Certificate of attendance. No CE credits for this course.

Small group: 30 participants maximum

Tuition: $980 USD per person, food and handouts included

Location: Lakewood, near Denver, Colorado

Date: May 7-9, 2027

A hands-on visceral manual therapy course for sports clinicians

Two and a half days with Jelle Zandveld, MSc, DO, DSO, BBSc, DPT, DSPT. Learn the anatomy of the stomach, small intestine and colon, practice visceral techniques under supervision, and retest what changed in the athlete's movement.

Visceral Somatic Treatment in Sports · Course One:
The Gastrointestinal Tract

Two athletes. Same complaint.
Same treatment. Only one
responds.

You've seen it. Your exam was careful, your plan made sense, and the athlete still isn't moving the way you expected. Or the hip you freed last week is restricted again.

Repeating the same mobilization rarely answers the real question: why does this keep coming back in this athlete?

This course gives you more to examine. It doesn't assume the answer is visceral. It teaches you to check whether the gastrointestinal tract and its supporting tissues may be part of the picture, and then to retest whether your intervention changed anything.

How Jelle got here

After his training in orthopedic manual therapy, Jelle
sometimes manipulated the same joint again when it
closed down again. When the benefit didn't last, he
changed the question: why does this joint keep closing
down, and what else should be assessed first?

What is visceral somatic treatment in sport?

Course One: the gastrointestinal tract

Three terms you`ll hear a lot:

No change, no treatment.

That's the line Jelle uses to sum up how he works. A technique only becomes a treatment when you observe a relevant change and evaluate it. So you choose a movement or functional test, record the starting point, treat, and repeat the same test. An immediate change is a reason to follow up. It isn't proof of a mechanism or of a lasting result.

Visceral

Refers t the internal organs and their 
supporting tisses, such as the small intestine or the colon.

Somatic

Refers to the musculoskeletal system:
joints, muscles, fascia

Autonomic

Refers to the part of the nervous
system that regulates organ function, stress and recovery.

Stress, recovery and the autonomic nervous system

Training load and stress affect the autonomic nervous system. The course discusses autonomic imbalance in athletes and how Jelle weighs visceral and autonomic factors next to the musculoskeletal findings when he plans treatment.

This is Jelle's clinical teaching model and one reported case. An immediate test change does not prove the proposed mechanism or a predictable treatment effect. Pain reduction, mobility, stability and performance are goals of individualized care, not promised results.

His central teaching point: increased ventral tone may alter posture and contribute to inhibition and a loss of performance. So his examination includes the gastrointestinal region alongside the neurological and musculoskeletal exam.

Reduced hip extension, lumbopelvic stability or force production

Differences between sides

A skier case from Jelle's practice

A skier told Jelle she couldn't put pressure on her skis, despite repeated lumbar treatment and strength training. He widened the assessment and included treatment directed at the small intestine and ileocecal region. She reported that her back pain and muscle restriction improved and that she could load her skis again.

Coordination or balance problems

Apparent muscle
weakness without a clear
ocal cause

Course One topics

• Stomach and duodenum: anatomy, palpation, manual techniques
• Small intestine, mesenteric attachments and the ileocecal region
• Colon, colonic flexures and the sigmoid region
• Peritoneum, omenta and supporting fascial attachments
• Organ mobility, tissue response and hand placement
• Viscero-somatic inhibition in Jelle's clinical model
• Movement testing of the spine, shoulder and lower limb

You'll compare cervical and thoracic movement, shoulder motion and selected lumbar and lower limb movements before and after each intervention.

After the course, you'll be able to

• Describe the anatomy of the four main gastrointestinal regions
• Perform the demonstrated techniques you practiced under supervision
• Record movement before and after treatment, and tell observation apart from interpretation
• Take a suitable case from your own caseload through the full sequence

These are learning goals. Results with your own athletes will vary, and no outcome is promised.

Is this course right for you?

This course fits you if you're a

- Physical therapist working with competitive or recreational athletes

- Athletic trainer in a team, college or performance setting

- Chiropractor or osteopathic clinician with athletes in your practice

- Sports medicine physician who wants hands-on visceral skills

...and you want to examine more when an athlete isn't progressing as expected. [INSERT: confirmed eligibility criteria]

No prior visceral training is required. The course introduces the anatomy and examination basics before supervised practice. You don't need to work with elite athletes either. Clinicians working with recreational athletes are welcome.
 

This course is probably not for you if

• You need CE credits from this course. It offers a certificate of attendance only.
• You want to collect organ techniques without the reasoning and retesting around them.
• You expect to fix every stalled case. Some cases stay unclear, and that's part of honest clinical work.
• You're a fitness coach without a licensed clinical background.

What you may apply in practice depends on your license, your training and the rules of your state. A certificate of attendance does not expand your scope of practice.

Learn from a sports osteopath who treats Olympic and World Cup athletes

Astrid Zandveld

Astrid supports the practical sessions and helps you with hand placement and questions during exercises. [INSERT: confirmed qualification and professional description] With two instructors and 30 participants at most, someone is there to check your hands.

