Long time – no see… Once again – contrary to my best intentions there was a gap in getting stuff published on this blog. The theorists of blogging say that nothing is more detrimental to the readership than irregularity and unpredictability…
Not that I have run out of the things to share – pretty much the opposite – but casual writing seems to be going for me only when I am out of the field work…
Anyway – I hope that blogging sporadically is still better than silence..
Well, first of all the last 7 weeks have been very packed.
- In March I went to Singapore to re-film the last bits of the long overdue extended course on Super-Soft Ball Rolling Massage – the problem is always the same: by the time I finish one version there are so many upgrades to the technique itself and teachings that the entire course starts feeling awkward and outdated. Even though I realize that it could always be labeled as a ‘beta’ release 1.0 with subsequent updates –it doesn’t work for me – to the frustration of my production team I end up with another major overhaul.
However, finally it looks that the Super-Soft Ball Rolling Massage technique enters into the maturity phase with clear distinction between the skill levels – so I am feeling a lot better about the release of the intro course. Hopefully by the end of the summer we’ll get everything finished – as you all know too well – I am not known for lack of thoroughness :-)
- Then there was a training session in Montreal. Very encouraging.
On the one hand, excellent progresses related to the evolution of the dorsal compartments (the back; vertebral column etc. ) – and respectively tons of material worthy of quite impressive “before/afters”.
On the other hand – I am very happy to have achieved a next milestone in the development of Super-Soft Ball Rolling Technique – the increased volumetric response, which integrates the benefits of the 3Q and the ball rolling at the same time.
As I am saying that – I realize that I have uploaded the video “ABR Technique Essence” to the Vimeo library but completely overlooked embedding into the blog:
Here it is.
On a practical side – I strongly encourage all of you to learn the recent upgrades of the Ball Rolling – the “Intense Technique” and the “Submerged Technique”.
I recommend it wholeheartedly – go ahead and sign up for the summer trainings if you haven’t done so yet– because these technique upgrades are going to be a major boost in the efficacy of your homework – at least doubling it…
- Next big thing – me and Mark Driscoll (our principal research guy) – have conducted a 4-hour workshop at the Pacific Rim International Conference on Disabilities – http://www.pacrim.hawaii.edu/ – titled: “Thrifty” Rehabilitation – Home- Based and Family-Centered Treatment of Cerebral Palsy.
There were about 30 professional attendees – MDs, PTs, OTs – who specialize in Cerebral Palsy.
Frankly, over the years of life at the fringes being labeled as “alternative” I am used to the resistance and certain arrogance of the medical community towards “unofficial” newcomers.
Well, this time was a refreshing difference.
It appears that our duo with Mark finally managed to strike the right chord and engage the medical audience really deeply. Four hours is a long period of time – but the attention never waned.
I think that finally we have found a winning formula
Instead of talking about ABR – our opener and central premise went deeper.
A) Connective tissue/fascia importance for the analysis of Cerebral Palsy, especially the quadriplegic cases.
Basically we did the bridging of introducing the latest in the fascia research and showing how important it is to the understanding of what happens to a child with Cerebral Palsy.
It is important for you to realize that most of the medical professionals are short on time as much as anyone else in today’s busy life and if they manage to read anything – that’ll be narrowly professional, something that preferably gives educational credits.
So the fascia research has very much remained unnoticed in the Cerebral Palsy rehabilitation community.
B) I’ve drawn the dividing line acchording to a simple and easily understood criterion – “lavish” vs. “thrifty” methods of physical rehabilitation and therapy.
The main idea is to evaluate the costs of the therapy to a child’s body.
If a therapy targets muscles and brain – it is “lavish” – because muscles and brain are extremely expensive organs that are the ‘luxuries’, which only the healthy person can afford (they costly a fortune in terms of devouring the metabolic resources and zapping the information processing capacity).
Whilst “lavish” therapies could be of use for healthier people – they are counterproductive for a weaker child – and every quadriplegic child definitely falls into this category
Think of addressing muscles and brain as similar to committing the entire meager budget of a impoverished person who is starving to spending all his money on few sips of champagne and a spoon of caviar instead of providing him with quality staple foods – non-fancy but nutritious and super-affordable.
Well – that’s what the ‘Thrifty’ approach is about – how to contribute to the development of posture, stability and movement via the least expensive avenues…
And what are they? – Connective Tissue and Fascia. They cost nothing, they don’t gazzle resources, they do not produce any waste, they do not zap the computational power of the brain.
In this context everything becomes very clear – look at the top 20 methods that are now used for the Cerebral Palsy rehabilitation – they are all “lavish”!?
No wonder that they sometimes work for milder kids with Cerebral Palsy but they fail completely for the quadriplegic and more severe.
What is ABR? – it’s “thrifty”….
Well – obviously all these are just the conversation openers and definitely I’ll need to return to each and every of these subjects in better detail later on.
However, I hope that I at least provided some news update and managed to convey my excitement at the recent developments…
P.S. Hawaii is really a nice place – idyllic I’d say. Especially the palm trees – they do look like the ones from a “tropical paradise dream” :-)
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