Are you a Physio, Physical therapist or health professional who's completed a course with Jo Gibson?

If you're a Physiotherapist, Physical therapist or health professional and have completed an online or face-to-face course with Jo Gibson, you've come to the right place.

This course will guide you through more complex presentations, different patient populations e.g. sportspeople, adolescents and shoulder conditions so you can advance your clinical skills and knowledge, and become a shoulder expert.

Is this course right for you? Find out in this video

The new Shoulder Success: Next Steps Level 2 Online Course

The new Shoulder Success: Next Steps Level 2 Online Course is here to increase your shoulder knowledge, problem-solving skills and rehabilitation planning with all types of shoulder pain, even the most complex shoulder presentations.

As clinicians, we are often very hard on ourselves when a patient’s progress and recovery don’t go as well as we hope.

We can feel overwhelmed and lack confidence in where to start or how to get patients on track.

Getting good results with shoulder pain, but want to keep improving?

You may be getting good results with the approach you’re now using, and want to develop your shoulder knowledge and skills further, treat paediatric or adolescent patients, or provide high-level or sports-specific rehab.

Maybe you want to take on a new role, such as an emergency department triage role, First Contact Practitioner (FCP), Advanced Practice Physio (APP), work with a high-level sports team, or challenge yourself to diagnose and treat more complex injuries and patient presentations.

Why a Level 2 course?

We’ve listened to clinicians about challenges they face, conditions and pathologies they lack confidence with and areas they want to learn more about.

We developed this Level 2 course to build on the knowledge and skills you gained from Jo’s other courses.

As a result, The Shoulder: Next Steps course is packed full of resources, lectures and practical information to address these challenges.

What will you get out of the Shoulder Success: Next Steps Level 2 Online Course?

Whether you want to….

• Increase your knowledge of how to assess and treat different shoulder pathologies such as instability, thoracic outlet syndrome and SLAP lesions,
• Become more specific with your rehabilitation planning,
• Provide advanced strengthening and late-stage rehab,
• Assess patients readiness for return to play, or
• Become more confident with complex patients and problem-solving,

this course has everything you need.

The presentations, assessment and rehabilitation demonstrations and material on this course will arm you with the knowledge and confidence to develop your shoulder expertise further and know how to manage complex shoulder presentations successfully.

You’ll enjoy the satisfaction of taking all your patients, regardless of their presentation, injury or age, from their initial pain or injury to a successful return to activity and sport.

Your next steps with shoulder pain…..

Jo Gibson’s courses, including the Shoulder: Steps to Success course, are packed full of practical information to help you simply and accurately assess shoulder pain, and provide patients with exercises, progressions and treatment that can improve their shoulder pain and movement quickly and effectively.

This Shoulder Success: Next Steps Online Course builds on the outstanding foundational knowledge and skills you’ve developed with your initial course with Jo Gibson, providing you with all the additional skills and knowledge you need for more complex presentations and to become an expert on shoulder pain in your area.

The Shoulder Success: Next Steps Online Course covers brand new material developed for and exclusively available in this course.

If you’re enjoying better treatment results with shoulder pain after completing a previous course with Jo Gibson, register now. You’ll love the Shoulder Success: Next Steps Online Course.

.

With the Shoulder Success: Next Steps Online Course you’ll discover how to:

• Easily unravel complex shoulder presentations.
• Confidently take your patients through late stage rehab as they return to work, sport and activity.
• Accurately assess patients readiness for return to play after shoulder pain and injury.
• Prepare swimmers and other athletes for a successful return to sport.
• Manage trauma, including fractures & dislocation.
• Confidently diagnose, differentiate and treat
  • Thoracic outlet syndrome.
  • Snapping scapula.
  • Visceral causes of shoulder pain.
• Identify and treat sternoclavicular joint pain.
• Quickly identify and know how to manage shoulder pain from a SLAP lesion.
• How to problem solve recurring or ongoing shoulder instability that isn’t responding to treatment.
• Know how to assess, diagnose and treat common pathologies in paediatric & adolescent shoulder pain patients.

