LIFE FORCE

Just now I read a new blog entry by Susie on her blog “Conductor”, which reminded of the blog that’s been in writing in my head for a couple of weeks. http://www.susie-mallett.org/2012/04/joy-in-natural-world.html (Thanks, Susie:-))

Before I really get going, I would like to apologize in advanced about bringing more and more yoga into my blog writing. My partner and me are a bit over 2 weeks away from starting the first part of our yoga teacher training. We had to do some reading to prepare us for the tasks at hand. Naturally, it’s been part of our conversations lately and part of where my mind nowadays takes me. CE has for years been a steady occupier of my mind, which means the produce of my thinking has become quite interesting. BTW once I am done preparing for yoga, the books Peto wrote in German are next. I am curious to see, if I can find any overlap (the more I read the yoga books, the more I suspect to find that overlap).

During the last couple of weekends I have challenged myself physically more extreme then I have before. I run a ten kilometer run and hiked up and down a mountain for 12k (which took us 5h!!). I am not just telling you that to show off (and yes, a bit of ego is always in it as I am very proud of what I have done) but also to highlight the light-bulb moments that came with it. I pushed myself hard and I suspected I would spend the rest of the day resting on the couch or napping. But no, quite contrary, both those days I ended up cleaning everything on my list (my usual Sundays chores), going for more walks and more. Yes, I felt the physical tiredness of pushing myself but I also felt the mental power I gained through it. I suddenly had more energy then before and happy to be tired but still enjoying life.

I think, I gained what the yogis call “Prana”, which means in rough translation “life-force”. The yogis believe that some things steal our life-force and some give it to us. Yoga itself is considered to give us life-force, exercise is, spending happy moments doing whatever we like to do. In general, it doesn’t have to do with things that cost us energy like moving and exercising but more what brings us joy; It’s quite a bit of bliss those moments when you are exhausted e.g. playing a 24h Volleyball tournament or whatever you fancy and feeling every muscle in your body, but when you are glad you did it and be proud of your achievements.

I have seen that little twinkle of refreshed life, flashing up in my client’s eyes – and I think that’s the moment I enjoy most as a conductor. Yes, it could have been just a booth of endorphins but I choose to think there is more. There is perspective for the future and there is appreciation for the now. Without trying to sound all mushy but there is some sort of peace.

One of my biggest pet-peeve with people working/caring for children with disabilities (usually the non-verbal once) is the overused phrase: "He/she is just tired". And yes, sometimes that’s what they are and yes sometimes medication does not help, but I dare to say that quite often they are just bored. Something that would steal anyone’s “life-force” and maybe it is a reminder for us to work a bit harder on avoiding that and strengthen the things that bring life-force activity, sense of achievement, sharing enjoyment and feel connected with friends and family, feeling good about oneself and lots more. Interesting how much it sounds like CE or the things I think about planning a session.

I always remember a mother complaining to me how more alive their son was, when he got home after a six hour intensive session. That he would move around more trying to do stuff (yes, quite often it was “naughty stuff” but quite often that’s not a bad thing either).  I remember that I didn’t quite know what to say, as I was mentally and physical exhausted of trying to keep that child active throughout whole day and didn’t understand why he wasn’t feeling like I was. My instincts told me that this kind of non-tiredness is not a bad thing. And now I know that this is stuff that's most important. 

Developing as conductor means to be able to express ones ideas, thoughts and explain reasons, even instincts, better. I’m getting there slowly and I am pretty sure that I would have something important to say to this mom and expanding my teaching on a greater level.

About inspiring and being inspired

This was the second year in a row that I went to Easter Camp for stroke survivors in beautiful Squamish, BC. Last year, I was captured the friendly and vibrating atmosphere, the amazing people and conversations. This year it wasn’t any different.  We were greeted back like old friends and it didn’t feel like a whole year had passed. I remember last year, on my way back home, feeling a bit guilty about having had such a great time (again, this year wasn’t any difference). I felt this guilt as this camp really wasn’t about me. I was just there to volunteer some time, help out with a few things and introduce CE a bit. This was more about the Stroke survivors and their caregivers having a good time. I think they did.

http://turtletalk.ca/

Being inspired

This camp gave me plenty of opportunities to catch up with campers from last year and get to know new people and their unique stories. It gave me the chance to see how people have improved over the year and get to know a bit why. It also gave the chance to listen to what most people’s hopes for recovery were. I think the general consensus was that they are open for anything that might help them to make their lives easier or regain some function.

