The NETT Foundations Course introduces the student to concepts as well as specific details of various assessment and management tools to facilitate a better ability to consider the effects of Neural Engagement Therapy and Training (NETT) techniques on the Human Nervous System.
Module 1 – Wellness Facilitated by Eustress
Eustress can be described as a ‘positive’ stress on the body that elicits useful adaptation and change in the body’s systems. In this module we introduce the ‘wellness hierarchy’: a template of the needs that people have to lead a good and fulfilling life.
We discuss a variety of intervention strategies that can be used to improve ‘wellness’ and introduce the idea of the importance of nervous system- based intervention in achieving the best possible physical ‘status’ for your clients.
Module 2 – What is the Nervous System
This module looks at some of the underpinning knowledge of the nervous system required
to successfully integrate NETT techniques into day-to-day practice.
In this module, you will examine the central, autonomic and enteric nervous systems and discover the importance of how these systems interact. We introduce a variety of assessment and intervention
processes, and look at how to assess the function of the nervous system from both a bottom-up and top-down perspective.
Understanding the nervous system is the key to programming exercise, dietary and other programs to improve health, performance and
well-being for your clients.
Module 3 – Examining Heart Rate Variability
Heart Rate Variability (HRV) is a measure of the variation in the time between individual
heart beats. It is a very different measurement than resting heart rate, and gives significantly more information regarding the overall health of an individual.
HRV provides information about the state of a person’s autonomic nervous system, and this is the focus of this module. In this module, you will learn why HRV is important, how to measure HRV accurately and how to interpret the results to better facilitate a client’s
rehabilitative and performance outcome.
Module 4 – Neuron Theory and Frontal Lobe
In this module, students will be exposed to the science behind neuron theory and neuro-plasticity. The role of neuroplasticity will be explored from a rehabilitative viewpoint, and techniques will be examined that may help a client/patient enter a more ‘plastic’ state and
respond better to therapy interventions.
This module will also examine the role of the
frontal lobe and the effect it has on body function. Understanding the concepts of neuroplasticity, and linking this to specific areas of brain function, helps you to develop better therapy and training interventions.
Module 5 – Functional Neurology
In the first part of the functional neurology module, students will learn about the concept and history of Functional Neurology. The history of functional neurology will be explored, including a look at studies and research that led to the pioneering of NETT therapy.
The module will introduce students to important concepts of functional neurology, including different pathology and modalities of change, and will look at how to use these concepts to better manage a client/patient’s pain and performance enhancement. In the second part of the functional neurology module, students are introduced to some testing and intervention techniques for the autonomic nervous system.
This module shows students how to look for dysfunction of the nervous system by observing subtle changes in function. This can have major implications on the prevention of injury or illness with clients, and can lead to the creation of better rehabilitation and training programs.
In the last part of the functional neurology module, students will examine the role of the cerebellum, vestibular and visual systems in maintaining neurological function and improving rehabilitation and performance outcomes. Specifically, this module will examine testing and intervention for each of these areas in order to identify and improve physical parameters such as balance and proprioception.
Module 6 – Balancing Extremes
This module will look at different nutritional strategies and interventions that contribute to a client’s overall health and wellness. Using the latest research in nutritional therapy, this a client’s overall health and wellness.
Using the latest research in nutritional therapy, this module will closely examine how to balance diverse and paradoxical strategies, how to better understand and manipulate the roles of hunger and hormones as well as the importance of macronutrient manipulation and timing. Environmental stress, such as temperature, hypoxia and heat are known to affect our biological function by disrupting homeostasis.
This module is designed to give you an understanding of how the body responds to environmental stress and how you can use these underlying mechanisms to better facilitate a client/patient’s rehabilitation and training outcomes.
In this module, students will examine the different metabolic classification of exercise interventions, how to manipulate exercise and program training variables and how to use environmental stress interventions when working with clients.
Module 7 – Mind/Body Interventions
Using ‘heart rate coherence’ as a starting point, this module will show students how to improve a client’s autonomic nervous system function by controlling their breath, using relaxation techniques to minimise stress and improving heart function and HRV through controlled breathing techniques.
‘Mind-body medicine’ is a term that describes physical, bio-chemical, mental, and spiritual interconnectedness, and currently encompasses a wide variety of techniques, some of which are used as a part of NETT rehabilitation and performance.
Understanding and applying mind-body techniques can help clients to improve the physiological functioning of the nervous system, and better balance their autonomic nervous responses.
Specifically, in this module students will examine what it means to achieve a ‘flow state’.
You will be shown different interventions to achieve flow state and how to use both flow state and mindfulness training to better balance the autonomic nervous system activity and achieve better pain management and performance outcomes.
Therapeutic or neurogenic tremor is a technique used to give the central nervous system a way to discharging excess tension from the body. It does so through the initiation of rapid muscle contractions and relaxations in order to calm the body down from an over excited sympathetic state.
This module introduces the student to the history of therapeutic tremor, the different types of therapeutic tremor currently available, and how to integrate NETT active tremors into a rehabilitative therapy or training program.
Module 8 – Daily, Weekly Testing Intervention Schedules
In the final module of the Foundations of NETT course, we will examine how all of the testing, interventions and lifestyle modifications can be incorporated into a day to day and
week by week schedule. Specifically, this module will give all the information needed to successfully integrate different nutrition, exercise, environmental and functional
neurological interventions into a patient/client’s daily routine and how to take these daily routines and progress them to allow better client rehabilitation and performance outcomes.