The Australasian College of Soft Tissue Therapy Invites you to:

An Exceptional Webinar with Dr Joanne Abbott (PhD)

"Why Palpation Hasn’t Failed"

The Missing Science Behind Skilled Hands, Clinical Reliability & HODA-A (Hands-On Data Acquisition & Analysis)

Webinar Description:

Manual therapists are often told that palpation & hands-on assessment are unreliable. 

But what if the problem is not skilled hands themselves — but the way skilled hands have been defined, researched & measured?

In this live webinar, Dr Jo Abbott PhD introduces HODA-A — Hands-On Data Acquisition & Analysis — a research-informed framework developed through her doctoral work exploring manual musculoskeletal assessment as a clinical measurement process.

Rather than defending vague palpation, Jo will scientifically reframe skilled hands as part of a trainable perceptual measurement system involving attention, interoception, sensory discrimination, bias control, sensorimotor integration, clinical reasoning and somatosensory interpretation.

This session will challenge the simplistic “hands-on versus hands-off” debate & ask whether manual therapy research has often tested clinical outputs before properly defining, validating & calibrating the clinician as the measurement instrument.

Who is This Webinar For:

The webinar is designed for all Manual Therapists, Myotherapists, Remedial massage therapists, Soft tissue therapists, Physiotherapists, Osteopaths, Chiropractors and Movement practitioners, Anatomy educators & all clinicians who want a more credible, practical & evidence-informed language for skilled touch.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Explain why palpation research may have underestimated skilled hands. 
2. Describe the core principle of Hands-On Data Acquisition & Analysis (HODA-A) 
3. Identify human factors that influence hands-on clinical accuracy 
4. Recognise why skilled touch is trainable
5. Use a practical self-audit framework to begin reflecting on how their own body, attention & assumptions may affect what they feel in clinic.

Practical Takeaways:

All Webinar Participants will be provided with a PDF resource - "The Skilled Hands Self-Audit - 8 Questions Every Manual Therapist Should Ask Before Trusting What They Feel"

This will give participants something immediately useful to reflect on & apply in clinic.

Here are all the Details:

When: Tuesday June 23rd 2026 via ZOOM

Time: 6.30 - 8.00 PM Australian Eastern Standard Time - Melbourne

9.30 - 11.00 AM British Summer Time - London

Jo will speak for 60 minutes & will answer your questions for a further 30 minutes

All participants are also invited to an additional 60 minute follow-up Integration session "From Palpation to Perceptual Calibration - How to Begin Training the Hands as Clinical Measurement Instruments" on Tuesday July 7th 2026 at the same time as above, at no additional cost.

The first webinar creates the paradigm shift.
The follow-up session helps practitioners begin applying it.

Cost: AUD $44.00 for both sessions & the PDF resource "The Skilled Hands Self-Audit - 8 Questions Every Manual Therapist Should Ask Before Trusting What They Feel".

You will have Unrestricted Access to the Recordings of the 2 Sessions for 6 Months

Important note: Please check your spam folder or promotions folder if our Registration Confirmation email doesn't arrive in your inbox within 15 minutes

If you would prefer to pay via direct bank deposit the details are: Account: ACSTT BSB: 063233 Acc no: 10136823 AUD$44. Please email me, [email protected], when you have made the deposit & I will manually enrol you.

Introducing Dr Jo Abbott PhD

Jo is a clinical biomechanist, anatomist, independent MSK researcher, educator & founder of HODA-A™ — Hands-On Data Acquisition & Analysis.

Her doctoral research investigated whether information gained through manual musculoskeletal assessment could be used to inform best practice in MSK healthcare. What began as a biomechanical investigation into leg length discrepancy & musculoskeletal health became a deeper inquiry into the reliability, validity & scientific status of hands-on assessment itself.

Jo’s work challenges the simplistic idea that palpation has failed. Instead, she argues that manual therapy research has often tested clinical outputs before properly defining, validating & calibrating the clinician as the measurement instrument.

Drawing from biomechanics, neuroscience, clinical anatomy, manual therapy, perception science, measurement theory & systems thinking, Jo developed HODA-A as a framework for understanding skilled touch as a trainable clinical measurement process.

Her teaching helps clinicians explore how attention, interoception, practitioner state, sensory discrimination, bias, care, intuition, sensorimotor integration & somatosensory interpretation influence the quality of hands-on clinical data.

Jo’s mission is to raise the scientific standard of hands-on assessment and help clinicians develop the language, discipline and perceptual calibration needed to explain, train and refine skilled touch.