Meet Gail Wetzler, PT, DPT, EDO, BI-D
Gail Wetzler is the Director of Curriculum for the Barral Institute, as well as a member of the BI Academic Leadership, along with Jean-Pierre Barral and Alain Croibier. She owns an integrative physical therapy practice in Denver, Colorado, where they treat orthopedic, fascial/muscular/soft tissue, neurologic, pain, respiratory, digestive, TBI, as well as women's and men's health issues.
After receiving her initial degree in physical therapy, she pursued her first experience in acute orthopedic care at Hoag Hospital, Newport Beach California. Within 1 year, she became the outpatient clinical supervisor and thus began her journey and desire for continuing education in the science and art of human movement and function. She studied with Travell and Simons, Mennell, Kaltenborn, Maitland, McKenzie, Mitchell, Jones and Greenman in the earlier years of manual therapy education. Inspired by these methods of treatment, she became an assistant teacher to Dr. Janet Travell and later an instructor with the Institute of Physical Art (IPA) developed by Gregg Johnson and Vicky Saliba Johnson.
In a few years, she developed her own private practice, at which time she received a large number of head, neck and TMJ pain patients. This became a driver to learn more about cranial osteopathy, craniosacral therapy and how the fields of physical therapy and dentistry could collaborate to help these patients. As she pursued continuing education classes in CranioSacral Therapy with Dr. John E. Upledger, he inspired her to learn more about the different systems in the body and how they all integrated for function. During one of her earlier speaking engagements for the Upledger Institute (Beyond the Dura), she met Jean Pierre Barral, DO, who inspired the importance of anatomy, the ability to listen to the body and the specificity of tissue dialogue in manual therapy techniques. She has listened and followed his mentoring into understanding the body's deeper fascial relationship of the viscera, vascular, neurological and manual articular systems since 1989. Gail has been an instructor for the Barral Institute (BI) since 1991 and became the BI Curriculum Director in 2001.
In her career, she has been invited to speak at multiple professional conferences including National and State levels for the APTA, USC Head, Neck and Facial Pain Clinic, University of California, Irvine (UCI), Upledger Institute International's Beyond the Dura Research Conferences, "Hope" Head Injury Organization, and was the keynote speaker in Italy for the Fascial Manipulation Research Conference presented by Antonio, Carla and Luigi Stecco. She is the Past Director of Physical Therapy for the Integrative Medicine Center at UCI. She is currently part of the Research Team for the Upledger Foundation for their recent studies on Post Concussion Recovery, for the Benefits of Manual Therapy for Alzheimer's, and for Trauma Induced Anxiety Comparing Pre and Post QEEG Findings after Manual Therapy. She also teaches for the Women's Health Section of the APTA—Gynecological Visceral Manipulation. Gail also developed the CranioSacral Therapy Equine curriculum for Upledger Institute International.
Gail earned her Diplomate from the Barral Institute in 2005. She earned her Equine Diplomate in Osteopathy from Vluggen Institute of Equine Osteopathy in 2009 and she earned her Doctorate in Physical Therapy from Rosalind Franklin University, Chicago, in 2013.
Women's Health Task Force for the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee
Gail serves on the Women's Health Task Force for the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC). Gail is part of an executive team consisting of ten doctors and four Olympic female athletes. Together, they are creating health initiatives, education modules, and treatment options, as well as identifying lists of qualified providers around the country for our female athletes. The USOPC women's health task force committee members have been selected for their extensive experience in medicine, research, and athletics. As a physical therapist and Barral instructor, Gail will share her clinical experiences from many years of teaching and treating in women's health - "the benefit of listening to the whole person."
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