Dear Colleagues,

Christmas has crept up on me this year and just as I am starting to enjoy the festive frivolities it will be over in days. It will then be full steam ahead into 2012 and the SOT calender year starts again.

This year, we have enjoyed meeting many new Doctors to SOT at our Seminar Series and hopefully influenced the clinical methods of students and doctors alike.

It was great to reconnect with our South Australian members with the Series and Annual Convention both held there this year. Next year it is back up north to the Gold Coast for Annual Convention so mark it in your calendars now.

Our AGM held in November saw the passing of two resolutions. The first was an increase in our Annual fees with an increase each year according to CPI. The second was a proposal to change the official name of our Organisation from "technique " to "technic". Thank you to all who contributed to discussions regarding these resolutions, in particular Andrew Paul, Ross Gilmore and Suzanne Seekins from SORSI who attended the meeting, sharing the historical perspective surrounding these changes. Also one of our long term Board members and Vice President Dr Sandy Clark stepped down after 9 years of service. He has been a fundamental member of the Executive and I thank him for his contribution to serving SOT over these years. Sandy remains part of our Primary Educating Team for 2012. Our newest Board member is Dr Tory Wright. We always look forward to fresh and enthusiastic members joining the Board and Tory has already contributed by setting up and managing the SOTO-A facebook page. Her role as University Liason delegate will sure inspire many students to attend SOT conferences next year.

Congratulations to those practitioners who passed the SOT Certification exams held over the Annual Convention weekend. You, other SOT members and the public now know you understand SOT to an International Standard and you can now use the International Mark of Excellence in your offices.

Craniopathic Examinations will be held in March and October next year and Basic and Advanced in October only. We have decided to hold them in a capital city for easy access and separate to the Annual Convention for a change. I hope this helps to encourage more of our members to gain certification in SOT and strive for excellence. Please contact Averil if this interests you.

SOT Retreat Planned for 2012!

SOTO-A is planning to hold another mid year retreat off our shores in August again so I will keep everyone informed as things progress with this. If Fiji is anything to go by, it will be another great gathering of friends and families in SOT.

The Seminar Series is now taught as an International Standard presentation. Please revisit these revised and refined notes in the near future, especially if its been a long time since learning the basic principles of SOT.

SOT International News

In a first for the International SOT community, the SOTO-International annual meeting was held outside the USA this year. In a major coup for SOTO-A, it was held at the Annual Convention in the Barossa last month. In attendance was Steve Williams (SOTO-E President), Suzanne Seekins (outgoing SORSI President), Sandy Clark, Gerald Vargas and myself. One of the many topics discussed was the role SOTO-A has played in leading the SOT teaching protocol around the globe. Your Board has achieved many great advancements in SOT of recents years and I feel that SOT is in a much greater united and strengthened position than ever before. I was honoured to be voted President of SOTO-I for this following year. My first task is to support and help develop the emerging SOTO organisations in Chile and Brazil. Next year's International meeting is to be held in Tokyo Japan, hosted by PAAC, the SOT organisation there. PAAC have agree to develop a new organisation,SOTO-Japan, in keeping in line with the global rebranding of the International SOT Alliance.

Congratulations

I was honoured to present our past President Dr Brett Houlden with a Life membership to SOTO-Australasia at the Saturday night function at Wolf Blass vineyard. Whilst this was not unexpected by most, Brett was taken by surprise and was left speechless for once. Well deserved and congratulations again.

Early next year, SOTO-A plans to host a training day for all SOT Educators. It has been many years since we have put on a "Train the Trainer" workshop and they are imperative if our standard of education is to maintain its high level of excellence. Becoming an exceptional presenter take time, practice and proper tools of the craft. I do encourage all Table, Assistant Table, and Primary Educators to endeavour to be there. Particularly those wishing to join our Primary Educating Team.

Merry Christmas and stay well,

Darren Little

This year's topic at our Annual Convention was the 'The School Aged child" presented by Dr Steve Williams from the UK. This was the third time Steve had come to Australia to present his expertise in SOT and paediatrics.

Dr Suzanne Seekins from the USA also presented a session on advanced CMRT work.


Baby Blake Bickley was an ideal 'patient' for Steve & Suzanne's demonstration!

Apart from a minor hiccup with the lost printed notes (which you should have all received by now), the weekend saw plenty of new and old material being covered.



Steve and Suzanne's unique styles kept the audience engaged and there were plenty of hands on workshops.






