In 1996, Dr. Robert Gerwin (Bob), co-founder of the Janet G. Travell MD Seminars Series™, started teaching dry needling courses in Spain with physical therapist Orlando Mayoral, which marked the beginning of our international teaching mission.
Dr. Janet Travell had given Myopain Seminars permission to name our course program in her honor and for the next decade, our course program was known as the Janet G. Travell MD Seminars Series™.
Since those early beginnings, Myopain Seminars has a long history of lecturing and teaching many courses around the world.
2000
Bob Gerwin did his fair share of traveling and lecturing worldwide with invited lectures in Israel, Thailand, and Taiwan, among other countries. In 2000, the Bahrain Physical Therapy Association invited Jan Dommerholt to be a keynote speaker at the 2nd GCC Annual Physical Therapy Conference in Manama. Jan reviewed what was known at that time about the neurophysiology of myofascial trigger points.
2001
In 2001, Jan was a keynote speaker at the Congress SPV 2001 of the Swiss Physical Therapy Association in Fribourg, Switzerland, and spoke about “Fibromyalgie, ein schmerzhafter Punkt [in German – Fibromyalgia, a tender point].” Jan also presented a hands-on course on the “Foundations of Trigger Point Examination.”
2002
In 2002, he spoke about “Dynamic Vertebral Stabilization” at the annual conference of the National Association of Myofascial Trigger Point Therapists in Nassau, Bahamas, followed by a series of lectures and workshops in Chile.
Invited by Dr. Mariano Rocabado, Jan taught a dry needling course at Integramedica in Santiago, Chile, and presented at several conferences, where he spoke about the “Controversies in the Diagnosis of Fibromyalgia” and “Myofascial Pain Syndrome in Dental Practice.”
2004
In 2004, Jan presented on “Whiplash and Myofascial Trigger Points” at the Whiplash Instituut Nederland in Diever, Netherlands.
2005
In 2005, he started teaching dry needling courses in Dublin, Ireland, and returned to Spain to teach an Advanced Dry Needling course at the Universidad de Castilla – La Mancha in Toledo, Spain.
Also, in 2005, Jan spoke about “Low Back and Leg Pain” in Heerenveen, Netherlands.
2006
In 2006, the location of the dry needling courses in Ireland switched to Limerick when Myopain Seminars started a collaboration with Dr. Johnson McEvoy.
Also in 2006, Jan started teaching dry needling courses in Groningen, Netherlands with Myofasciale Pijn Seminars, the premier dry needling continuing education company in the Netherlands.
Jan continued teaching “Advanced Dry Needling” courses at the Universidad de Castilla – La Mancha in Toledo, Spain, and at the Universidad de Alcala in Alcala, Spain.
2007
In 2007, Jan was invited to speak at the 6th Interdisciplinary World Congress on Low Back & Pelvic Pain in Barcelona, Spain, together with Leon Chaitow, Robert Schleip, and Cesar Fernández-de-las-Peñas.
Also in 2007, Jan started teaching dry needling courses in Varese, Italy and at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili in Reus, Spain
2008
In 2008, Jan headed to the Netherlands to present about “Myofascial Pain” at the University of Groningen.
For the next several years, Jan taught multiple dry needling courses in Silea and Parma (Italy), Limerick (Ireland), and Groningen (Netherlands).
2009
In 2009, Jan returned to the Netherlands to speak about “Trigger Point Dry Needling” during the Second International Fascia Research Congress conducted at the Free University in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
2010
In 2010, Jan taught a special course about “Dry Needling for the Elite Tennis Pro” upon the invitation by the ATP World Tour in London, UK.
In 2010, he was invited to speak about the “Specificity in Muscle Examination” at a congress in Parma, Italy, together with the late Freddy Kaltenborn and Olaf Evjenth. The theme of the congress was “Does the Efficacy of Manual Therapy Depend on its Specificity?”
While in Italy, he also presented a lecture about “Myofascial Pain and Fibromyalgia” in Santa Maria Nuova, Reggio Emilia.
2012
In 2012, Jan was invited by the CEU Cardenal Herrera University in Valencia, Spain to speak about “Central Sensitization in Physical Therapy Practice” and he started teaching a section of a graduate course about “Dry Needling in Sports Physical Therapy.”
Also in 2012, Jan presented at the University of Castilla-La Mancha in Toledo, Spain, about the “Physical Therapy Management of Persons with Ehlers Danlos and Chiari Malformation.”
Later that year, Jan Dommerholt and Rob Stanborough presented at the congress of the International Federation of Orthopaedic Manual Physical Therapists in Quebec City, QB, Canada, about “Dry Needling – The Current Evidence.”
2013
In 2013, Jan lectured about “Dry Needling – The Scientific Basis” at a congress in Houten, Netherlands.
2014
In 2014, he returned to Canada to present “Science and Trigger Points; Does it Matter?”at the Pain Management Conference 2014 of the Massage Therapists’ Association of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC.
Also in 2014, Jan was the keynote speaker at the Calgary Pain Conference in Calgary, AB, where he discussed “Myofascial Pain and Fibromyalgia.”
Jan started teaching dry needling courses regularly in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, Qatar, Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland, Spain, and India. He also started teaching courses in Lima and Arequipa, Peru, and Quito, Ecuador.
Other Myopain Seminars instructors also had a few opportunities to present in other countries.