What’s included in the course?

This engaging online course includes streaming videos with lectures and detailed practical video demonstrations, downloadable course handouts, MP3 audio files, case studies, references, Q&A sessions, a VIP Facebook group with Jo Gibson and other “Shoulder geeks”, extended access to the Shoulder: Pathologies, progressions & problem-solving course, and more.

.

When is the course available?

All twelve modules are now available online on demand, ready for you to dive into or dip in and out of right now.

You DO NOT need to wait for the course to run - it’s all there, ready for you to enjoy whenever you like.

Register now

Take your next steps to successful shoulder pain treatment. Register now for everything you need to progress your management of shoulder pain.

Join the exclusive Shoulder Success: Next Steps Online Course today and become a shoulder pain expert who confidently solves complex presentations.

Here’s what you’ll learn to improve your shoulder results

The Shoulder Success: Next Steps Online Course has 12 course modules designed to build on the foundational knowledge and skills you already have, to successfully assess and treat all types of shoulder pain, including paediatric, adolescent, sporting and the most complex patients!

All course materials - including streaming videos, downloadable course handouts, MP3’s (with Lifetime and Lifetime Plus registration), case studies, VIP Facebook group for Lifetime and Lifetime Plus ticket holders, and more - are available right now in an online course dashboard.

Module 1 - Stuck on the hard shoulder: A simple approach to complex problems

Shoulder pain patients often respond straight away to the approach you discovered in Jo Gibson’s course, and it’s exciting to see their progress as they continue to improve.

Sometimes we encounter complex patients that just don’t get better, recovery that doesn’t go to plan or plateaus, and it can be overwhelming or cause us to doubt ourselves and our treatment skills.

This can be a tough situation!

In this module you’ll discover:

• The common reasons for poor shoulder pain treatment and recovery outcomes.
• Why patients don’t always achieve the results they want.
• A simple problem-solving framework to quickly identify.
• The key factors holding back your patients,
• Why they’re not getting better and
• How to get treatment back on track when patients have plateaued or are getting worse.

By the end of module 1, you’ll simplify and unravel complex presentations, know what to do next, and importantly confidently get patients back on track and achieve the outcomes you expect.

It will also empower you to know when you need to refer on, when outcomes are as good as they get, and when there may be better options for your patient.

Module 2 - Late-stage rehabilitation: Robust, resilient & ready to go

Patients often have occupations or activities that place higher demands on their shoulder and if your initial rehab program hasn’t prepared them fully, they can experience pain and get disheartened when attempting to return to these activities.

How can you choose exercises to improve patients’ strength, power, neuromuscular control so they can return to high demand activities and achieve their goals without their pain recurring or flaring up?

In this module, you’ll discover how to plan their rehabilitation and select exercises to ensure your patients are fit for their activities, and ensure they can get back to the things that they love.

You’ll explore how to:

• Choose the best late-stage rehabilitation exercises for your patients from an extensive library of new exercises.
• Use strength and conditioning principles to identify and plan effective rehab for each individual patient.
• Match your treatment goals with specific exercise and contraction types to give you confidence in your exercises and what each exercise will achieve.
• Help patients view injury as an opportunity to improve their strength, power and neuromuscular control.
• Use the force-velocity curve to individualise rehabilitation.
• Apply strength, hypertrophy and power principles with injured patients.
• Improve neuromuscular control with the most appropriate type of muscular contraction.
• Integrate late-stage rehab with symptom modification principles.

By the end of this module you’ll have a large selection of new exercises to choose from, and be confident in your exercise selection, specificity and dosage to help patients become robust, resilient and ready to achieve their goals!

Module 3 - Sporting shoulder: Specific preparation for high-demand sports

Swimming, overhead and contact sports, can place particularly large demands on the shoulder. How can you assess and treat your sporting patients to prepare for these demands, and ensure they can safely and successfully play or return to their specific sport without flaring up their pain?