DVDs of this event will be available soon for you to purchase.

Discounts apply to those who attended. SOTO-A will also stock Dr Williams's paediatic posters and these will be available through the website.
 
See you all next year in Kingscliff northern NSW! 

 

The setting for the restaurant at Novotel Barossa Valley allowed for enjoyable meal breaks.

The gorgeous setting of the Wolf Blass vineyard was where the AGM and Saturday Night function was held. Congratulations to the following doctors for earning their SOT certification: Krystall Ford, Liana Ruggiero, Greer Watson, Julie Kendall and Tory Wright (Basic), Julie Kendall and Tori Wright (Advanced) and Troy Miles (Craniopath).

Your 2012 Board!

Drs. Sam Culley, Tori Wright, Darren Little, Kate Stewart, Gerald Vargas, Mary Bourke and Jim Whittle.

Welcome to the summer edition of ‘Expression’ and here is the next article in the series on the temporal sphenoidal work. We are most fortunate, living in this age and having available the computer generated graphics capable of producing life-like wall charts.

Of course, we are talking about the Occipital – Trapezius, CMRT and Temporal Sphenoidal Reflex chart produced by Dr. Marc Pick’s company, Marc Pick Creations.

You need one of these in each of your clinic rooms. You can now order them and all other SOT charts, manuals and products via our website www.soto.net.au.

A word about your available resources, if you are a new reader or new to the SOT fraternity, SOTO Australasia has been publishing a newsletter since the early 1970’s and as our good friend and one of the early Australian SOT practitioners, Dr. Ken Leyonhjelm put it in a letter to the editor a few years ago: ‘these are chockers full of useful information.’ Also available to you is the online reprinting of the 1930 to 1984 DeJarnette manuals at the Rose Ertler Memorial library hosted and maintained by Dr. David Roseboom.

The TS research 1965 manual is the one you will want to delve into to give you the background for this series.

Dr. Mel Rees of Sedan, Kansas was the chiropractor who rose to the occasion of developing the T-S line and correlating it to DeJarnette’s bloodless surgery procedures following his attendance at the 1965 Convention.

Now, the T9 work. If your patient’s temporal sphenoidal thoracic nine is active and painful to palpatory pressure then you will know that your patient has adrenal gland function irregularity.
These patients have blood pressure abnormalities because the adrenal medulla has vasomotor nerve control as part of its glandular duties. You will observe a weak and fatigued patient with a stooping posture because cardiac output and general body metabolism is partly controlled by the adrenal glandular activity.

It is of interest to note that sympathetic nerve fibres pass from the spinal cord at the ninth thoracic level and pass without synapses through the sympathetic chain and on through the splanchnic nerves to go directly into the adrenal medullae and end in special cells that secrete adrenalin and nor adrenal hormones which have to do with arterial tone and general metabolism.

The temporal-sphenoidal T9 reflex directs your attention not only to the adrenal medulla but also to the adrenal cortex with its cortico-steroid hormone problems.

This portion of the adrenal is under different neural control so it is like you are performing two separate bloodless surgery procedures.
Corrections

DeJarnette starts all CMRT work with occipital fibre and spinal level neutralisation. In many cases this work can be quite painful. This is where Rees’ usage of TS9 point for adrenal and the receptor block area serves to not only alter physiology so that the work can take effect but also to be more comfortable for your patient.

Step 1

Then, is locating and contacting the T.S. and the receptor block areas for adrenal. The anterior abdominal areas are found about two to three inches below the rib cartilage, lateral and slightly superior to the umbilicus. A receptor block area is like a pendulum, it keeps right on going until you stop it. In other words, this receptor block reflex arc keeps oscillating until you put the brakes on it. Here’s how ….. if the right receptor block is painful, you simply hold the right temporal sphenoid T9 and the receptor block area for two minutes. This means you have stopped the reflex arc short circuit so you can now attempt to start repairs to the damaged vital function. If both T – 9’s were painful you must use the same technique on both sides to remove the receptor block that has kept the reflex arc in abnormal oscillation.

Step 2

Not part of Dr. Rees’ procedure, but the first step of Dr. DeJarnette’s 1966 standardisation of the protocol comes in here. Of course, we are talking about the neutralisation of the occipital line 2, area 7 and the ninth thoracic vertebra. The promise of the TS and receptor area calming contacts you have just performed is that this is now much more bearable to this nervy, stressed-out adrenal patient.

