ConnectTherapy™ & the Thorax
The connections to the pelvis, shoulder, foot & ankle, and more.
Based on 20+ years of clinical and research work on the thorax, Dr. LJ Lee created the Thoracic Ring Approach™ — a whole-person, functional framework for what optimal thoracic function is, how dysfunction develops, and the far-reaching consequences it can have throughout the body. Learn to find the Driver, and change what your current techniques can do.
Full Bundle Tuition
Early Bird price · + 5% GST · ends December 7, 2026
- 11+ hours of self-paced virtual content
- 3 full days hands-on in North Vancouver
- 12-month practical resource library
Questions? Email the registrar.
Do you see the thoracic spine and ribcage as a “black box”?
Two patients present with almost identical symptoms. One responds beautifully to thoracic manipulation and mobilization; the other doesn’t budge. If that’s ever puzzled you, the missing piece usually isn’t a better technique — it’s a framework that tells you where to treat. One that is functional, patient-centred, and grounded in clinical reasoning and research.
Local thorax, local treatment
The thorax is treated as the site of the problem — the same manipulation and mobilization applied to every presentation, often stopping at “the T4 Syndrome.” But neither pain nor dysfunction tells you whether the thorax is actually the source of a patient’s symptoms.
Find the Driver, treat the whole person
Some dysfunction is the downstream impact of a Driver elsewhere; some is the key that unlocks lasting change in pain and function. ConnectTherapy™ gives you an algorithm to tell true Drivers from symptomatic areas — so you treat the cause, not the site.
- Stalled core & glute training — abdominal asymmetry, Diastasis Recti Abdominis (DRA), and poor response to glute programs.
- Recurrent pain — neck, shoulder, hip, low back, and pelvic girdle pain that keeps coming back.
- Load-related injuries — recurrent tendinopathies and stress-related injuries that don’t settle.
- Balance & agility deficits — that don’t improve with the obvious interventions.
- Pelvic health symptoms — incontinence, prolapse, and pelvic pain syndromes.
- A “sensitive nervous system” — and breathing dysfunction that colours everything else.
- Autonomic dys-regulation — issues with digestion, sleep, and emotional balance.
- And the cases that never budged — the ones a whole-body reasoning framework finally makes sense of.
A whole-body, whole-person framework
The Thoracic Ring Approach™ is part of LJ’s ConnectTherapy™ model. It goes far beyond releasing a stiff segment — it explains how the thorax behaves within the whole body, and how to change it for good.
The thorax & the nervous system
Thoracic dysfunction can significantly sensitize the central nervous system and drive autonomic dys-regulation — a mechanism that reaches sleep, digestion, and emotional balance, far beyond a single segment.
Rings, Centre of Mass & load
Assess how the thoracic rings behave in your patient’s Net Centre of Mass over Base of Support — and reason how that relates to load-related injury and pain in the lower extremity, from stress fractures to Achilles tendinopathy.
Change that lasts
Support optimal ring behaviour to rule the region in or out as the Primary Driver, then release non-optimal vectors and train new strategies through a progressive program that empowers patients between visits.
One course, three components
This format gives you the time to review and process the lecture content online, then join LJ for the practical skills in person — with video support to carry it all back into your clinic.
11+ hours, self-paced
Lectures and demonstrations you watch at your own pace. Complete them before the in-person weekend so you arrive ready for hands-on practice.
3 full days in North Vancouver
Hands-on assessment and treatment skills with LJ and the Team. A high instructor-to-participant ratio means real feedback on every technique.
Practical video library
A library of videos illustrating the practical techniques and concepts — so you can keep refining your application long after the weekend ends.
What you’ll learn & practise
Hands-on skills from the Thoracic Ring Approach™ and ConnectTherapy™ — the assessment, reasoning, treatment, and exercise prescription that will change how you practise.
Screening & clinical reasoning
Understand and assess the contribution of the thorax to whole-body function — and reason how it relates to injuries far from the ribcage.
- Net COM over BOS: assess the thorax’s contribution to the whole-body Centre of Mass over Base of Support, in Reference Posture and during Meaningful Screening Tasks.
- Our relationship to gravity: clinically reason how thorax behaviour in Net COM/BOS relates to load-related injuries and pain in the lower extremity, from stress fractures to Achilles tendinopathy.
- Function first: a patient-centred, research-grounded lens that makes your current techniques more effective and efficient.
Assess the rings & find the Driver
Use the diagnostic process to rule the thorax in — or out — as the Primary Driver of your patient’s problem.
- Assess the thoracic rings: evaluate ring behaviour during function and manually support specific rings to rule the region in or out.
- The Drivers Diagnostic Chart™ Algorithm: work through the ConnectTherapy™ algorithm to determine a Primary Thoracic Ring Driver or Co-Driver.