CREDENTIAL NOTE (small print): All of Jelle's credentials are European qualifications, earned in the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark. They are not US degrees or US licenses. He is not a US-licensed osteopathic physician or physical therapist.

Athletes on Jelle as a clinician

[Caption: These athletes are Jelle's patients, not course participants. They describe his treatment, not the course.]

Jelle is always someone I can reliably turn to when I have physical problems, whether it is an acute injury or a difficult situation with my body that calls for a different perspective. As an athlete, I particularly appreciate his straightforward, solution-oriented care.
Alessandro Hämmerle, Olympic gold medalist

Jelle helps me understand my body better and regulate tension in the visceral area. Among other things, he resolved a problem with involuntary muscle twitching throughout my leg, which was caused by an overloaded nervous system and stress in the visceral system. He is always there when I need him, and his extensive knowledge helps me recognize, understand, and resolve the connections associated with training-induced stress.
Magdalena Egger, World Cup skier

Jelle is an absolute expert in osteopathy, and his treatments have helped me time and again over many years. But Jelle offers much more than treatment techniques and osteopathic expertise. His holistic way of thinking and our conversations about nutrition, recovery, sleep, and performance during treatment provide tremendous added value. Jelle thinks outside the box, is very solution-oriented, and has been an important part of my personal team since 2013.
Valentino Müller, Professional football player

Jelle's treatments are enormously important to me as an athlete for improving my physical performance in a targeted way. I particularly value his deep interest in me as a person, in my body and in the specific demands of my sport. He looks at the body as a whole and works specifically on the small adjustments that can make the decisive difference in the long run. You can feel that he genuinely wants to support my development and to help me reach my sporting goals as well as possible. After the treatments, my body feels freer, more mobile and more capable of performing. I value his individual care and his commitment to bringing out the best in me together.
Marlene Pribitzer, Sport shooter [INSERT: discipline, achievements] [Internal: translated from German, approve wording with her]

I've been treated by Jelle for several years and always feel I'm in the best hands. Especially with my weak spot, my stomach and gut, he has helped me incredibly. After every treatment I can feel how good it is for me and how much freer and better I feel. His professional expertise, but above all his human manner, make him special to me, and they're worth every euro. Thank you very much, Jelle!
Thomas Mathis, European champion in smallbore shooting [Internal: translated from German, approve wording with him]

As I do not treat professional athletes, I have not been able to apply what I learned to this patient group. I really enjoyed the course because you explained very clearly the influence of the visceral system on the musculoskeletal system and its performance, as well as the treatment possibilities. Having attended the course without any prior knowledge of visceral therapy, the content motivated me to pursue further training in this field.
Emanuel Schaefer [INSERT: profession, country]

The course provides extensive theoretical knowledge and connects it very effectively with practical application. For participants without prior visceral or osteopathic knowledge, some of the content was challenging and the pace of learning was a little fast. For those with previous experience, however, the course offers an excellent refresher as well as many new ideas.
I found the newly learned techniques for the intestines and diaphragm particularly helpful. I have already been able to apply these successfully in practice, especially with tennis and golf players who have restricted rotation in the thoracic spine.
Overall, a very instructive course with valuable, practical techniques and many new ideas for everyday clinical practice.
Janine Aa, MSc PT

I had the pleasure of attending Mr. Zandveld's visceral manipulation seminar in Copenhagen. He has a unique ability to make assessment and treatment of the visceral and fascial system simple, practical, and clinically relevant. Using increased ROM as an immediate outcome measure makes the effect easy to see and apply in practice. I've already found it highly useful with my athletes. They often report feeling more freedom in their movement, while we can objectively see improvements in ROM. I can highly recommend the course — and Mr. Zandveld as an exceptionally skilled teacher.
Jakob Mogensen-Versterre [INSERT: profession, country]

I first met Jelle Zandveld when he taught visceral osteopathy during my Master's in Sports Osteopathy. His knowledge of the visceral field is exceptional, backed by extensive hands-on experience working with Austrian elite athletes. Jelle is a gifted teacher who makes complex material clear and clinically relevant. Having been under his hands myself, I can also say first-hand that he is an outstanding manual practitioner.
Jelle's assessment techniques have become part of my standard examination, and I use them with every type of patient. One case stands out in particular: a professional kite surfer, sponsored by Red Bull, with low back pain. She had tried every kind of training and mobility work and had seen countless practitioners without lasting results. She responded to one of Jelle's assessment techniques, and it turned out that restrictions around the right kidney were the key – releasing them freed up the entire system, and she returned to sports within a few weeks.
I give him my warmest recommendation.
Bo Egeberg, DO M.D.O, MSc., PhD student

oThe skills that I learned from the visceral manipulation course developed and presented by Jelle Zandveld has been a wonderful addition to my clinical practice as a physiotherapist. Understanding the integral relationship between organs, their fascia and the neuromuscular system brings the assessment and treatment of musculoskeletal conditions in the sporting arena, in both professional and amateur athletes alike, to another level. Addressing the visceral dysfunctions through the skills learned from Jelle's course has allowed me to make changes in both injury and performance that I have been unable to attain with a more traditional physiotherapy approach. I thoroughly recommend this course if you are looking to add a key skill set to your clinical toolbox.

