Kieran Schumaker, BA, LMT, BCSI, ATSIKieran Schumaker (Kier, they/them) is a Board Certified Structural Integrator, an NCBTMB-certified provider of continuing education, an ATSI-certified teacher, and a practitioner whose manual therapy career has spanned over 25 years. They started studying nerves in 2006, added arteries to their special interest list in 2010, and began teaching and developing their own Neurovascular Release curriculum in 2013.
Through their NVR curriculum, Kier provides advanced training for manual therapists and movement educators who want to expand their understanding of structural and functional balance within the body while working through a neurovascular lens. This curriculum integrates techniques, perspectives, and practices from structural integration, osteopathy, and orthopedic massage. A major feature of Manual NVR is gentle and precise manipulation of the vascular system and neural network (a style of touch used by Canadian and European osteopaths). Kier uses this lighter, tissue-specific, osteopathic style of touch with the vision and orientation of a structural integrator, in conjunction with the deeper myofascially oriented touch used by clinical massage therapists and structural integrators, to solve orthopedic puzzles, reduce pain, and improve overall structural and functional balance. The integrative work that Kier teaches is also strongly grounded in the foundational practices and values of structural integration: NVR students learn to utilize the client’s active movement to facilitate tissue change and cultivate the client’s interoception. They see and can describe the bigger structural pattern and the client’s strengths before working toward shifting structural relationships within the body. They collaborate with the client in active exploration of the incremental changes, and they cultivate the client’s appreciation for their body’s ability to adapt, which develops a grounded and supported sense of embodiment. Kier coauthored “Fascia and the Circulatory System” in Fascia, Function, and Medical Applications, edited by David Lesondak, first published in 2021. They served as lead editor for The International Association of Structural Integrators Yearbook for three years, and they contributed articles to the Yearbook in 2013 and 2014. From 2020 through 2024, Kier presented to an international audience numerous introductory NVR and special topic webinars hosted by Anatomy Trains. Currently, Kier offers the longer courses in their NVR curriculum in a small-group mentoring format both in-person and online. Kier’s formal education was through the Evergreen State College, the Oregon School of Massage, and the Anatomy Trains school. Important teachers and mentors in their continuing education have been Thomas Myers, Lauren Christman, Jeffery Burch, Christoph Sommer, Liz Stewart, Kelly Chadwick, other colleagues, and most importantly Kier’s mom, who was the first teacher to begin cultivating Kier’s curiosity and appreciative exploration of the natural world. CoursesIntroduction to Manual Neurovascular Release (NVR) for Structural and Functional Balance
view course description Manual Neurovascular Release (NVR) Part 1: Neck, “Roots of Arms,” and Upper Thorax (in-person) view course description |
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