About our Therapy

This is Julian, he is Pre SDR (Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy). This video shows the results we can achieve with soft tissue therapy (STR) on a spastic contractured muscle. As you can see, Julian has a lot of tightness in his calves. We work really hard with Julian to try and improve both foot placement and heel strike. We are unable to get heel strike after "swing phase" but our goal is to get the heels to reach the floor during double support phase into initial swing or mid swing, meaning he isn't balancing on his mid foot or toes, and therefore post SDR Julian will not having to relearn new movement patterns. Furthermore, we are reducing issues
through the calcaneus, cuneiforms and metatarsal, this will help to reduce malformations in the foot, and allow for better foot development. This, in turn, increases the potential for better walking and reduces the negative effects of a spastic muscle. 

These techniques can also be used on arms. 

This is a little video of of us working with Maddie. As you can see Maddie hyperextends the knees, this means she will have reduced balance and control in walking and can be problematic for her joints if left. To help this, we use a combination of strength building exercises and soft tissue techniques, to release quads and hip flexors as well as the back muscles, to allow for a better movement.  Then we work on patterning. This allows us to control the legs as we walk, building healthy walking patterns and increasing strength and stamina (conditioning).
Well done Maddie!

HARD, HARD, HARD !!!!  
This is Orla showing off how she does lying ball rotations to help with core  
and transverse movement. Please remember that this is terribly hard
when you try this at home -nothing about this exercise is easy! The rotational and asymmetrical movement is really hard and tough for our kids, but an amazing exercise if we can do it! In order to be able to walk we need to walk asymmetrically and rotate, so by doing this we are teaching the body how to move and adopt a good pattern.