Step 3

This is taking the patient’s blood pressure. If the systole is low – 95 to 140 you are going to use low blood pressure adrenal CMRT. If 140 and above, you will use high blood pressure adrenal technique.

Step 4

This is the cranial contact procedure used for improvement of adrenal cortico-steroid hormone production. This involves pituitary gland stimulation for the low blood pressure people and calming holding pressure contact for the more common high blood pressure adrenal major.

Dr. Rees used a variation which combined temporal sphenoidal work, so let’s describe both.
Dr. DeJarnette’s pituitary gland technique is thumbs contacting the vertex of the skull with fingers bilateral on the anterior margins of the temporal plates.

Dr. Rees’ approach was to place the thumbs on bilaterally on the most tender areas located by palpation on the parietal bone straight above the ears to the sagittal suture. These are easy to find areas as the patient will tell you where your pressure hurts. You now place a finger of each hand on the 9th dorsal TS area and the 4th dorsal TS area (which lies above it on your chart). The technique is an alternating pressure of about five pounds at the temporal then at the parietal contacts. And now you have two procedures for the adrenal cortex.

Step 5

Now we turn our attention to the adrenal medulla. DeJarnette’s approach is found in your CMRT seminar notes. This is the double thumb contact two inches inferior of the Xiphoid with your fingers on the patient’s lower rib cage, either side, which has been nicknames ‘the butterfly contact’ due to your hands and thumbs positions. It’s a hold and release approach for the high blood pressure adrenal patient and a rapid thumb to fingers flutter for the low blood pressure patient.

It probably comes as no surprise to you the regular reader of this series, that Dr. Rees used a variation. Remembering that he learned bloodless surgery procedure way back in 1952; it seems that DeJarnette had modified some of the contacts for 1966. The question of whether one is better than the other is for you to be the judge. Of course, we don’t expect you to turn up to your certification examinations and do anything else but what is in your seminar manual.

Dr. Rees’ approach to putting adrenal vasomotor controls back in action was to place a thumb on each 9th rib costal cartilage and the fingers on the lateral rib cage so as to contact over the 9th rib. So you have different ‘anchor points’ for the contacts of DeJarnette (early to late) but the action of holding and alternating pressure for a slow count for the high blood pressure person and doing the ‘101’ butterfly flutter for the low BP patient remains the same. This is like artificial respiration for the adrenal medullar. Whether high BP or low BP, the procedure lasts for two minutes.

Step 6

You now have the adrenal gland functions back on track and you are ready to ‘start the motors’. This is usage of our old friend, the pre-ganglionic with adrenal umbilical contacts, that is; your hold contact point is one inch superior and two inches lateral to the umbilicus – the receptor block area, the area you ‘work’ is the mid-sternal area. Your seminar notes suggest no longer than a two minute application. Dr. Rees’ suggestion was to simply and lightly rub out the pain area. In previous articles with use of the preganglionic, you will note he suggested about ten clockwise circles. This is about the right number of repetitions tolerable to your average patient in that this area can be very sensitive. A gentle tapping of the sternal area with your index finger is another excellent approach.

Step 7

We have included this very important step which Dr. Rees tended not to use, that is, the post-ganglionic control. This procedure with shoulder contact hold and adrenal receptor block working is one you will need to educate your patient into doing as a home procedure. It is performed several times a day until the blood pressure normalises for a month. The last word on patient management for the adrenal patient concerns dietary corrective supplementation. These are stressed out people, so you need to get them onto their vitamins B, C and E. Dr. DeJarnette suggested the usage of calcium lactate. These days there are several calcium / magnesium supplements available which are proving efficient.
Dr. Rees was firmly in favour of the usage of standard process glandulars such as drenamin and drenatrophin.

We have two more years of articles to follow in this series in which we cover the usage of TS work with your CMRT.

Hope you enjoy the summer and festive season.
Until next issue, all the best.

John S. Kyneur           Peter J. Kyneur
Sydney, NSW             Newcastle, NSW

Dr. De Jarnette used the word “Technic” in the title of all of his Sacro Occipital Technic books. He used the word “Technique” in the title of his cranial and CMRT books and to describe most of the individual procedures in the Sacro Occipital Technic books.

Remember that Dr. De Jarnette was an engineer before he was a chiropractor. And in engineering, the words have specifically different meanings.

