Erik Dalton has been named a Distinguished Affiliate Faculty Member of the Indiana State University Department of Applied Medicine and Rehabilitation. The award honors his role in the school’s Advanced Myoskeletal Massage Therapy program—the only minor degree in massage offered by a major US university.
Dalton, who has been teaching and practicing manual therapy for more than three decades, is the developer of a comprehensive pain-management modality called Myoskeletal Alignment Techniques and founder of the Freedom From Pain Institute in Oklahoma City.
Dalton partnered with Indiana State University to create the massage therapy minor in 2012. The program allows students who are working to become professionals in the field of applied medicine and rehabilitation—athletic trainers, physical therapists, occupational therapists, and physician assistants—to learn Myoskeletal skills that will complement their work.
“The opportunity to get a minor in Advanced Myoskeletal Massage Therapy gives these students such an advantage as they enter their careers as athletic trainers, manual therapists, and physician assistants,” Dalton says. “It’s a valuable layer of training for more effective client and patient care.”
Dalton received the Distinguished Affiliate Faculty Member award after a Myoskeletal Therapy lecture and demonstration at Indiana State University in Terre Haute on May 2. The award was presented by Department of Applied Medicine and Rehabilitation Chair Dr. John Pommier, along with Master Myoskeletal Therapist and Indiana State University massage instructor Charlie Peebles.
Currently, the Freedom From Pain Institute is in the process of financing an ongoing continuing education grant to help fund qualified, passionate students of physical medicine who wish to enroll in the massage program at Indiana State University.