I just started working with a Alex. He's has a spinal cord injury (it's not complete) that's three years old. He's totaled sucked me into coming to his house - twice a week. We had his first lesson in my office @ three weeks ago. One lesson at his house last week. As of today, we are doing two lessons a week for the month of March to see where all of this goes.
I don't know his official diagnosis and I don't really care. The difference between what I do and everyone else is that my one and only job for Alex or anyone else that I work with is what can I do to make your life better. If I looked at anyone as a diagnosis first then I'm only going to limit my client and me.
To make more sense, I was working with a young girl, quadriplegic, hyper extended neck, dislocated hip of five years (doctors said that she didn't need it fixed - that's a whole other story). She had herpes encephalitis of the brain. The main reason that she was brought to me was that the legs were so rigid that not only could you not get her in a car seat but it was almost impossible to diaper her. She was six at the time.
One of the first things that I noticed was that when I put her into various positions (a slight roll to her system) she had a gurgle and slight cough or more of a clearing. I wouldn't add variation into what I was doing until her lungs settled. I didn't know at the time that she couldn't clear her lungs. She needed to be suctioned. After the second lesson, she could breathe on her own and cough. What did I do to help her breathe? If I had made that a 'goal' of mine, I don't think that I could have achieved it. I do ask me clients about why they are here to see me. Or why they think that they might need in their life. All I really need to know if there is a particular area that needs caution for some reason - a recent break for example.
All I really know about Alex is that he broke his back and femur during snow boarding which left him a quadriplegic. When we started, he could move his right foot, right index finger, left wrist has feeling throughout most of his system but can pinpoint the location or put a word to it.
What I love about the Anat Baniel Method is how the approach is to the entire system. It's the body, brain and central nervous system. There isn't a word for it in English but that's the way it works. The biggest problem that a person's brain has when they have a global trauma to the system (brain injury, Parkinson's, ms, MD, spinal cord, etc) is that the brain's response is get me back to where I was. I could do this yesterday and this is how I did it. When I start working with the system, it's today and now. I need to communicate at the exact level that your system is at this very moment. It's my job to find a way to teach the brain how to have a new way to communicate to their body and central nervous system. Not to exert the effort that it is now needed to pick up a cup the old way. To show him a way to do it today, with less effort and new neuro pathways.
You can now stop by his house and tickle his left foot. How cool is that?! After two lessons, he's getting ankle rotation and sensation throughout his body. I'm also talking to him through the entire system. Telling the brain what I'm doing so it can learn a new movement vocabulary.
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