slides, and links to YouTube video demos.
This 7 hour workshop is split into 3 parts.
Part 1: Saturday, January 16 at 7:00 p.m. EST (UTC-5) (Sunday morning Jan 17 in Australia)
Part 2: Saturday, January 23 at 7:00 p.m. EST (Sunday Jan 24 in Australia)
Part 3: Saturday, January 30 at 7:00 p.m. EST (Sunday January 30 in Australia)
your time zone here: https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html
FEBRUARY 2027 - 7 hour lecture workshop on ZOOM
at a time suitable for North America and Europe.
This 7 hour workshop is split into 3 parts.
Part 1: Saturday, February 13 at 10:00 a.m. EST (UTC-5)
Part 2: Saturday, February 20 at 10:00 a.m. EST
Part 3: Saturday, January 27 at 10:00 a.m. EST
Register: email madeline@mcbridepainclinic.com.
Please provide this information in your email:
name
type of therapist (if applicable)
town/city
country
whether you are registering for the January or February workshop
Cost: $250 CAD (tax included) / $175 USD/130 GBP/ $250 AUD / 150 euros
Free for people who have taken this workshop previously.
Canadians may pay via no-fee e-transfer or credit card (PayPal invoice).
International participants, please wait for the PayPal invoice from McBride Pain Clinic before paying. (And check your Spam folder.) Madeline pays the PayPal fees, but you are responsible for currency conversion fees.*
Upon receipt of payment you will receive the ZOOM meeting link and the PDF of the presentation. Upon completion of the workshop, you will receive a receipt and certificate of attendance. Due to the administrative burden of applying to associations in countries around the world, CEs are not provided.
ORGANIZE A WORKSHOP
Madeline will travel to the Ottawa/ Kingston/ Montreal/ GTHA areas to teach manual therapists; i.e., anywhere accessible by VIA Rail & GO network. A workshop coordinator who provides/arranges a venue, massage tables and a sufficient number of students will attend free. Email madeline@mcbridepainclinic.com