In this module, you’ll explore why sports specificity is important and may be the missing key to your successful rehab of athletes.

You’ll discover:

• Why sports specificity matters.

• How to perform sports specific assessments.

• Whether you should assess GIRD (Glenohumeral internal rotation deficit) in athletes.

• How to get the foundations of your athletes’ treatment right from the start.

• When to consider and include the kinetic chain in rehab.

• What to include in your rehab of athletes in high-demand sports.

• Assessment and treatment of

  • Overhead athletes’ shoulders
  • Swimmers’ shoulders
  • Contact athletes’ shoulders

• The psychology of injury in athletes, and how this impacts your treatment.

• How to take a proactive approach to athletes psychology to improve treatment results and minimise negative effects.

With this module you’ll be able to identify the key factors that impact your athletic patients shoulder pain, performance and injury risk, so you can confidently assess and treat patients involved in high-demand sports.

Module 4 - Return to play: How to know when your patient is ready

When you’ve provided excellent rehab and your patient’s symptoms are improved, how can you confidently know when your contact and collision athletes, throwers, tennis players, gymnasts and swimmers, or patients with Bankart lesions, instability, dislocations or are post-stabilisation surgery are ready for return to training (RTT) or return to play (RTP)?

Manual muscle testing has up to a 30 percent error, so you might perceive it as the same as the other side, but it may actually be significantly weaker. Handheld dynamometry can be used, but what’s the best position, should you use make or break, and what’s a normal finding?

Which specific RTP measures are most useful, easy to use and relevant to all the different athletes you’ll see?

How can you make the best decisions when you have plenty of high tech testing equipment available, but limited time, or only have low-tech testing options available?

Find out in this module as you explore:

• The key aspects that must be included in your RTP testing.
• The latest evidence and recommendations that guide RTP decision-making.
• How to use high-tech and low-tech RTP measures and tests that are most useful, evidence-based and relevant for each athlete you treat.
• Reverse engineering your patients’ rehab and testing requirements.
• How to assess your patient’s psychological readiness for RTP.

By the end of this module, you’ll confidently identify the most relevant return-to-play measures for each individual patient and their sporting requirements and use effective and realistic measures in your clinical setting.

Module 5 - Trauma : Fractures & dislocation, getting it right from the start

When patients have a fracture or dislocation, we have to decide how early they can mobilise their arm.

Is it too early and we’re not allowing enough time for healing, or too late and the patient has a poor outcome, delayed healing, persistent apprehension or poor range of movement and function?

How can you get patients moving at the right time to get the best outcomes for your trauma patients?

With this module you’ll discover the key factors that help you make the best assessment and management decisions following shoulder trauma. You’ll explore:

• How to assess and manage common traumatic shoulder injuries including fracture and dislocations.
• When early mobilisation has a role in patients' rehab.

Fractures

• What impacts fracture healing outcomes.
• Proximal humeral fractures - understanding patterns.
  • What sets patients up to do badly, and how to avoid this.
  • The case for early mobilisation.
  • Rehab essentials.
  • Problem-solving stiffness: Identifying the culprit.

Clavicle fractures

• Operate or not
• Key considerations for rehabilitation

Traumatic shoulder dislocation

• Should we immobilise patients after traumatic dislocation?
• Who is at risk of re dislocating?
• Do predictive tools help identify who is at risk of re dislocating?
• What’s different about posterior dislocation?
• Exercises that are essential to include in rehab.
• How to facilitate a confident return to your patients’ occupation, activities and sports.
• How to minimise the risk of persistent apprehension.
• What to do when patients have persistent apprehension.

With this module you’ll confidently help your trauma patients achieve the best possible outcomes, set realistic expectations, and have a positive influence on the factors that impact how well your patients recover.