- Underlying impairments: discuss the most common impairments for thoracic ring Drivers — neural, visceral, fascial, muscular, and articular — and how each shapes treatment.
Hands-on treatment skills
Practise the specific treatment techniques LJ developed to release and retrain more optimal thoracic ring function.
- Stack & breathe / stack & release: release vectors between the thoracic rings and the shoulder girdle, arms, neck and head, lumbopelvis, hips and lower extremities, plus indirect visceral release.
- Co-Drivers & integration: treat Co-Drivers in the thorax, and integrate manipulation, mobilization, dry needling, and myofascial release.
- Taping & cueing: tape the thoracic rings to facilitate neuromuscular training, and use manual and verbal cues to optimise brain mapping of new strategies.
Progressive exercise prescription
Design programs that increase movement options and hand control back to the patient.
- 3 phases of progression: prescribe and progress exercises for thoracic ring Drivers through the ConnectTherapy™ exercise prescription framework.
- Self-check & Reset: teach “Self-check movements” and “Reset exercises” that automatically self-release non-optimal vectors when the system is overloaded.
- Less reliance on you: empower patients with control over their own progressions as they change the way they live and move in their bodies.
Dr. Linda-Joy Lee
PhD, BScPT, FCAMPT
Dr. LJ Lee
LJ is known internationally for her expertise in the thorax. For more than two decades, her clinical practice and research have focused on this region specifically — the biomechanics, the motor control, the pain science, and the mechanisms connecting it to the rest of the body. That work produced the Thoracic Ring Approach™ and ConnectTherapy™: models built to answer the questions that kept coming up in her own clinic, and in the clinics of the physiotherapists she teaches.
A physiotherapy graduate and Wesbrook Scholar from the University of British Columbia, LJ became a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Manipulative Physiotherapy (FCAMPT) in 1999 and completed her PhD at the University of Queensland in 2013. Her assessment framework, Meaningful Task Analysis, became a core feature of both the Integrated Systems Model and ConnectTherapy™ — allowing clinicians to determine when a pain-free but dysfunctional region is the actual cause of pain elsewhere.
An active researcher and educator, LJ is an Associate Editor for the British Journal of Sports Medicine and holds academic roles with McMaster University and the University of Melbourne. She loves creating supportive learning environments where clinicians can challenge their reasoning and see movement in a more connected way.
Learn from LJ and the Team
Our high instructor-to-participant ratio is what makes the in-person weekend work. You’ll get hands-on feedback throughout, so every technique transfers into your clinic.
Dr. Linda-Joy Lee
Course Instructor
Lead Assistant Name
Lead Assistant
Assistant Name
Assistant
Assistant Name
Assistant
Assistant Name
Assistant
Everything you need to plan your weekend
Venue & getting here
Dr. Linda-Joy Lee International Institute for Physiotherapy & Movement
203 – 267 West Esplanade Avenue, North Vancouver, BC V7M 1A5 · 604.986.2777
LJLI is a 5-minute walk from the Seabus at Lonsdale Quay. Pay parking is available at the outdoor WestPark lot next to our building (green and yellow sign), with limited free parking on the surrounding residential streets.
Dates, duration & cost
5-Day Course: 2 self-paced virtual days (complete before the weekend) plus 3 in-person days, January 22–24, 2027. Registration opens 8:15am Friday.
Tuition: $1,885 CAD + 5% GST.
Early Bird: $1,735 CAD + 5% GST until December 7, 2026.
Daily schedule
A morning break and a 1-hour lunch break each day.
What to bring
- A good anatomy book (Netter) or app (Visible Body).
- Lab clothing: shorts or pants that allow examination of the whole body. Please wear a normal bra or bikini top — not a sports bra or a t-back / racer-back that covers the thoracic spine. An open-back one-piece can also work well.
- A yoga mat, if you’re local, plus your own water bottle and/or travel mug.
Food & refreshments
Lunch and snacks aren’t provided, but there’s a 1-hour lunch break and plenty within a 5-minute walk — including the Lonsdale Quay Public Market for coffee, snacks and fresh food, and Tao Organics for vegan, raw and organic options.
Water is available on site.
Reserve Your Place
Virtual + In-Person · North Vancouver, BC · January 22–24, 2027
How to enrol
Register and pay online, then start your virtual content right away — complete the 11+ hours before joining LJ in North Vancouver.
Enrol & pay online
Secure your spot through the checkout — Early Bird pricing applies until December 7, 2026.
Start the virtual content
Get immediate access to the 11+ hours of online lectures and demonstrations.
Join LJ in North Vancouver
Arrive ready for three days of hands-on practice with LJ and the team.
Questions? Email the registrar.
Already completed the Virtual component?
If you’ve previously registered and completed the 11-hour Virtual ConnectTherapy™ & Thorax course, you only need to register and pay for the In-Person component (which comes with Resource Library access). Email us for details and a registration form.