“Technic” is a set of procedures that can be done by anyone and applies to all situations. “Technique” implies an individuals’ use of his own skill, knowledge and judgment, resulting in a slight variation of what he learned as a “Technic” that works for him.

“Technic” is never used in describing Chiropractic Craniopathy or Chiropractic Manipulative Reflex Technique. That is because they are an art more than a science and so are done by the individual doctor in their own manner. They really cannot be taught as a “Technic”. There are too many variables.

I insist on using the terms as Dr. De Jarnette used them, not because Dr. De Jarnette wrote it that way, but because it is the only correct use of the two terms.

I express my gratitude to Doctors Skip Saderlund, Ned Heese and Dave Beltakis for their contributions to my understanding of the difference of these terms.

David Rozeboom DC, CC

Welcome to the Spring ‘Expression’ article on the bloodless surgery, CMRT and temporal sphenoidal work for the liver.

For those just joining us in this series of articles, we have been working through the work of Dr. Mel Rees. Dr. Rees learned the bloodless surgery work in 1952 while at Chiropractic College.

In 1965, he attended Dr. De Jarnette’s seminar on the Temporal Sphenoidal reflex points and incorporated the work into his practice. In 1966 Dr. De Jarnette standardised the bloodless surgery work and called it C.M.R.T. (Chiropractic Manipulative Reflex Technique).

The T8 T.S point is located on your wall chart, and on your patient on the lower line. If you haven’t got a wall chart, you need to make the small investment and have one of these in your clinic rooms – call Averil for prices (phone 07 5442 3322).

If you have located T8 and it ‘ouches’ to palpatory pressure, you have a patient with liver abnormalities. They will have an occipital line 2, area 6 heavy nodule. Dr. De Jarnette called the liver, ‘the great imitator’ in that it can mock just about any other organ of the body. The liver presents three
types of problems; metabolic, secretory and vascular.

The patients you see with a TS major will have metabolic liver problems. The secretory and vascular types will show up as a T4 and an L4 major, respectively.

The metabolic functions of the liver are by far the greatest concern to the C.M.R.T. and TS practitioner.

The liver is the gateway to the body and this amazing organ exercises tight control upon materials – food and poisonous substances – seeking entrance.

Materials absorbed from our intestines must first be carried to the liver by the portal circulatory system, inspected and stamped ‘good to use’ or ‘neutralise, poison’ before the needed nutrients are allowed to continue on to the billions of hungry cells clamouring for them. If there has been a lack
of ‘life force’ to the liver function for even a short time, we have a weakened liver unable to normally cope with these all important metabolic functions.

T8 Liver Physiology

The change in metabolic function you will see with these patients results from back pressure of the portal circulatory system. The portal circulation to the liver normally has about 8mm of pressure behind it. Liver dysfunction causes an increase in circulation pressure and this will produce the
symptoms these patients exhibit. Remember that the portal system has a large number of anastomoses with the general circulatory system – these are collateral circulatory pathways that are normally slightly travelled.

When the liver is in trouble, the portal pressure can increase to 20 and 30mm resulting in a spill-over into one or more of the collateral pathways. The weakest pathways will be the first affected and the symptoms appearing will depend upon the pathways to succumb.

The most common are:

1. Probably the most common ballooning collateral is the back pressure through the haemorrhoidal circulation. The resulting symptoms, of course, are the very uncomfortable piles that occur overnight, many times.
2. The second most common symptom you will find is the ‘oesophageal varicosity syndrome’ which in categories work and C.M.R.T. we know as reflux oesophagitis or pseudo-hiatal hernia. It can present as a sub-clinical version with the Category II patient. It can also present as a most terrifying affliction which the patients interprets as a ‘heart attack’. The distal oesophagus where it moves with respiration within the diaphragm balloons as an overworked collateral pathway.
3. Two very serious symptoms can be caused by collateral ballooning in the splenic duct and/or in the pancreatic duct. This is where the liver major can resemble splenic problems or pancreatic problems and if not repaired can actually set the stage for future trouble in those areas.
4. A ballooning of the collateral system through the peritoneum, omentum apron, that acts as a holding structure for pelvic and abdominal contents can result in kidney, GI tract and many pelvic symptoms. Female organ ptosis symptoms and prostate ptosis symptoms and kidney ptosis symptoms are what you will find in these liver major patients.

You may now understand why Dr. De Jarnette
called the liver the ‘great imitator’!