Module 6 - Thoracic outlet syndrome: Diagnosis, differentials and decision-making

Thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS) is a condition that can cause a lot of discussion, confusion and debate, and clinicians often lack confidence in making a diagnosis.

Many of these patients have had a long history of thoracic outlet symptoms before we see them, which can make it tough to know what the best treatment approach is and what outcomes to expect.

In this module you’ll explore how to confidently diagnose neurogenic, venous and arterial TOS, and the best treatment options. You’ll also explore:

• The relevant anatomy around the thoracic outlet and why this is important.
• Risk factors for developing TOS.
• How to diagnose the most common type of TOS - neurogenic TOS.
• Venous thoracic outlet syndrome, and how to diagnose it.
• Arterial thoracic outlet syndrome.
• Why we need to be aware of other vascular presentations, and how to differentially diagnose TOS.
• How to identify and differentiate other conditions that may have symptoms in common with TOS, including:
  • Pancoast’s tumour
  • Subclavian steal syndrome.
  • Quadrilateral space syndrome.

After this module you’ll confidently diagnose neurogenic, venous and arterial thoracic outlet syndrome, differentially diagnose other vascular presentations and understand the best treatment options.

Module 7 - Snapping scapula: Sources and solutions

Patients can present with painful crepitus under the scapula, or a diagnosis of “snapping scapula”, which is often poorly understood, and made more challenging by patient beliefs and incongruent messages from other healthcare providers.

In this module you’ll explore the potential causes of this condition, and how to differentially diagnose and treat them. You’ll discover:

• What snapping scapula actually is.
• Causes of snapping scapula.
• The relevant anatomy of structures in the area, including bursae, muscle and bone.
• Key clues to make an accurate differential diagnosis.
• Essential information to accurately assess and rehab this condition successfully.

With this module you’ll confidently make a diagnosis of snapping scapula, differentially diagnose potential causes and know how to successfully rehabilitate patients with this condition.

Module 8 - Visceral causes of shoulder pain: Key clues & questions to ask

Patients’ shoulder pain can be referred from visceral sources.

Patients can present with shoulder pain with what seems to be a mechanical pattern, without a clear mechanical pattern, or an atypical pain presentation, that may all be referred from a visceral source.

Therapists may not routinely consider visceral causes of shoulder pain in their differential diagnosis, or feel overwhelmed and out of their comfort zone when considering the right questions to ask.

It’s important for us to be vigilant for visceral referral sources to ensure patients get appropriate care. If you miss these visceral sources, patients shoulder pain won’t get better, and it may cause significant health implications for your patients.

In this module you’ll explore:

• Typical presentations when patients have visceral causes of shoulder pain.
• Features of visceral pain and how patients describe their symptoms so you can quickly identify likely visceral causes of shoulder pain from their subjective history.
• Patterns of referral and what commonly provokes symptoms.
• The right questions to ask your patients to identify visceral referred shoulder pain.
• Case studies of patients with visceral referred shoulder pain and detective work.

By the end of this module, you’ll be confident in knowing when a patient’s shoulder pain presentation may indicate visceral referred pain and what questions you need to ask to identify if your patients need referral or medical attention.

Module 9 - The SCJ: Swollen, stiff or unstable?

The sternoclavicular joint (SCJ) can be a site of dislocation, instability and some rare and serious pathologies.

Clinicians often lack confidence in accurately diagnosing SCJ conditions, knowing when surgery or imaging may be indicated, and understanding the conditions that masquerade as an SCJ problem.

In this module you’ll discover:

• Anatomy and function of the SCJ.
• Key pathologies that affect the SCJ, and how to stay vigilant for these.
• How to differentially diagnose conditions around the SCJ.
• Treatment options for SCJ pain and injury.
• SCJ traumatic dislocation, and how to use patients' age to inform your treatment.
• Atraumatic instability treatment options.
• Pain and swelling: Key culprits and getting the diagnosis right.

