Patients with neurologic conditions can already be complex to treat.

But when autonomic dysfunction, Post-Acute COVID Syndrome, POTS, or breathing difficulties are also part of the picture, treatment can feel even more challenging.

Your patient may be dealing with fatigue. Dizziness. Exercise intolerance. Shortness of breath. Heart rate changes. Sympathetic nervous system overactivity. Postural symptoms. Difficulty tolerating activity.

And as a therapist, it can be hard to know:

How much should I push?

When should I modify?

What signs should I watch for?

How do I safely prescribe exercise?

How does breathing affect posture, function, and participation?

How does the autonomic nervous system change my treatment plan?

And that’s exactly why this course was created.

1. Post-Acute COVID Syndrome: PASC/Long-Haulers

In this lesson, you’ll examine common presentations of PASC and Long COVID in PT and OT practice, including the multi-system implications that may show up during examination and treatment.

You’ll learn how to recognize when post-COVID complications may be influencing your patient’s presentation so you can make more informed clinical decisions.

2. Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome

This lesson focuses on understanding POTS through a rehab lens, including how symptoms may present and how to design exercise prescriptions based on current evidence.

You’ll learn how to think through dosage, progression, positioning, and safety so you can better support patients who struggle with orthostatic intolerance and activity limitations.

3. The Autonomic System: Impacts on Therapeutic Interventions and Concepts for Treatment

In this lesson, you’ll examine the role of the autonomic nervous system and how it can influence therapeutic interventions in PT and OT.

You’ll also explore treatment concepts that help you better support regulation, participation, and functional progress.

4. Integrating Breathing Basics into Treatment

In this lesson, you’ll learn how to assess breathing patterns, breath control, and postural effects on respiration through observation and hands-on techniques, including measurement of chest wall excursion.

You’ll also learn how to select treatment strategies based on your breathing assessment findings so you can integrate breathing work into your PT or OT sessions with more confidence.

✔ Evaluate multi-system implications of Long COVID and Post-Acute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection

✔ Identify common presentations of PASC in PT and OT examinations

✔ Design evidence-informed exercise prescriptions for individuals with POTS

✔ Understand the long-term effects of sympathetic nervous system overactivity

✔ Examine how the autonomic nervous system impacts therapeutic interventions

✔ Assess breathing patterns, breath control, and postural effects on respiration

✔ Select appropriate treatment strategies based on breathing assessment findings

Autonomic dysfunction, breathing limitations, postural intolerance, and sympathetic nervous system overactivity can all affect how a patient responds to treatment.

When you know how to recognize these factors, you can adjust your plan more effectively.

You can modify interventions with more confidence.

And you can better support patients whose symptoms don’t fit into a simple treatment box.