Experiences of a physiotherapist

A few weeks ago, I presented my research project to a local group of students and therapists in Paris. I was there to assist the second Fascia Therapy seminar, and Christian Courraud took this opportunity to have me do a lecture. The goal was not only to pass on know-how (knowledge about autism and how to handle it), but also to illustrate my personal development: I took up the method as a physical therapist to learn new techniques, secondly, to apply those techniques in a particular field (children, and later on autistic children in particular) and thirdly, to reflect on and to do research on the results coming out of the treatment.

When giving a lecture on ‘autism and the body’, I almost always start with telling the audience what brought me to this research, what my motivation was / is. In this blog I will go more deeply into it, and in another post I will write about my approach with autistic children.

Read more … (Read the article)

Comments(0)

14 days ago I found this article in the newspaper:

> New sleeping bag to soothe a crybaby

According to this article’s author swaddling up a baby has effect on a baby since it feels secure (probably reminding it of its time spent in its mother’s belly), and because it can’t wake up itself by making rowdy arm-motions.

According to me there is more. Please read below … (Read the article)

Comments(0)

At the beginning of the new school year the ‘Rehabilitation Centre for children with learning and behavioral difficulties’, where I work, in Molenbeek (in the centre of Brussels), organizes a therapist study day.

Our goal is to have therapists talk about their work and research themselves, so that they can learn from each other; besides that, it enables us to have a thorough discussion about themes, for which we can’t make time during the school year.

The therapeutic team consists of quite a number of speech therapists, some ergotherapists, social workers, educators and a very experienced neuropsychologist. It is led by Dr. Naulaerts, neuropsychiatrist and medical director, and Jorn Jehaes, general director.

Like the last four years, Jorn asked me to do a lecture. He is personally interested in the significance of and the approach to the body in the coaching of children with learning and behavioral problems, and grants me speaking time when it comes to thebody. This time he asked me to talk about the body and autism.

In 2006 I gained a pre-doctoral degree at Universidade Modema in Lisbon for my study on ‘The sensitive body and autism: proposals for a therapeutic coaching of an autistic child based on the principles of the perceptive psychopedagogics’. In that period of time I had immersed myself totally into the subject: I treated many autistic children of all levels, from deeply autistic to severely withdrawn children (autism spectrum), I devoured each and every publication (articles, books) I could find on autism, and participated to a study/work group focusing on this subject. (Read the article)

Comments(0)