With this module you’ll be able to confidently consider a patient’s subjective history, and pick up the clues indicating potential pathologies. You’ll know what to look for in your assessment, and which patients will benefit from imaging or a surgical opinion.

You’ll also be confident that you can provide the best treatment options for SCJ patients when rehabilitation is indicated.

Module 10 - SLAP lesions: Reasoning, relevance and rehabilitation

Superior labrum anterior to posterior (SLAP) lesions can be an irrelevant and unimportant finding on a shoulder pain patient's imaging, or it may be the source of your patient's pain and need rehabilitation and/or surgery.

It can be tough to differentiate between these two SLAP lesion scenarios, make sense of the evidence, know how to accurately assess patients and be confident about the best treatment.

In this module you’ll explore:

• The latest evidence around SLAP lesions.
• When SLAP lesions matter.
• Who gets SLAP lesions and why.
• Risk factors and mechanisms of injury.
• How to assess patients with a suspected SLAP lesion.
• Whether special tests help diagnosis.
• Rehabilitation for patients with SLAP lesions.
• Who needs surgery.
• Post-op considerations.
• Problem-solving post-surgical issues.

After this module, you’ll confidently identify a SLAP lesion as a contributor to a patient's shoulder pain, with key history and subjective descriptors. You’ll also know which patients should have rehabilitation as their first-line treatment, how to rehabilitate them, and which patients may benefit from surgery.

Module 11 - Instability problem solving: When things aren’t working, what next?

Atraumatic instability covers a whole spectrum from athletes with subtle instability or weird movement patterns, to those with hypermobility, frequent subluxations or dislocations.

How do you provide exercises to a patient with muscle patterning that “pulls” the shoulder out of joint?

As therapists, this can cause us a real headache, as no matter what we do they don’t seem to get any better.

In this module, you’ll take a comprehensive look at what goes wrong, the potential barriers to recovery and how to get things back on track, as you explore:

• How to identify key psychosocial factors that may influence patients instability and their response to rehab.
• Neurodiversity & its relevance in atraumatic instability.
• Hypermobility spectrum disorders and the relevance for your rehabilitation.
• Essential elements to include in your clinical reasoning.
• How to find a way forward when you can’t change it.
• Opportunities for rehabilitation from neurodevelopmental insights.
• Understanding drivers when pain is the predominant factor.
• Do we need to just “make patients stronger”, or is there another rehab approach that will get better results?
• When it’s not the shoulder – considering the kinetic chain.

By the end of this module, you’ll know where to start with complex instability patients, and what to include in your assessment and rehabilitation for the best possible results.

You’ll also know when to involve other healthcare professionals such as psychologists to aid your patients’ recovery.

Module 12 - The Paediatric & Adolescent shoulder: Key considerations

Younger patients experience different shoulder pathologies than more skeletally mature patients and require different treatment and advice to avoid longer-term issues and recurrence.

In this module, you’ll explore specific differential diagnoses you need to keep in mind, and how to successfully rehabilitate paediatric and adolescent shoulder pain patients. You’ll discover:

• Critical differences between young people’s shoulder pain and injury and the skeletally mature population.
• Common shoulder pathologies and how to diagnose these in paediatric and adolescent patients, including:
  • Growth plate injuries,
  • Pain during growth spurts,
  • Traumatic instability,
  • Glenohumeral joint laxity,
  • Long head of biceps irritation
  • Tendinopathies,
  • Cervical referred pain,
  • Avulsion fractures,
  • Acromial apophylisis,
  • Distal clavicular osteolysis,
  • Coracoid apophysitis,
  • Rib stress fractures,
  • Humeral pathology in throwers, tennis players and overhead athletes,
  • and more.
• How to treat younger patients’ shoulder pain and injuries and stop them from recurring.
• When to order imaging for your paediatric and adolescent patients.
• Risk factors in youth sport.
• How to design rehab programs and manage training load for optimal recovery in paediatric and adolescent shoulder pain patients.

