Movement Lesson and Spinal Cord Injury

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.

How Movement Lesson Was Created

All that I am is for my family. I've always believed that if your family is strong - the world can be strong. With my husband, I have two beautiful boys. It is them who taught me how to do Movement Lesson.

My story, our story, starts with complications and regression do to my son's 13 month vaccine. He got the HIB vaccine and we lost him. This is more than just autism. I wish that it was only autism but he didn't develope the antibodies - he got the disease HIB (haemophilus influenza). The only problem was - it would take us another three years to get that diagnosis. Most doctors felt that I was a mother that couldn't handle the autism diagnosis - I needed a medical reason why this was happening to my son. At the end, all I got was "You were right."

This is what vaccine regression looks like. The CDC doesn't know about Graham and countless others. I have the diagnosis - of polysacchride ab deficient. He has no immune system due to the length of the infection and receives subcu infusions every week. This isn't about the vaccines = it's about trauma and recovery. The trauma from vaccine reaction can be so severe to a child's central nervous system that without intervention can lead to a diagnosis of autism and developmental delay.

He was two years old when Dr. Schenkein, pediatric gastroenterology, suggested that we go to California to the Anat Baniel Method (ABM) Center in Marin County. We were at Anat's new clinic on the day that the doors opened. Before going, his physical therapist told me that he's walking but shouldn't be. His body is not capable but he's doing it. Within two days of , he was walking heal to toe with his dad and he said to me, "I don't know what they are doing in there but you are going to learn how to do this." That's when my life changed.

This is a picture of him was taken after 10 ABM lessons in five days.

When I started my training, his speech goal was a one word self-help at the age of four "Mom, open, please." He was going to the Foundation for the Blind for PreSchool. He's now 7 and mainstreamed with resource for reading and writing comprehession. He gets 100% on all of his work and loves studing the Periodic Table, karate and Cub Scouts. He and his brother come to my clinic every week for their lesson.

It's been almost five years since that May. I have a wonderful clinic in Peoria, Arizona called Movement Lesson. My clients are babies - the biggest is 97! I wanted to concentrate on children with special needs. I quickly recognized that we all have special needs.

I use my personal experience with my professional training to help children avoid the same route Graham has taken. I continue to discover how our systems, so fantastic and complex, can be shown and new and more efficient way to move. I'm using this blog to grasp all these thoughts on paper.

I'm and expert on movement and pain, not at writing. I can't do this any other way than to Blog. To begin to formulate all that I'm learning and bring it to a form where I can articulate it.

I will be blogging about my clients to bring an awareness that children and adults with special needs, people recovering to trauma, neuropathies, strokes, etc can be helped by a Movement Lesson.

Bring me your questions and I'll try to answer them the best way that I know how.