I will be at the annual conference in June, along with one of the anatomy/OPP fellows from my school. I took the intro course under the Cranial Academy last summer and she took it in February. This will be the first annual conference for both of us.
--I felt like I learned more in the summer course than she reported from the winter one. But I had a lot more background going in, so I may have just recognized and connected more things. Both cover the same material, but the summer course faculty give it a slightly more philosophical bent and bring in concepts from biodynamics. You'll also be exposed to personal views on OMT: most of them don't do HVLA because they consider it too violent, one won't even do direct techniques and apologized profusely when a particularly stuck dysfunction backed him into a corner and forced him to.
--The instruction and materials (handouts plus the use of real skulls and very high quality models) will cover anything you learn second-year regarding cranial at school. 100 on that OPP test, no problem. Also, the 40-hour cranial course will improve your palpation skills and technique for all of your OMT, not just cranial. Even HVLA will be better. The faculty members will tell you they took the intro course multiple times themselves, because there's so much material.
--You will have people working on your head all week, and the faculty check everyone at the end of every day. Some people have more sensitive heads than others and issues show up sooner (decreased threshold for dysfunctions, especially with unsteady hands on their head), but by the end of the 40-hour course everyone has been overtreated. Even CV4 left me messed up (very high frequency CRI overnight) on the fourth day. I don't know that my own head could have handled going right into the annual conference afterward, even though there's a day's break first. I highly recommend finding some of your OPP faculty at Touro-CA a few days after the course or conference, after your head has had time to settle down a bit. This isn't to dissuade you from attending the conference, though - there was material at last year's I would love to learn.
--There is a written test and practical. It's hillarious to watch everyone flustered and studying for it on the fourth day like it's a medical school exam. Both are relatively easy. Some of the people with sensitive heads will be too worn out to be patient models during the practical (especially when others are worried about the test and their hands are shaking), so others will get worked on twice in there. The faculty check everyone again and more thoroughly.
--Sid makes sure that the food they provide during the course is excellent. Continental breakfast, buffet lunch, and he works in a morning and afternoon snack too. I did not need to eat supper any night that I was there.
--The Cranial Academy will provide you with a list of other students who are taking the course if you're looking for a roommate. I'm not familiar with Indianapolis either, but maybe you'll work something out with someone who's driving in and stay at a cheaper hotel. Or maybe you'll make a vacation out of it - the resort we were at last summer was pretty nice. =)
Dana and Caitlyn can tell you more, and probably Dr. Rosen too if you know him. I don't know yet if I'll be sharing a room with my friend for the conference portion or if she'll have her boyfriend along, since they know people in Indy. But I'm driving in and will definitely be staying somewhere other than the conference hotel. Either way, I hope to see you there!
