Letter from Dr. Stephen Typaldos’s son

NAPLES, FLORIDA, January 31, 2017 – Recently, a group of osteopaths that calls itself the American Fascial Distortion Model Association, or AFDMA, announced they will begin allowing chiropractors and other professions into their courses. This is essentially an admission that I was right many years ago when I told them that chiropractors and physical therapists, more so than osteopaths and medical doctors, are the appropriate professions to practice FDM.

My father was disappointed in the progress of FDM within osteopathic circles. Shortly before he died, he asked me to visit the office of a chiropractor who lived near me and was interested in FDM. I spent a Sunday afternoon visiting with this doctor, then called my father and told him how it went. This was the last time we spoke because he had a heart attack two days later.

Afterward, several osteopaths who trained with my father formed an organization to teach FDM in his absence. I was concerned they would have little success within the osteopathic profession, and they should do what my father talked about and expand FDM to chiropractors.

Nevertheless, DOs in the AFDMA refused to consider training chiropractors or anyone else other than MDs. Many chiropractors wanted to learn FDM and I encouraged these DOs to train them, but they insisted teaching DOs and MDs was the way to make FDM widespread in medical practice. When I told them their plan wouldn’t work and I would make FDM available to providers who actually treat soft tissue injuries, they laughed at me. They asked how I was going to do this when I am not a practitioner myself.

I did the only thing I was able to do at the time. I offered courses to practitioners using treatments videos of my father that he had used in his seminars. One chiropractor who took this video course, Casey Hummel, expressed further interest in organizing hands-on seminars. Dr. Hummel has the same confidence, work ethic, meticulous attention to detail, and compassion toward his patients as my father had.

I founded Fascial Distortion Model Seminars with Dr. Hummel and Jay Ferguson, a computer programmer, graphic artist, and business specialist. We have 13 excellent instructors; high-quality and easy-to-access training materials, including the Online Living Manual; and advanced training methods that feel relaxed but allow students to learn FDM and have successes in their clinic in record time by teaching them to “think within the model.” We have certified over 1,200 providers in the United States and Canada and held seminars at the facilities of multiple MLB teams and Division 1 college football teams. 85 percent of students who take either an upper or lower region seminar return to take the second one.

Now that I have success teaching FDM to chiropractors, athletic trainers, and physical therapists – with no help from the AFDMA – they decide to teach these professions in direct competition with me. Their efforts to make my life difficult and thwart my father’s vision of FDM know no bounds.

The AFDMA has no connection to Dr. Typaldos’s family. Some of those involved were friends with my father, but many of the new people never met him. They have made no effort to get to know me or my sisters. Furthermore, they have no legal right to use any of Dr. Typaldos’s copyrighted and trademarked materials.

Alexander Typaldos
Owner, Fascial Distortion Model