At the end of this module you’ll be confident about skeletal development, and how it impacts pathology and typical shoulder pain presentations in young, non-skeletally mature people. You’ll also have the tools to assess, advise and get excellent treatment outcomes with this population.

Ever find yourself trying to remember which exercise or progression to use for a specific patient or condition?

When you’re busy in the clinic, it’s not always easy to remember the exact exercise or progression that fits each patient’s stage of rehab.

You might recall the principles—but which exercise to start with, the specific sets, reps, progressions, or alternatives?

That’s why we created this new, free and exclusive bonus available with registration today on the Shoulder Success: Next Steps Level 2 Online Course.

The Shoulder Success: Next Steps Level 2 Online Course gives you a lot of detailed video demonstrations of exercises and progressions to use with all your shoulder pain patients, to build strength, endurance, neuromuscular control, and power— from early rehab through to advanced stages, return to work, sport, and full function.

When you register on the Shoulder Success: Next Steps Level 2 Online Course today you’ll receive a free, exclusive bonus - an Exercise options & progressions reference booklet that will help you quickly find and apply the right exercises and progressions for your patients.

Inside the booklet, you’ll find:

• Clear photos and technique tips for each exercise
• Step-by-step instructions, alternatives, and progressions linked to specific rehab goals
• Practical guidance for adjusting sets, reps, load, rest, tempo, and frequency
• Equipment options including theraband, dumbbells, kettlebells, barbells, cables, medicine balls, and bodyweight—so you can adapt to whatever your patient has access to

Great rehab starts with the right exercise at the right time.

This guide helps you select exercises with purpose, match them to your patient’s goals, and fine-tune the dosage for better outcomes—quickly and confidently.

Here's a glimpse of the 28 pages of exercise progressions in this bonus

What’s included in the exercise reference booklet?

✅ Warm-up & activation / foundational open-chain work

Efficient warm-up exercises that establish good foundations, and prepare your patients for higher loads or performance training. These exercises are based on symptom modification principles from the Shoulder: Steps to Success online course.

✅ Foundational exercises

• Scapula/thoracic bias
• Posterior cuff bias
• Closed-chain/compression-based foundations

Target each of these areas with exercise options and progressions depending on your patients condition and goals.

✅ Posterior cuff exercises

Essential for patients who haven’t passed the prone cuff/capacity test. Includes:

• Supported positions
• Inner range work
• Long lever and isometric variations
• Kinetic chain-integrated and combination elevation/rotation exercises

✅ Eccentric loading strategies

Progressions to improve strength, hypertrophy, and power through targeted eccentric work across multiple planes.

✅ Inner range strength exercises

Perfect for patients needing end-range strength (e.g. swimmers, CrossFitters, overhead lifters).

✅ Anterior cuff strengthening

Concentric, eccentric, inner range, isometric, supported, and long/short lever variations.

✅ Deceleration control

Targeted strategies for athletes like throwers and lifters to improve control during load acceptance and high-speed tasks.

✅ Kinetic chain integration

Suitable for many patients and athletes, including those with thoracic outlet syndrome, cervical spine involvement, patients with balance deficits (e.g. older adults at risk of falling), or patients who perform whole body tasks such as throwing, tackling, or lifting boxes overhead.

✅ Closed kinetic chain progressions

Progress shoulder stability, control, and load tolerance in closed-chain positions.

✅ Neuromuscular & sensorimotor training

Coordination, reactive control, and power exercises that challenge the entire sensorimotor system.

✅ Power & rate of force development (RFD)

From entry-level plyometric drills to high-performance variations and explosive medicine ball work.

✅ Instability & graded exposure work

Progressive loading strategies to help patients adapt to instability and improve confidence with dynamic tasks.

⸻

This booklet gives you the structure, clarity, and flexibility to deliver evidence-informed, high-value shoulder rehab—whether your patient is just starting out or returning to high-level performance.

FAQ's: Your questions answered

What's in the course and why did we create it?