We will now present Dr. Rees’ procedure for the T8 work. As we have staged in previous writings in this series, it is a chance for you to review your C.M.R.T. notes from the seminar series and perhaps to re-read the 1966 C.M.R.T. manual appropriate pages.

Bloodless Surgery Technique for T8 Major

You are seated on the right of your supine patient throughout this procedure, which is outlined in ten steps:

1. Dr. De Jarnette located two liver reflex areas on the anterior and posterior of the right shoulder girdle. It was Dr. Rees’ habit of marking these areas with a skin pencil for pre and post checking. The anterior is on the third right rib, about 5cm lateral of the sternal margin. The posterior is right straight through to the back side, thus just off the right transverse process of T3. The front area when painful means the front half of the liver is congested. The back area when painful means the back half of the liver is congested. Nearly always, both will be painful in a TS T8 major. When you do your bloodless surgery / C.M.R.T. procedures, these painful areas are gone and the portal back pressure can be normalised.
2. This is an area of liver reflex you will have read about in your C.M.R.T. seminar notes and most probably overlooked. The front portion of the forearm, over the biceps muscle or lower one-third of the biceps muscle. This is a reflex area of soreness that is extremely consistent in its use as a progress monitor in the C.M.R.T. /TS work.
3. Locate the most painful area, on the patient’s right from the liver down to McBurneys point. This is the receptor block area – the region you will use in the TS work and may wish to use with post ganglionic. In our current seminar notes we call this the ‘caecal area’!
4. Here is the TS approach. You have previously located the painful temporal sphenoidal T8 indicator and you hold this with a left hand finger contact while you contact the receptor block area with your right hand finger tips. This is the ‘stop the reflex arc oscillation’ step of your technique which enables the steps to follow to take better. Essentially, if you hold the reflex arc oscillation contacts for two minutes you neutralise these areas and their neural volley input. Your temporal sphenoidal pain will no longer be present and the biceps’ indicator (as mentioned in step 2 above) will no longer be there. This results from your removing the receptor block that has kept the reflex arc in abnormal oscillation and with it removed the ‘pain interpreted’ reflex areas on the body.
5. Now you are ready for your deep tissue technique which consists of the five steps:
   1. Third rib and posterior contact
   2. Third rib and McBurneys contact
   3. The anterior liver technic
   4. The posterior liver technic
   5. Pre – ganglionic work
   You know these from your C.M.R.T. seminar notes, but by repetition and stating these in a different context, this should give you more certainty to your approach. You hold the posterior marked third rib reflex area while you use a circular motion over the front third rib area for the count of ten, which is, about the length of time taken to achieve tissue relaxation.
6. Now hold the anterior third rib marked area as you use your right hand to break up the adhesions at the caecal area. This area covers the area from the ampulla of vater down to the McBurneys point. It is less tender than it would have been if you didn’t do the TS contact, but nevertheless will still have loads of tension in it. You will feel this tension leave in about thirty seconds of gentle circular work. This step is most necessary to relax the bile duct so your liver congestion techniques, the anterior and posterior pumps that follow, can work.
7. This step is the anterior liver technique which is a gem of a move and seems to have been overlooked in the modern notes. Dr. Mel Rees whilst a student at the small and now, defunct Kansas State Chiropractic College, learned this from his teacher, Dr. Brian Surtees. As to the importance of this step, Dr. Surtees used to say ‘you better do this move or you aint done nothing’. Here is the liver pump out technique or anterior liver technique to clear out the front portion of the liver. Your left hand is an ‘over the shoulder contact’ with your thumb landing on the anterior third marked area. Your right hand finger tips make a soft touch contact two inches under the right inferior costal arch and gradual increase pressure, superiorly and then floorward, like the tide going in and out, for one minute. In this action, remember your anatomy and the fact that you are squeezing out congestion on the front one half of the liver.
8. This next step, you know from the C.M.R.T. seminar notes as ‘the liver pump’ which is described as – left hand over right liver area presses and pumps in a rotation motion while the right hand lifts and holds the caecal area. In more detail and with some variation, this technique in the old Bloodless Surgery notes was called the posterior liver technic. Following your last step, you move both hands down. Your left hand which was over shoulder now is moved down to the right inferior costal arch with heel of the hand over the lateral margins of T-7, T-8, T-9 and T-10 ribs. Your contact needs to be as far posterior as you can on your supine patient. Now follow these variation directions. Your right hand is placed on that caecal area, just below McBurneys point with the fingers pointing to the medial line. Your left hand holding contact lifts the rib cage ceilingward as your right flat hand contact turns in a torque manoeuvre until the fingers face the right shoulder and at the same time carry the soft tissue floorward always gaining as much tissue stretch as possible. Now your left hand rib cage contact squeezes the costal arch towards you as your right hand pushes for a count of five. This cycle is repeated five times to clear the most difficult portion, the posterior portion of the liver of congestion.
9. Now palpate the sternal bone for tenderness. This is the pre-ganglionic, which you have come to know now from this series of articles, a component which had been forgotten. Remember, the idea here is to ‘start the motor’ again, that you ‘switched off’ with the TS and organ receptor area holding contact. You hold the liver area flat hand contact with your right hand while you give ten quick left finger circles on the mid-sternal area.
10. Except for nutritional support, this concludes your bloodless surgery technic. Remember the liver needs a food source of manganese enzymes for the formation of urea from ammonium ions and for the glycolysis process. Also, the sick liver needs vitamin A but can’t tolerate oil sources. Thus, lettuce, carrot and/or beetroot juices need to be taken. There are several liver cleansers available on the market but the simplest measure of having the patient squeeze the juice of half a lemon and taking this in warm water twenty minutes before breakfast proves to be a very successful action.

