What is FMT?

An integrated evaluation and treatment system that promotes optimum human performance by enhancing total body mobility and CoreFirst® postural and movement strategies.

Functional Manual Therapy® (FMT), developed by Gregory S. Johnson, PT, and Vicky Saliba Johnson, PT, is an integrated evaluation and treatment system that promotes optimum human performance by enhancing total body mobility and CoreFirst® postural and movement strategies. The combined 75 years of clinical experience and innovative treatment development by the co-founders of FMT® bring a unique and comprehensive approach to patient care.

Recent research and functional imaging of the brain continues to reveal the interrelationship between pain, muscular inhibition and poor movement strategies. Just mobilizing joints, giving patients stretching and strengthening exercises, or having a patient participate in "core stabilization" is not sufficient to address the complex interrelationship between the available mobility of the human system and the integration of automatic and volitional motor strategies.

The Institute of Physical Art's (IPA) comprehensive and innovative FMT® curriculum prepares the physical therapist to competently and intuitively integrate evidence and clinical experience with each patient. This innovative approach to patient care and wellness seamlessly incorporates mobilization, neuromuscular facilitation, and motor control training.

The Functional Manual Therapist is trained to identify specific mobility limitations within the joints, soft tissues, viscera and neurovascular tissues. Limited mobility in these structures can impair a patient's function and ability to automatically and efficiently control our activities of daily living. The IPA is the original source of Functional Mobilization® (FM) and Soft Tissue Mobilization. Gregory Johnson first developed and presented Soft Tissue Mobilization to the physical therapy profession in 1979 as an adjunct to joint mobilization. Over the years, Mr. Johnson developed Functional Mobilization®, an effective evaluation and treatment system for joints, soft tissues, visceral and neurovascular structures. This unique and immediately effective intervention combines active movements and resisted contractions with a specific directional pressure to produce efficient mobility. FM strategies provides the therapist an ability to assess the effect of limited mobility on function in both weight bearing and non-weight bearing positions, promoting a more direct relationship between the mechanical treatment and the desired functional outcome.

The unique aspect of FMT® is the integration of the mobility treatment with neuromuscular facilitation (ability to initiate the right muscles at the right time with proper strength and endurance) and motor control (the ability to effectively produce coordinated postural and movement strategies). Unlike many systems which teach the patient to volitionally activate their core muscles during daily activities, the CoreFirst® approach developed by Vicky Saliba Johnson and exclusive to the IPA, facilitates an Automatic Core Engagement (ACE) through efficient postures and specific proprioceptive and kinesthetic training. The ultimate goal of Functional Manual Therapy® is to provide the patient with the mechanical ability and the neuromuscular tools of strength and endurance and proprioceptive awareness to become self sufficient and more proficient in all areas of human performance. This training is reinforced with the utilization of unique Functional Test which demonstrates to the patient the importance of efficient mobility and proper alignment.

So why choose a Functional Manual Therapist? The IPA, the only official source of Functional Manual Therapy®, trains physical therapists to become facilitators of optimum human performance and self reliance. Discover how Our Program can unlock your existing potential and help you change the lives of your patients!