Other professionals also volunteered their time and it was great to observe them and listen to what they have to they about stroke and recovery. I think there were two major presenters I found very inspiring for different reasons.  Working independently gives me little opportunity for professional development; so I cherish every opportunity to be in the learner’s seat.

I enjoyed observing about Steady Feet, a program aiming to prevent falling, which is recognized and funded by the Ministry. For me, it was interesting to see how to approach it from a solely exercise view. The exercises she did and why she did them made sense. And I think most people enjoyed them, which I think is the most important part. It made me also appreciate the differences and why CE is more than an exercise program.

I enjoyed the talk of Dr. Yao about brain plasticity and rehabilitation options in a Question- and- Answer style. The content itself was not new to me, except how acute care for Stroke works in BC. I have heard a few things from my client, but Dr. Yao gave a wider overview. In all honesty, it was rather shocking.

I liked the way she explained everything, took her time to answer questions and had a genuine interest in what becomes of stroke survivors once they left the acute rehabilitation program.

The inspiring part of the talks and demonstrations for me was that CE is actually situated in the Zeitgeist of current neuro-rehabilitation understanding more than people might think. Our unique training and understanding does let us go the extra mile and address psycho-social concepts like motivation, cognition, attention, emotion etc. that become vital for further learning and rehabilitation. Plus, the awareness of those skills lets us adapt our teaching to teach the HOW more than the WHAT to do.

Being inspiring.

I also was scheduled to give a presentation on CE. I have had for a while now an outline on what I like people to know about CE. It’s usually pretty general and I like to put in different examples to give it some life. However, observing the other presentations; I told one of the organizers that I would teach standing up from a chair differently to people who had Strokes due to various reasons. She made me show her and then told everyone to attend my session to learn a different way. She called it a teaser to my presentation. And what a teaser it was, I had twice the people attending this time

So, after doing a general introduction about CE, I invited everyone who was interested to join me in learning to stand up (with my support if needed). I am usually really nervous about giving presentations; but once I started to teach standing up, I was on a roll. I was doing what I do best. I explained why we do things and some of the fundamental thinking about it. I kept emphasizing the teaching part and that the teaching depends on the individual learners and their current abilities. I showed examples of how we break down getting off the floor (very popular topic in that particular group). It was not the usual presentation I give, more a workshop; but people enjoyed it a lot and I had a lot of positive response to it. Being more at ease doing my thing, it sparked a bit of a “conductive glow.” With one or another that I said, I began to see that certain sparkle in their eyes- the one of hope.

However, I am very grateful that I had someone give me the right nudge in this direction and I am sure, I will use this in further upcoming presentations.

This was a great weekend. And I am looking forward to next year.

Smells like CE spirit

 

I do love when I come across articles that spell out what I was thinking for a long time and have either never seen it in written words or in written words outside some Hari books.

So one of this documents crept up on me this morning on my facebook news feed.

Self-esteem breeds Self-Determination?

Guide towards problem-solving?

Giving meaningful choices?

Create opportunities for communication?

Balance between protective and risk-taking?

High expectation?

Motivation?

Safe opportunities to practice?

Learning skills not linear?

Development of self-help and independent living skill?

Understand students starting point?

Activities in communities?

Genuine involvement with peers?

Support? Encouragement?

This all sounds so familiar. Not sure when I seen those words the last time all in one Reminds me of a project my conductor friend and me once worked on. Time to take it back up, I think.

Notes:

Relish for more then just Hotdogs:

www.nichcy.org/wp-content/uploads/docs/ta4.pdf

Here are the scripts for the audiotape (only scanned through it).

http://nichcy.org/publications/st3script

The first session

Today, I started off working with a new client. I meet her for an initial consultation over a month ago. I was excited and a bit nervous. However, I do love this time. This is where the conductive magic starts, if I do my job right. The first session usually gives me a clue how long and what it will take to gain the trust of my client and their family. It’s the start of building a relationship.