A principle the C.M.R.T., bloodless surgery and TS practitioner must remember is that there are often
secondary organs involved. Thus, a liver ‘major’, may have a need for kidney raising and drainage and as we said before reflux oesophagitis and the Allen Flip technique are often indicated. Most likely you would have started these procedures when the patient presented as a Category II.

All the best with the work.
John S. Kyneur
Sydney, NSW

Peter J. Kyneur
Newcastle, NSW

The SOTO Australasia Annual General Meeting will be held at the Barossa Valley on November 12, 2011. Formal notice will be sent to you during October. There are two points to be voted upon.

Resolution 1

In favour of / against SOTO AUSTRALASIA annual membership subscription to be increased from:

• DC $163.64 (Plus GST) to $200 (Plus GST) Effective 1st January, 2012
• Associate $81.82 (Plus GST) to $100 (Plus GST) Effective 1st January, 2012
• Academic (Student) & Overseas Member $54.55 (Plus GST) to $63.64 (Plus GST) Effective 1st January, 2012
• And increased in line with the Australian Consumer Price Index each year.

Resolution 2

In favour of / against SOTO AUSTRALASIA name change from Sacro Occipital Technique Organisation Australasia to Sacro Occipital Technic Organisation Australasia.

Whilst the two words technique or technic can often be used interchangeably, it has been requested by SORSI, the founding SOT organisation in the USA, to use the correct official term as intended by Dr De Jarnette. As part of the unifying process of SOT worldwide, it is important that terminology is congruent between member organisations.

To help you better understand the reasoning behind ‘Resolution 2’, the Autumn Expression newsletter contained an article by Dr. David Roseboom – the article is reproduced below for your information.

• Basic
• Advanced
• SOT Certified Craniopath

The 2011 SOT Certification Examinations will be held on Friday, 11 November
commencing at 10.00am. The venue is Novotel Barossa Valley.

DON’T FORGET! Applications close Thursday 13 October, 2011

Our International Alliance strengthens with a new streamlined brand

This year we have worked tirelessly towards unification in the international arena. SOT practitioners are competing against the whole chiropractic profession, as well as against the full gamut of natural health therapies and health care modalities. Our view was that we needed to work together to strengthen our SOT offer and build awareness of our unique ‘brand’ of healthcare.

This has been achieved by reinforcing the global alliance of SOT organisations. In this task, our key objectives were to:

• Grow the awareness of SOT globally vis-a-vis other chiropractic techniques
• Enable international exchange of intellectual property, research and resources for the good of the Alliance and its members
• Provide a universal system of teaching and learning, with a global standard for examining, that is highly respected by all practitioners
• Provide patients with a clear and identifiable quality endorsement system to help guide their practitioner choice.

The Board is proud to announce that we now have reached a milestone in achieving our objectives. Working with the SOTO International Board, we have developed standardised and internationally approved teaching materials for SOT education. This development is beneficial for practitioners and patients alike.

For practitioners wishing to advance through SOT education, the manuals have been collated into a coherent and easy to navigate single text. This will avoid unnecessary duplication and confusion, and assist those wishing to become certified.