In 2014, Stew Wild taught a workshop about manual trigger point therapy at the Pain Management Conference 2014 of the Massage Therapists’ Association of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC. Dr. Rob Stanborough and Erik Wijtmans traveled to India to teach several dry needling courses, while Dr. Michelle Finnegan taught a dry needling course in Dubai in 2014.
The list continues.
2015
In 2015, Jan was invited by the Kuwait Ministry of Health to meet with the Secretary of Health. The topic was whether dry needling should be considered as being within the scope of physiotherapy in Kuwait. While in Kuwait, he presented a lecture about dry needling at the Al Seef Hospital in Kuwait City.
In 2015, Jan presented the first “State-of-the-Art Review” in Mechelen, Belgium.
2016
In 2016, Jan started teaching dry needling courses in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia upon the invitation of Dr. Wael Mahmoud of the CPD Health Courses.
2017
In 2017, Jan was invited to speak at the First Iranian International Physiotherapy Congress hosted by the Iranian Physiotherapy Association in Tehran, Iran. While in Tehran, he also presented a Master Class Dry Needling at the University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences.
Next, Jan presented several lectures and a workshop at Myopain 2017 in Bangaluru, India.
Also in 2017, Jan continued the State-of-the-Art lecture, this time at the 2nd International Scientific Meeting on Myofascial Therapy in Leuven, Belgium.
Jan returned to Australia for courses in Sydney and Melbourne.
2018
The year 2018 was another busy year with a lot of international travel. Jan managed to clock over 180,000 miles that year!
In March 2018, Jan presented at the Congress Universidad Autónoma de Madrid in Spain.
Next, he presented in German about Triggerpunkt therapie und Dry Needling (Trigger Point Therapy and Dry Needling) at the FIBO congress in Cologne, Germany.
Jan was invited by the renowned Aspetar Sports Medicine Center in Doha, Qatar and once again, he returned to Iran to speak at the Second Iranian International Physiotherapy Congress from the Iranian Physiotherapy Association in Tehran, Iran.
He also taught dry needling courses at the University of Medical Sciences, School of Rehabilitation Sciences in Tehran.
Next, the travel schedule took Jan to Mexico to present at the 2do Congreso Internacionale Cofirenl in Monterrey.
Jan returned to Europe to speak at two conferences: He spoke about “Myofascial Pain in Instrumental Musicians” during the MusicPhysio Congress in Osnabrück, Germany, followed by a lecture at the Physio Congress West in Essen, Germany.
The next month, he lectured in the Netherlands. Then, Jan was invited by the Kuwait Ministry of Health to teach a dry needling course in Kuwait City, Kuwait.
2019
In 2019, Jan started teaching dry needling courses in Jounieh (Beirut), Lebanon. That same year, Jan flew to Australia for a long weekend to present at the Australasian Dry Needling Symposium in Melbourne.
Shortly thereafter, Jan presented a lecture on behalf of Dr. Mohammadreza Pourahmadi (Iran) at the 10th Interdisciplinary World Congress on Low Back Pain and Pelvic Girdle Pain, Antwerp, Belgium.
2022
In March 2020, Jan returned to Madrid to speak at the 30th ONCE School of Physiotherapy Congress: Myofascial Pain Syndrome and Myofascial Trigger Points: 20 Years of Evolution in Madrid.
2022
In March 2020, Jan returned to Madrid to speak at the 30th ONCE School of Physiotherapy Congress: Myofascial Pain Syndrome and Myofascial Trigger Points: 20 Years of Evolution in Madrid.
COVID and ‘Traveling’ Virtually Worldwide
That week, the COVID pandemic took over the world, and international travel was no longer possible.
Myopain Seminars continued its international outreach by conducting many online webinars on a wide variety of subjects. Many Myopain lecturers contributed to the free webinars. At times the webinars were attended by over 500 physiotherapists from as many as 22 countries!
Several Myopain Seminars faculty also presented at several virtual international conferences, such as:
- The Symposium Virtual Interactivo in Lima, Peru, August 2020
- The I Congreso Virtual Internacional Multidisciplinario de Fisioterapia in Quito, Ecuador, in 2020
- The ONCE Madrid 2021 Congress in March 2021
2022 – What’s to Come!
When international travel was possible again, Jan presented a lecture about “Investigatión cientifica Reciente de la Punción Seca” at the Forum Fisioterapia in Mérida, Mexico.
Next, he headed to India to present at the annual congress of the India Association of Physiotherapy in Ahmedabad, India, followed by a lecture at the congress of the Global Association of Physicians of Indian Origin in Gandhinagar.
Jan also taught a 5-day dry needling course in Kuwait City, Kuwait, and in New Delhi, India.
The international courses continue in many countries across the globe.
In 2024, Myopain Seminars will conduct dry needling courses in Brazil and Chile, among many others.
As a result of the international teaching and lecturing, Jan Dommerholt has been awarded with an Honorary Membership of the Polish Association of Invasive Physiotherapy, an Honorary Membership of COFIRENL in Mexico, and an Honorary Membership of the Iranian Physiotherapy Association.
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Myopain Seminars’ curriculum is developed by international leaders in dry needling and manual trigger point therapy. Our courses are a great way to bring a unique and innovative treatment option to your patients. Completing our course programs elevates your practice and expands your clinician’s toolbox to encompass a wide range of therapies that can effectively eliminate patient pain.
