Wow, what a journey the last 10 months have been! Firstly, I would like to thank you so much for making this course possible for South African Chiropractors. I have been eyeing it out for a few years and am so grateful that you were able to make it possible for us. I am so looking forward to meeting you both at the hands-on seminar in January. I live
in Cape Town and will be driving up to JHB and making a road trip there. I will be travelling with my 3 kids (I am still breastfeeding 2 of them).

It was more challenging than I expected to keep up with the weekly lectures, however I re-watched the videos multiple times, practiced extensively on my own children, met up with colleagues and implemented a lot into practice.

Content:
The course content was exceptionally rich and detailed. I especially enjoyed the modules on cranial movement and its impact on the nervous system. This has completely transformed my understanding and confidence in assessing and supporting paediatric patients. I also appreciated the practical demonstrations throughout the course, which made it easy to integrate the information into real-life applications.

Presentation:
The lectures were clear and well-paced. I found the visual demonstrations particularly helpful in understanding the hands-on components. Even when life got busy (especially during my pregnancy!), the online format and recorded sessions allowed me to re-watch and absorb the material at my own pace.

Value:
The value of this course has been immense. It has deepened both my theoretical and practical understanding, and I already see the positive impact of these techniques in my own family (I have been adjusting my kids using SOT and see amazing results) as well as in practice. The modules I had completed and implemented before starting maternity leave
meant I was finally able to “help” those really difficult cases that had more complex subluxation patterns. The knowledge gained has made me even more passionate about paediatric chiropractic care.

Implementation:
I implemented the assessment and adjusting protocols almost immediately into practice as I learned them. I also used what I’ve learned on my newborn while on maternity leave, and it’s been incredible to witness how effective these techniques are when applied correctly. For example, using the fruit jar and CSF techniques helped clear my son’s congestion when he had a cold at two weeks old — such a powerful confirmation of the method’s effectiveness. Also, since he has been having his nervous system checked since birth using the SOT protocol (we had an uncomplicated straight forward home birth as did my other 2 kids) he has been the most content baby, not even fussing at the 6-week mark. I’m very excited to bring the entire skill set into my practice when I return in the new year.

Suggestions:
At the moment- there are no suggestions that come to mind. Between the comment section, Facebook group and Dr sharing meetings we had ample room to have any questions answered. I look forward to the in-person seminar as it would be great to have the feedback as to whether I am doing some of the practical things correctly.

Overall, this course has been a truly transformative experience. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and passion so generously — I look forward to continuing to learn and grow within this community for many years to come.

I would share the takeaway of understanding working with the dural meningeal system, the role that cranial assessment and care has with regards to accessing and influencing not only the cranial system of the individual but also the spine and nervous system, and also the importance of a thorough and accurate physical analysis/exam – input into where the system most requires it. A broader takeaway – the idea around never stopping learning, staying curious and committing to your own journey of being as excellent as you can as a practitioner, and seeking out courses like this and others offered by peak potential institute to support this endeavour.

The impact both personally and professionally are interconnected – I’ve been scared to graduate and step into full clinical practice because whilst what I’ve learnt throughout my degree has been a fantastic foundation and it’s understandably limited as to the amount that we can be taught within a paper during the degree, I didn’t feel “ready” to see babies and children, let alone more complex or layered paediatric presentations. I didn’t feel confident that my skills as a new graduate matched the level of care that I want to be able to provide. I understand that this will be an ongoing growth point throughout my career – but why not start my career understanding and being able to apply what this course teaches, as I begin to build clinical experience starting practice. I feel like this course has given me so much to work with – from the solidified knowledge around the importance of specificity when it comes to taking a comprehensive history and physical exam, a broader subluxation analysis to include the cranial system (we don’t learn this at college), application of input and then post checking to see how the system has integrated what has been applied (I valued the emphasis on this). This all of course impacts me professionally – I always hope that I can provide the highest quality, intentional care as possible..and this course provides me with the understanding and skills to comprehensively do so. The broadened knowledge supports my confidence that I have the skills to provide an excellent level of care for the families that I have the privilege of seeing. I’m committed to showing up intentionally and from a place of love as an individual, and on a personal level, knowing that I have access to the knowledge to provide a high level of care as a chiropractor impacts me in a positive way as I feel more assured around having the skills to support me being as intentional as possible, and more satisfied that I will be doing the best that I can in practice. The biggest impact though, is that I am no longer scared to step into practice now. I feel excited and more confident about having a more solid toolbox to work from in order to best serve my community.

I only just finished my chiropractic degree two weeks ago, and we are relatively limited to the amount of additional skills that we are approved to use in centre. I took SOT as my elective and have done SOTO NZ’s courses over the course of this year as well (e.g. categories, cranials), so I have had a bit more to work with during my time in the student clinic. However, it was around analysis – identifying that a baby that came in to see me in the student clinic had torticollis that had been missed and being able to work with cranial bone movement analysis and cranial visual analysis to build my understanding around this. Under care, the baby’s torticollis was resolved.