A universal marque of excellence

Furthermore, all doctors who have been certified in SOT through one of our recognised international organisations, including those previously certified, will have the honour of displaying the marque of excellence, as designated by the logo shown below. This marque denotes international accreditation, and reflects the universal quality level and achievement of standards in the practice of SOT.

For your patients seeking the highest standard of SOT care, this marque of excellence will enable them to find a doctor who is fully certified. The ‘green dot’ logo will also appear on all of SOTO-A’s communications, manuals and certificates.

A new look, tone and feel for SOTO-A

Concurrently, SOTO-A has also gone through a rebranding process. The new visual identity is part of the international strategic branding program developed by us on behalf of all our member organisations. This rebranding represents a move towards a contemporary, accessible and professional image for our organisation that is easily recognised by chiropractors internationally. We look forward to rolling this out over time.

We have also taken on board many of your suggestions from the survey completed last year by the membership regarding the communications we produce and the services we provide.

Our new website, to be launched soon, is much more user friendly and easy to navigate. It is aimed at both patients and practitioners in order to create awareness of our technique and share important information. Key improvements include:

• A much improved search facility for patients looking for practitioners. Note: please make sure we have your most current information including contact and certification details for inclusion on this part of the site!
• An online shop with real time ordering and payment
• A forum where practitioners can share their views and ideas – I anticipate this will engage our membership in an interactive and educational way
• An online news area that will link back to email news bulletins. ‘Expressions’ will still be produced and filed electronically on the site
• An interactive events calendar supported by online bookings
• An updated classifieds section for posting ads online, in real time.

In addition:

• Our manuals have been redesigned with the new identity, and we are the first international organisation to have the Craniopathy manual printed
• Most of our Keynote and PowerPoint presentations presented at seminars have been modified to reflect the manuals – this is still a work in progress, so be patient with us!
• The SOTO International Board has closely scrutinised our exams and the questions are fully referenced in the accompanying manuals.
• Our promotional material has a new look and feel.

I am on the SOTO International Board and am proud to say that Australia has been instrumental in facilitating these changes, and in fact, we have been responsible for both the strategic and design work you see. This has taken an enormous input of effort, time and patience, however I believe the benefits will be forthcoming. Not only will this help us to achieve our primary objectives, it will also

represent significant savings for our organisation on future administration costs.

I would like to thank our primary educators this year for their patience and understanding while these changes were being implemented. I would also like to thank our Board for their support and enthusiasm for this project, as well as our administrator, Averil Crebbin. And finally, our strategist and designers at Fix Branding who have done an excellent job driving the international change.

Darren Little President SOTO Australasia

Dear Colleagues,
SOTO-A continues to evolve, leading the charge with the standardisation of SOT education worldwide and always striving to improve the quality of our service and products. Later this year we will be launching our new look for the organisation, a well overdue revamp and sprucing up of all our printed material and a brand new website. Our aim is to provide a more contemporary and accessible way of relating to the organisation, to improve our relationship with the membership, and strengthen our image as a leading progressive Chiropractic technique.

Research is becoming an integral part of our SOT education and is essential for the technique to thrive, being valid and justified in the public eyes. SOTO-International have people ready to assist you in writing up any case studies and I would like to see the membership work together to test new ideas and combine the collective results. Our membership can function as a readymade team that together can support an evidence based technique. I encourage everyone to consider formalising their clinical results as this will assist in the strengthening of our profession and of SOT.

We have responded to your feedback from our survey we sent out late last year. The requested topic of Dental/TMJ was addressed at our Annual Convention last year in Melbourne and Paediatrics will once again be covered at this years Annual Convention in the Barossa SA. From the survey, one aspect of the organisation that needed improving was the sense of camaraderie between the members. I hope that our mid year retreat in Fiji starts an annual trend, drawing families together, sharing and supporting each other. Another way this will be addressed will be via online forums and blogs on our new website, due out in a couple of months. Here, observations, case studies, and general discussions can take place. This will be literally a combined source of knowledge from all our members as a collective. This will be a great location to share and learn and evolve our technique to a new height.

On a very sad note I would like to bring to the attention of the membership of the passing of Dr Eeva Heinonen. Eeva has practiced SOT in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Finland and the UK for the last 20 years. She has been a great advocate for SOT worldwide,attended many SOT Homecomings and will be missed by her friends in the SOT community and the many people she has touched with her vibrant and healing nature. Our thoughts are with her husband Tony and her three children Sami, Sanna,and Sasha.