Meet Chris
My name is Chris Stokes, & I'm the lead instructor at the Canadian Dry Needling Company
Chris graduated from the Manchester Metropolitan University in 2007 with his degree in physiotherapy, and spent the first two years of his career working in the hospital setting, working in outpatient, inpatient, intensive care, pediatrics, stroke and medicine and cardiac surgery units.
Upon moving to Canada in 2010, Chris began work at the BC Children's Hospital in Vancouver, where he worked for 4 years before moving Penticton in 2014.
Soon after moving to Penticton, Chris founded the Penticton Physiotherapy & IMS Clinic (where our in-house trainings take place), and has been using IMS/ dry needling daily in his practice since 2015.
Chris has treated thousands of patients with dry needling, and has experienced first hand the difference dry needling can make to both your patients life, as well as your own practice. In that same time period, he has also seen what can happen when things don't go exactly to plan, and has learnt how to resolve, and (more importantly) avoid, these situations.
Chris founded the Canadian Dry Needling Company because, after years of treating patients and refining his skills, he felt a real drive to share that knowledge and experience with other therapists across Canada.
Having received his dry needling education in big group settings, Chris saw firsthand how a small group learning experience would be the optimal way to learn how to complete dry needling. He founded the Canadian Dry Needling Company to share his years of clinical experience in a way that feels more personal, supportive, and practical to his students who are completing his course.
By focusing on small group sizes and traveling to his students own clinics, he’s able to create a more intimate learning environment where therapists can slow down, get lots of supervised hands-on practice, and feel comfortable asking anything—no matter how basic it might seem. This approach allows him to tailor the teaching to each participant, helping them leave not only with new skills, but with the confidence to safely and effectively integrate dry needling into their everyday practice.
In that more intimate setting, he's able to give each therapist more individual attention and practical feedback, so they don’t just learn dry needling—they leave truly ready to use it safely and effectively in their own clinical practice.