Trevor Montgomery, Physiotherapist, New Zealand

What former students say

2.5 days of in-person teaching, handouts, food and supervised hands-on practice with Jelle and Astrid in a group of 30 or fewer.

Jelle answers course questions personally [INSERT: email or contact

[INSERT: approved cancellation and refund terms]

Licensed clinical background [INSERT: formal criteria]. No visceral training required.

None for this course

30 participants maximum

Travel and accommodation

Instruction, course handouts, food during the course, certificate of attendance

[CONFIRM: $980 or $1,200] USD per person

Lakewood, near Denver, Colorado [INSERT: venue name and address]

[INSERT: daily hours and total teaching hours]

[CONFIRM: April 30-May 2, 2027 or May 7-9, 2027] (2.5 days, in person)

Jelle Zandveld, MSc, DO, DSO, BBSc, DPT, DSPT, with Astrid Zandveld supporting the practical work

Visceral Somatic Treatment in Sports, Course One: The Gastrointestinal Tract

Questions

Cancellation

Prerequisites

CE Credits

Group Size

Not Included

Included

Tuition

Venue

Schedule

Dates

Instructor

Course

Course details at a glance

Who can answer my questions?
Jelle answers course questions personally. [INSERT: Jelle's email or contact link]

Where exactly is the course?
In Lakewood, near Denver, Colorado. [INSERT: venue name, address, nearest airport, parking]

What if I need to cancel?
[INSERT: approved cancellation and refund terms]

How do I register and pay?
[INSERT: booking link, payment process and accepted methods]

About registration

Can I use these techniques in my profession?
It depends on your license and your state. Attendance does not expand your scope of practice. Please check what's allowed for your profession before applying a technique.

Can I cause harm with these techniques?
Any manual technique carries risk if it's used without proper screening, consent or training. You remain responsible for applying what you learn within your training, license and state rules.

How are depth and pressure taught?
In practice, with feedback. You learn hand placement, depth, pressure and how to communicate with the person on the table. Screening, consent and professional boundaries are part of responsible application.

What if I'm skeptical about visceral manual therapy?
Good. Bring your questions and test what you observe. The course is built on examination, reasoning and retesting. An immediate change is an observation to evaluate. On its own, it doesn't prove a cause or a lasting effect.

Is every athlete's problem visceral?
No. Many complaints are fully explained by musculoskeletal findings. The course helps you decide when a wider assessment makes sense, and when it doesn't.

Does visceral treatment improve athletic performance?
We don't promise that. Performance, mobility and pain reduction are goals of individualized care. The course teaches you to assess, treat and retest. Whether a change matters for a specific athlete has to be checked case by case and over time.

About the clinical approach

How is this different from other visceral courses?
Other respected providers also teach visceral and musculoskeletal relationships. This course applies them to athletes. The cases come from Jelle's daily work with elite athletes, and every technique is followed by a movement retest.

What does the tuition include?
[CONFIRM: $980 or $1,200] covers 2.5 days of teaching, course handouts, food during the course and a certificate of attendance. Travel and accommodation are not included.

Do I get CE credits?
No. This course does not offer CE credits from APTA, BOC or any other body. You'll receive a certificate of attendance. If you need CE credits this year, this course may not fit your current goal.

Do I need to work with elite athletes?
No. The cases come from Jelle's work in elite sport, but the reasoning applies to recreational athletes too. What matters is the athlete's task in their sport.

What does Course One cover?
The gastrointestinal tract: stomach, duodenum, small intestine and colon, with a focus on organ mobility and supporting tissues. It also covers Jelle's model of how visceral, fascial and neurological factors relate to the musculoskeletal system in athletes. Later courses cover other visceral structures.

What will I practice?
Palpation and manual techniques for the stomach, duodenum, small intestine and colon, guided by Jelle and Astrid. Before and after each technique, you test spinal, shoulder and lower limb range of motion.

Is the pace manageable without visceral experience?
It's a full 2.5 days. One former student without visceral background found parts of the content challenging and the pace a little fast. If you're new to the field, come prepared to ask questions during practice. [INSERT: preparation material, if Jelle provides it]

Do I need prior visceral training?
No. Anatomy teaching and demonstrations come before every practical block. You need a licensed clinical background and the willingness to work hands-on with other participants. [INSERT: confirmed eligibility]

About the course

Questions clinicians ask before they register

[CONFIRM: price] USD · [CONFIRM: dates] · Lakewood, CO · 30 participants max · Certificate of attendance, no CE credits

2.5 days, two instructors, 30 seats at most. You'll leave with new techniques for the gastrointestinal tract, a sequence you can run in your own clinic, and the habit of retesting what you do.

Bring your hardest athlete case
to Lakewood

Visceral Somatic Treatment in Sports is an in-person course for sports clinicians taught by Jelle Zandveld, MSc, DO, DSO, BBSc, DPT, DSPT, of Physiotherapie und Osteopathie Zandveld, Vandans, Austria. In practice since 1995. Practice website: zandveld.com.

[INSERT: LinkedIn profile, legal notice, privacy policy, booking terms]

Last updated: [INSERT: publication date]