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Course information
This course prepares occupational therapy practitioners to deliver high intensity neurorehabilitation that supports occupational performance for stroke survivors. Participants will learn how to use therapeutic use of self as a clinical instrument, apply the principles of neuroplasticity to intervention planning, and target the four pillars of occupational mobility that limit participation in daily life. The course covers clinical safety parameters, including risk classification, blood pressure thresholds, heart rate calculations, and rate of perceived exertion, so therapists can push intensity without compromising client safety. Participants will learn to administer six standardized assessments that measure progress in functional mobility, endurance, balance, and quality of life. Clinicians attend a two day, in-person training to learn functional mobility handling techniques and refine their application of the core principles. The course concludes with supervised practice implementing these skills, handling techniques and assessment administration, directly with neurologic survivors.
Objectives
- Identify the four pillars of occupational mobility and their role in a stroke survivor's participation in meaningful occupations
- Explain the principles of neuroplasticity that drive lasting change during high intensity neurorehabilitation, including dosage, task specificity, salience, and error-based learning.
- Demonstrate proper handling techniques for functional mobility and the application of core high intensity training principles during supervised practice with stroke survivors.
- Calculate target heart rate zones, blood pressure thresholds, and rate of perceived exertion values to determine whether a client is safe to train at high intensity.
- Administer the six standardized assessments used in the course to measure a client's capacity for occupational performance.
Instructor Bio
Dr. Philip Lamoreaux, OTD, OTR/L is an occupational therapist, educator, and nationally recognized leader in the application of High-Intensity Training (HIT) within neurologic occupational therapy. He was among the first occupational therapists to receive formal High-Intensity Training instruction from Dr. T. George Hornby, one of the leading researchers responsible for advancing HIT within neurologic rehabilitation, and has since dedicated much of his clinical and educational career to translating this evidence into occupational therapy practice. With more than a decade of clinical experience, Dr. Lamoreaux has worked across the rehabilitation continuum, including acute care, inpatient rehabilitation, skilled nursing, home health, and community-based practice, helping individuals with stroke, traumatic brain injury, and spinal cord injury improve both physical capacity and meaningful performance in everyday life. His clinical work combines the principles of intensity, task specificity, motor learning, and occupation to challenge traditional rehabilitation approaches and expand what therapists and patients believe is possible during neurologic recovery. Through RISE – Reclaim Your Life, he provides intensive HIT interventions to individuals with stroke, TBI, and incomplete spinal cord injury across the country, bringing high-level rehabilitation directly into the environments where people need to perform. His work in HIT has included professional education, national and state conference presentations, published scholarship, interdisciplinary implementation initiatives, and an accepted three-hour workshop at AOTA Inspire 2027 focused specifically on High-Intensity Training in neurologic occupational therapy. As both a practicing clinician and university professor, Dr. Lamoreaux has developed a reputation for taking complex rehabilitation science and turning it into practical strategies therapists can immediately implement with their patients. Clinicians learning from Dr. Lamoreaux are not simply learning the theory behind HIT—they are learning from an occupational therapist who was involved in its early translation into OT practice and has since implemented it, taught it, studied it, and built his career around demonstrating how appropriately challenging patients can unlock greater possibilities for recovery, independence, and participation.
What clinicians are saying about training with Phil
"Something that I immediately applied to my treatment sessions with my pts was allowing them the opportunities to make mistakes to facilitate change in the cerebellum, and always thinking about “the box” that we can put them in to challenge them effectively. Instead of tightly guarding and immediately correcting a pt’s balance or instability, I’m more confident in loosening my grip and seeing how they respond to the challenge and then react with increased assistance if needed/only to prevent injury. Another thing I’ve applied in my sessions is practicing the movements that we do and take for granted everyday as able-bodied people but are interpreted as “unsafe” in an IPR setting for pts, like crossing legs when turning, walking and doing 360s, walking backwards, etc. Lastly, I’m almost always picking the heaviest weight that we have in the gym when I want to work on propulsion/limb swing and explain to pts, when appropriate, that in order to drive change, the body and brain need to be challenged enough. Also that we need to avoid setting limits on our pts as clinicians, and rather help them find those limits by doing hard and crazy shit. Completing this bootcamp has made me realize that the things to work on in a neuro/BI IPR setting should be based on: 1) helping our pts access the things they value the most and are 2) simpler than we realize."-Occupational therapist of 2 years
There are many things that changed for me after bootcamp. Many experiences and situations have happened because of the bootcamp training. It gave me guidance to try new things. I now monitor the heart rate with a continuous heart rate monitor. Utilizing this monitor, I am able to explain that even though they’re tired, the heart can handle more. I am so much more confident and willing to push patients past what I was before. I am willing to train patients’ balance in a way that I wouldn’t have even thought about prior to bootcamp. There have been times that management personnel have commented on how they’ve notice a patient’s balance getting better, which has really helped boost the confidence that patients have in me and the work they are putting in. The bootcamp has given me many but two valuable takeaways in particular. Firstly, the knowledge and importance of knowing what the heart is actually doing allow us to push and challenge the patient. Secondly, if I want to see better therapy treatments and outcomes, then I need to be willing to challenge patients in ways that are actually challenging and demand a change from the mind and body. I can’t just hope that the “cookie cutter” therapy is going to be enough to produce the outcomes that we want to see.
-Rachel, COTA