This young child is not what you would call a ‘typical’ CE child. I mean she doesn’t have the diagnosis of CP. She has a genetic defect, which not only affects her body tone (hypotonic), but also her bone structure, vision and hearing. So, I was a bit careful before meeting her and I remember warning her mother that I might have nothing or not much new to offer. We agreed to meet anyway and I am very glad we did.

This little girl just loves songs and thinks I am hilarious. Needless to say, it’s pretty easy to motivate her. So, that checked off we are working on her trusting me. She has a quite painful knee and is scared bending it. She can do it when she is playing and no one else is around. This tells me that she knows her limits and that she had bad experience with other people trying to help her. I made sure I didn’t push her and mainly verbally encouraged her to crouch down, earning her trust. It seemed work out and she tried.

I asked her to follow my movements and follow simple instructions. Her mother tried to show her hand over hand. I told her to hold of a tiny bit and see if she would attempt to follow them without hand over hand (I looked as she tried to figure out what I wanted from her) and after a little while she did quite well. I could see her mom being quite excited in the background. After the session I asked if she (the mom) had any questions. She said no and that it was pretty clear, what I wanted. She said that I worked with her daughter a lot on the next level. She feels that the therapist that knew her daughter for a while kept having those kind of expectations and that she now has to reset hers to higher ones, too.

This is not the first time I heard this. And please don’t get me wrong, I do not post this to clap myself on the shoulder (although feedback like this feels damn good). Or to cause further stress to the relationship conductors have with other professionals. It’s more to say that firstly we conductors do have something to offer to our clients and families even if it’s only to show them to step up their expectations. As well as see it as a warning to us/me to not get sucked into the current level of development, therefore always look for the next step of development (yes, in case you wonder it’s Vykotskii).

Anyway, it looks like we had a great start to do some conductive magic with this family.

Time, balance and living

This week I read my friend’s blog about Facebook and communication. He came to the conclusion that it actually makes us passive and will close his account soon

That made me think: could I? and more importantly, did I want to?

Apart from being an addict, I enjoy Facebook. I enjoy not always having to be active to know what happens in the lives of people I know and love. For me, it’s a time factor.

Having lived in a few countries, I’ve had to leave behind considerate amount of people I truly love. I have to say I am still glad that I have some contact with a lot of them, and I know that when it’s time to meet up I can just click on their Facebook and make arrangements. That is what happened when I went to Germany about a month ago. With some I have regular message exchange, and sometimes I am lucky to catch them online at the same time and have a chat.

I used to have pen pals when I was younger. After a while the contact would become less frequent and mostly die. But then once in a while it would start up again, and I was glad that the contact wasn’t lost forever. My friend from Grade 1 with whom I still have contact with is used to not hearing from me for a while, sometimes even years. But the strength of friendship is such that you can pick it back up again; even without being in touch for a while.

I also enjoy clicking on links to blogs and articles mostly of a professional kind. It’s quick and easy to access, so another plus point for saving time.

I have thought about time quite a lot lately. When we went to Germany, we had little time to see and spent time with my family and friends. We had hardly time to sleep and I ended up with some killer migraines, which left me with even less quality time for catching up with everybody.

It seems like time comes with a balance. If you start neglecting one area of yourself, another area will start to crumble too. The fight to find and maintain this balance seems to be the most important struggle in life. You have balance when you have time for the things you like (i.e. hobbies) and the things that are necessary but not always fun (i.e. cleaning). Of course, sometimes those areas can overlap.

However, my grade-one friend in Germany, told me that she has hired a cleaning lady. No, this friend is not made of money. She is a bio-chemistry grad student and a mom of a two-year-old. She decided that she wants to spend the limited time she has doing things she likes (i.e. spending it with her daughter) instead of cleaning. And she is very happy with her choice of maintaining balance.

When I first arrived in BC, I spent a lot of time building up my business by actively making contacts, reading articles of various topics and regularly writing on my blog. Fortunately I had some time for my passion (yoga), too. At the time my partner was still living in Winnipeg and I lived at a friend’s place, which meant I had to spend very little time maintaining our place. When my partner moved to BC, I lost some of the time I used to have to build up my business; but after a few weeks, we found a good balance.

About nine months ago we adopted a puppy and there was even less time for building up a business or even for my hobbies. Right now, I haven’t got my balance back; but I am working on it. And I feel I am seeing the silver lining on this one. My point is that our priority change with the different things life throws at you. It takes a while to find that balance again.

