Continuing Education · Rhode Island & Massachusetts
Professional Development That Actually Changes How You Practice
From a single afternoon lab to board certification — taught by clinicians who are still in the clinic treating patients this week. Highbar is a teaching practice, not a CE vendor.
APTA
APPR
CEUs approved across all six New England states — RI, MA, CT, VT, NH, ME
7 Programs
Half-day labs to accredited residency
200+
Clinicians trained across New England
6 States
APTA-approved provider region
100%
OCS pass rate — Highbar Residency
What most continuing education gets wrong
Most CE ends the moment the weekend does.
The usual model: a traveling instructor runs a two-day course, hands out a certificate, and leaves. There’s no mentor to ask when the technique doesn’t work on a real patient, no connection to the rest of your development, nothing that carries into next week. You leave with a credential and no one to call.
Highbar teaches its own courses in-house for one reason: education should live inside clinical practice, not beside it. Our instructors treat patients in the same rooms where they teach — so the reasoning they model in a lab is the reasoning they use in the clinic. That’s the difference on every program below.
Choose your depth
Four Levels of Growth. Start Anywhere.
Aligned to where you are and how far you want to go. Stack over time — no program is a prerequisite for another.
Level 01
Focused Skill Development
Sharpen a specific skill and use it immediately. Book-and-go.
Single sessions, hands-on, no long-term commitment.
Level 02
Regional Mastery
Go deep where you treat most — one region at a time.
Structured 8-week tracks that build real depth in a single body region.
Level 03
Advanced Certification
Longitudinal, mentored. Worth reading carefully before committing.
Financing and time commitment matter here.
Level 04
Specialist-Level Transformation
The deepest, most selective commitment in the ecosystem.
14 months, salaried, ABPTRFE-accredited, 100% OCS pass rate.
Every program, in detail
Seven Programs. All Taught In-House.
From a $99 half-day lab to a 14-month salaried residency — same instructors, same clinics, same clinical reasoning. If you work here, every one of them is already yours.
$950
Dry Needling Certification
Level I & II · 2-day intensive
Add dry needling to your practice and use it the next day. 16 hours, APTA-approved across New England.
- Free for Highbar clinicians
$4,800
Certified Orthopedic Manual Therapist (COMT)
LONGITUDINAL · 14–24 MONTHS
Residency-aligned manual therapy certification with a 100% OCS pass rate among exam-takers. 184 educational hours.
- Free / full salary – internal
Salaried
Accredited Orthopedic Residency
14 months · ABPTRFE accredited
Rhode Island's only accredited orthopedic residency. 100% OCS pass rate, 150 hours of 1:1 mentorship.
- Salaried · apply via RF-PTCAS
$99
Core-4 Series Labs
Half-day · single lab
The fastest way in. A focused, case-based half-day in one region. Built for students and early-career clinicians.
- Free for Highbar clinicians
$149-599
REGION-FOCUSED CERTIFICATIONS
8-WEEK TRACKS · 5 SPECIALTIES
Go deep in one region over 8 structured weeks. Five specialty tracks with a hands-on weekend lab.
- Free for Highbar clinicians
$3,600
Certified Orthopedic Physical Therapy Assistant (COPTA)
PTA-specific · 184 hours
Advanced orthopedic certification built from the ground up for PTAs — not a PT course adapted down.
- Free / full salary — internal
$449
Weekend Lab Intensives
2 days · regional focus
Two full days of hands-on regional skill work, built for immediate Monday-morning carryover.
- Free for Highbar clinicians
Not sure which fits?
Three questions usually narrow seven options down fast. Or just ask a real person — no pressure to enroll.
A teaching practice, not a CE vendor
Our Instructors Aren't Flown In. They're Down the Hall.
The clinicians teaching these courses are the same ones running Highbar clinics and mentoring our residents — board-certified, residency-trained, and still treating patients every week.
That’s what a teaching practice means, and it’s why our education threads into real clinical work instead of ending at a certificate.
If you work here, this is already yours
Every Program on This Page Is Free for Highbar Clinicians.
If you don't work here yet — here's what that's worth.
For our team: every course above is fully covered through your employee code. For everyone else — the residency, COMT, dry needling, the whole catalog — clinicians here get all of it at no cost, as part of the job. It’s one of the more honest reasons to consider a teaching practice.
How the subsidy works
01
Current clinicians — every program is covered through your employee code, applied at checkout.
02
COMT & COPTA — internal participants train on full salary, not just a waived fee.
03
Residency — salaried, with a separate application through RF-PTCAS.
04
Prospective hires — this is part of the offer, not an add-on. See careers →
Not sure which program fits?
Seven Options Is a Lot. Three Questions Narrow It Fast.
How much time can you commit?
An afternoon, a weekend, or a year?
Depth or breadth?
Going deep in one region, or building broad orthopedic skill?
Is board certification the goal?
If OCS is on your horizon, COMT and Residency are built for it.
"Orthopedic residency has been the most productive educational experience of my life. It enhanced every aspect of my clinical practice."
Aiden Barrett, PT, DPT · Residency Graduate
"This course increased my understanding of pain patterns and gave me more confidence during patient education every single day."
Haley Chaves, PTA · COPTA Graduate
Pick Your Next Step
This page isn't selling one thing — so choose the path that fits where you are right now.