How does that relate to CE you might wonder? I think it does in two very different ways.

Firstly, during our training we were pushed quite hard to keep up to a certain time frame and got in trouble more than once (or maybe that was just me?) for not sticking to it or even sometimes sticking too much to it. We had to learn that pushing the tasks through is one thing, but teaching new skills was another. There were a lot of conductors who thought that quality (the teaching part) was more important then the quantity (the sole task series). At the same time, I think, if we wouldn’t have been pushed to keep to the time line and task series we wouldn’t have learned how to cram so many teaching opportunities in every minute of our session. In my professional career so far, I have been fighting with that balance. I am still fighting with it; as every member of the group(i.e. parent/spouse, participant, assistant, other conductor or professionals) will upset this balance, and it takes a while to find it again. The good news is that once you find it, you know how to more easily recreate it.

Secondly, it’s the participant and their families who most often have problems finding balance between creating learning opportunity and time to just live for all members of the family. They are inundated exercises, equipment to use during the day, therapy or sessions and doctors appointments and more. Time becomes very precious and the days are too short to do everything. To make it all worse, different professional will recommend different things. No surprise that families feel often overwhelmed.

http://benandhenrysmom.blogspot.com/2011_11_01_archive.html

I am afraid we conductors, especially in the beginning, sometimes, add to this. We recommend different uses of furniture or what to practice (which mostly looks like exercises). I am try to emphasize that most things should be practiced as part of a routine. For example when standing up from a chair, to make sure, to put weight on both legs. When playing with their children they should play with purpose, e.g. the child has to work on standing: play in a standing position. This way it comes part of what any person at that age would do anyway. And in a way it crams learning opportunities in every minute of everyday life, what has come to be known as “conductive living.”

However, some people are just looking for concrete stuff, like doing certain stretches or exercises and that’s fine. They might come around to conductive living eventually; but then again they might not. In the end, it might not be what they needed to maintain the balance of their own lives and families.

Still, in my opinion, teaching a family with a child or adult with a disability how to achieve this balance (while not killing themselves) is actually the most valuable tool we can teach.

Notes:

http://benandhenrysmom.blogspot.com/2011_11_01_archive.html

http://thegeekconductor.com/mauritius/?m=20111227

Group. Dynamic. Motivation.

This year I run my first summer camp in BC. Two weeks with three kids and I loved every single bit of it. And so did the kids. I see two out of them individually once every week. Working with them individually or in a group is completely different. Why?? Well that’s different from kid to kid.

V- the only boy in the group is way more easy going then at home. At home we work a lot on strategies for his mom to deal with his behavior issues. There, I have seen him working on his best and on his worst. I have been shown the door by him a few times ( sometimes I barely stepped through it). In the end I have left every time on my own terms with him finishing what I have asked him to do. Sometimes that meant we could play, dance around lava, trick a shark and sometimes that meant to calm down and sit till we are in the right state of mind.

His mom was having a hard time with conflicting advice. When what to do, was and is her biggest struggle. And it is hard. Upbringing is about balance. Balance between rules and having a good time. As an up-bringer you work on this balance every day. Sometimes you get it right and sometimes you don’t.

But we are working in looking for his motivations behind his actions. He sometimes shouts, throws shoes and tries to grab you as he having a tantrum and tries to catch your attention. Then don’t give to him. In group he learned this way fairly quickly to calm himself down and joined back in the group activity.

He sometimes shouts and tries to grab someone because he wants to help or he overexcited. Then it’s important to pay him attention and praise him for trying to help or recognize he is happy but he should sit back regardless. To judge the situation it takes knowledge of the kid and his emotions. But you have to be careful to not make excuses for your kid. If it’s having a tantrum let it have it and then talk to it.

He made some important improvements during the camp and the consistency dealing with him while still having expectations on him, made him feel at ease. The experience of the camp will help me to teach mom better as she knew it worked. And sometimes that’s just what it takes to bring changes in the family by showing changes with their kid is possible and attainable.

Mo. Well, Mo. She is superstar. I have not seen her for about half a year. I usually do not see her individually. To be honest I don’t think I could bring a lot of change at home as her parents are very good in following through with what has been done and adjusting it conductively to their way of living. But since I have seen her last and now, she seems to be a different child. She remembered the group from March camp and straight away lit up. She loves working in this group. A child who hardly shows any emotions, giggles and laughs at the right places. She really feeds of the clapping and cheering of the whole group. It was really easy to teach her knew skills because we would cheer like crazy when she got it right. She would love that so much that she would seize to repeat it. Again and again and again. Her verbalizing was just amazing. She not only makes noises now to get something (which in itself is a miracle) but she will also try to form the correct sounds with her lips. She would try to get your attention when she wanted something and boy, when she wanted something she would try anything to get it.

One of the huge developments of the camp was, that she started to take her assistant to the bathroom when she needed to go. This has been huge for her and her family as she so far been only trip trained with intermediate success. We additionally have been working on using picture exchange to express that she needs the bathroom and this also seemed to be going pretty well.

Last but not least Ma. I see her on a weekly basis. I have seen her mother interact with her and seen that she is very conductive in her upbringing anyway but just needs some ideas and tricks to work on certain skills. I usually work with her by myself and share with her mom afterwards what we have been working on. She has shown steadily progress with her skills. At home she tends to loose her concentration and motivation quite quickly, not so much during the group program. In fact, it was great to observe how she applied spontaneously skills we have been working on during the last couple of month. We managed to even push a bit further with our work. Considering she had little control or awareness of her right foot half a year ago, she now can walk with her toes up. Amazing. The group is doing her so good. Her mother run a daycare during the summer. Ma spent the day with the little kids and it was to observe that her level of maturity shrank to the level of the little guys group. It was very hard to get her to focus or do anything those weeks. However, in the CE group, she was very keen to lead by example and did fantastic.

This shows how important the right group is and how to use the group dynamic to bring out the best part of each individuals personality. In the place I worked before, we had the luxury of a lot of different groups and could place the participant where we thought they could grow most. One of the client I ever turned down without trying them out in a group, I knew would not work in the group the parents wanted (which was the summer program). Yes, I think that CE could have made a different but not in the available group and with not my at that point, abilities to keep a group together. Even the kids in this groups were all very different with very different diagnosis and abilities, I knew those will make an awesome working group. I am very glad my conductor instincts proved me right.

I think, I would not necessary made the same decision coming straight out of University. The reason I knew it would work is because I have seen a group with a similar variety work before. Who knows, in a couple of years I might not turn down a kid working in a similar group, like I did back then.

Private.

I have mentioned before that working with the individuals at home shows parts of a family dynamic you usually do not see. Some positive ones, some not so positive ones
.

I have learned and still learning where the boundaries are for me being able to do a different and where I am not the right professional or person. Personally, this always has been hard as I like helping people. My very grounded partner keeps reminding me you cannot fix everybody. In my conductor head I always want to disagree. Why not, there must be a way. My consistently changing understanding of life and living keeps telling me maybe there isn't one, not at the moment at least. Sometimes, all we can do is offering what we can and if its not wanted or needed at that time, we shouldn't take it personally.

My friend who recently graduated from med school and worked with Families with different backgrounds told me what she been taught: Never give advise as the families know best what is good for them. Listen and guide them, they will find their own answer that works best for their own situation.

I have been thinking about that for a while and always amazed how truly conductive this thinking is. As a fix-a-holic I know that this is a lesson i still have to learn.

Today, i was in this situation. I tried to offer my help by listening but one party of the family did not want to talk about it. My gut straight away made me aware of the different emotions involved. And I this was nothing I could help resolve. In fact I felt my whole presence made it worse.

I know my client has really enjoyed our sessions and the gain of it you could see in his movements and eyes. But right now, it seems better that the issues need to be resolved by the family first- without me. My client, who has severe aphasia tried to communicate that to me. I respect that. I know or I hope they will get in touch when they feel they are ready again on their own terms and own time.

I always been aware that there are something in the family dynamic that causes some sorts of distress but they didn't want to tell and I had no right to dig. I was not there for that.

Lisa in her blog talked about suitability for CE and I think those situation is quite fitting. Right now, its not what they need. Maybe sometime in the future, however long that might be away.

Notes:

http://thephysedstudio.blogspot.com/2011/07/unsweetable.html