AUTISM |
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Case Study: I have been working on Tom for over 3 years. I had quite a shock when I looked up my notes to find it had been that long. Tom had meningitis when he was 19 months old and was unconscious for 24 hours. This changed him completely and two years later he was diagnosed as autistic. I met him in October 2006. He could not speak and would not allow anyone to touch him. His mother said he had not slept for 4½ years. I used his mother as a surrogate and then I gave his brother a treatment. Then to my surprise he climbed up onto my couch. His mother returned two weeks later to say "It works, he slept!!" Persistence pays. Tom loves his Bowen now; he comes in and throws himself on my couch. He is now talking, not fluently but definitely talking and is beginning to read (2009). To quote his mother, Ann, "He is no longer in his own little world". He can also count and proudly recite the alphabet. When his brother commented that Tom was "chilled, as he had been for his Bowen", the parents unreservedly give permission for this information to be used. I find that all the children who have Bowen become more relaxed and sleep better. It is enormously gratifying to see what the magic of Bowen can do, so our thanks to Tom Bowen and to Howard Plummer who has inspired so many of us to work on children. Reference:
[72] |
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Case Study: Ethan is 7 years old and was diagnosed as autistic at about 3 1/2 to 4 years old. He has been attending Bowen sessions for about 8 months now and we have noticed a vast improvement in Ethan's overall behaviour, such as more eye contact, more aware of what is going on around him and a lot calmer within himself. He started the sessions very nervously, jumping on and off the bed; he could only do a few moves at a time. We took him at 9am so he was the first to arrive (he doesn't like too many people in one room). Gradually he became more aware of what was expected of him. Now, 18 months down the line, he runs up the stairs, gets undressed and jumps straight onto the table and awaits treatment. He copes with a few more moves before he gets up and stretches his legs and then gets back onto the table for a few more. Outside of Bowen, Ethan participates in trampolining, music group, dance sessions and in all of these Ethan has improved beyond belief - especially his behaviour and eye contact. When going shopping (which he detests), he behaves and stays close by. Ethan had to have blood taken for cholesterol levels at school. His mum went along to hold him down but he got straight onto the bed and pulled a blanket over himself, and the doctor took the blood without any problem. The same goes for when he brushes his teeth and cuts his nails. He is far more tolerant now than he has ever been. We believe this has to do with the treatment he is receiving from Mr Howard Plummer, Helen and Irenka. Reference:
[71] |
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Case Study: Sam is 7 years old and is moderately to severely autistic. His mother Sue had a long labour and Sam was born using a suction cap. He developed normally and was advanced up to the age of 1. When he was 14 months old he began to regress. Sue thinks it was due to the MMR vaccine within a week of which he was not responding to his name. He was diagnosed with autism when he was 21/2. He had language up to 14months old and then he lost it all. He now only says odd words and only then when he wants to. Sam is very loving towards his mum, always hugging and kissing her and also with other people who he gets to know well. He can be a little bit frightened of other children – perhaps because they are a little bit unpredictable. He uses the HANDLE scheme - Holistic Approach to Neuro Developmental Learning Efficiency. Also SONRISE – 1 to 1 therapy Sam does in a playroom at home. Sam has about 25 hours of this programme a week. He is full time on these programs and does not attend school. He also follows a diet which is Gluten and Casein free - only eats fresh, organic food, no sugars. This has helped him to be calmer and not as anxious – he used to scream a lot. This has almost stopped now. Sam does not like you to touch his head or face. Sessions with Sam have been every week. By the third or fourth session Sam would quite happily run up my stairs to go into my therapy room. By the third session Sue reported that Sam had "been brilliant". He was speaking 3-4 words and a lot clearer. He generally seems happier and is sleeping well. He is tolerating Sue touching his head more. She is not able to comb or cut his hair and has to do this whilst he is asleep. Sam now waves goodbye to people – he has never done this before – Sue is "chuffed to bits". He now gets straight onto my massage couch. He goes to a paediatrician at the hospital but only once every 6 months but Sam is then generally very anxious and will not let them do anything. At the 5th session Sue reported going for a family meal and Sam was "the best he's ever been". He is usually really anxious, running out of the building but they were out for nearly 3 hours and he behaved really well. This was the first session when I was able to do some moves on Sam, these being circles on the sacrum with the pads of my fingers as taught by Howard Plummer. By the 8th visit his mum reports Sam putting sentences together. His diet has improved – in the past 2 weeks he has started eating vegetables – he never has before. He has also started eating fruit since having Bowen. He is letting Sue comb her fingers through his hair when awake. He also let a friend do this and when she stopped he took her hand and put it back. He is allowing his mum to do circles on his back and he is enjoying this. Sue says his understanding of things seems a lot better. Our sessions so far have mainly consisted of me treating Sue (pages 1-3 with fascia on the sacrum, shoulders and face) usually with Sam on the couch by her side. Sam can be quite boisterous at the beginning of the session but calmer towards the end. During the treatment I sometimes play a Relax Kids CD which I find helps. At the ninth visit I sensed I had made a much deeper connection with Sam after I had finished working with him. This is early days with Sam but I find the journey exciting and interesting. Reference:
[70] |
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Case Study: Amer, a child on the Autistic spectrum - treated at Leicester Children's Bowen Clinic (LCBC) Amer first came to LCBC in March 2008. He was eight years old, shy and apprehensive. Of main concern to his parents was lack of eye contact, immature speech and language, with little interaction or communication skills. Left arm and leg were held more stiffly than right and appeared to be tender. Left sided impairment was sufficient to warrant medical testing to exclude the possibility of a stroke; however results did not show any abnormality. Muscular co-ordination was also poor, walking lacked balance and ease of movement. Treatment Initially Amer was quite tender on the left side, did not tolerate touching of his head and needed plenty of time between moves or he would make a moaning sound. Treatment was largely of Bowen pages 1, 2, and 3 and of fascia as taught by Howard Plummer. Asthma moves were used a great deal, due to frequent coughs and colds. Presently, he is tolerating head touching and accepting TMJ well. He attended regularly and treatment began to have effect. Gradually he became less anxious and made more eye contact. Physically, the stiff tenderness of the left side was completely resolved in 6 months Language developed from moans to verbal sounds. The odd word appeared and his mother would prompt him to say hello and look at the person he was talking too. We all encouraged this basic social interaction. Pronunciation developed from being quite slurred and now is clear and easy to understand. Vocabulary gradually increased and Amer began to string two to three words together. At the moment he is answering without prompting and volunteering what he is interested in. Self expression is becoming evident. He will say if he is in pain or if he does not like something. Physically, he is growing taller and leaner. Co-ordination is improving; he can now walk backwards upstairs without wobbling (done under supervision of mother). Changes have been gradual and subtle over 4 years, 6 monthly assessments have been useful to see progress more clearly. History Birth was normal, but from the age of three there was concern about delayed development. Amer was 6 when a diagnosis of Autistic Spectrum Disorder was made. Interests Amer is obsessed with cars, he also enjoys his food. Education Schooling started part time at a mainstream Junior School with a support worker. This was supplemented at home with two tutors giving ABA (applied behaviour approach) and the listening programme. His parents were anxious as to how Amer would cope with Middle School in autumn 2010. Amer now attends a Mainstream middle school full time with the help of a support worker. Teachers are pleased with his progress in language and social skills. He is talking and interacting very well with family and teachers but still tends to ignore his fellow pupils. Presently he is showing interest in reading and how words are spelled. Speech and Occupational therapy Due to local government cuts, speech therapy hours were reduced so Amer's parents are now paying for private speech and occupational therapy. Nicky the O.T. highlighted the need for vestibular stimulation, as part of sensory needs to encourage brain development. Amer enjoys use of a specialist swing that swings and rotates. Nicky feels he would benefit from more of this stimulation. Supportive interventions other than Bowen Clinic 2006 Speech therapy 2007 Son–rise programme 2008 Parents Teaching Day to learn basic Bowen moves, for mother to augment treatment in clinic. 2009 Brainwave 2010 Private speech and Occupational therapy P.S. I have spoken with Nicky to explain the benefits of Bowen and discussed how we could work together to maximise Amer's progress i.e. TMJ. Reference:
[69] |
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What complaint(s) or symptom(s) brought you to the Bowen Technique: Sleepless autistic toddler Case Study: My neighbour's three year old daughter, Fran, had never slept through the night. In fact she had never slept for more than four hours at a time since she was born, and then she would be awake for at least six hours. Her parents had to take shifts in order to stay awake with her during the night. As you can imagine they were desperate. They had consulted doctors, paediatricians, psychologists and nutritionists, but no-one could find a way to adjust these disastrous sleeping patterns. Fran was very late in walking and is still in nappies. She has very limited speech; the most frequent word she says is Nina the name of our cat, whom she adores. She has recently been diagnosed as autistic. I had offered to give her a Bowen many months ago to see if it might help with her walking, but her mother wanted to finish the course of physiotherapy that had been prescribed. I wasn't aware of the disastrous sleep patterns until recently. Last June she sat very restlessly on her mother's knee, and I managed to do Pages 1 (over her rather thick nappy) 2 and 3. After the first few moves she became less restless. That night she woke only twice but went straight back to sleep again. The following nights she slept only four hours as usual. Five days later she sat on my knee for Pages 1, 2, 3, hamstring moves (4 - 6 only), spider and headache moves. She was very relaxed and calm. That night she woke only once for a few minutes, the following night she slept for 14 hours! Her parents kept checking that she was still breathing! The following day she wasn't grumpy at all - for the first time ever. Thereafter she slept through the night for 10 - 12 hours, occasionally waking but going straight back to sleep again. I treated her again five days later: Pages 1, 2, 3, coccyx (over nappy) and spider. It was not until two months later in August that she had a sleepless night again, but it was during the heat wave. The following day I did Pages 1, 2, 3 and spider and she has slept well each night since then. Reference:
[68] |
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Testimonial of your Bowen Therapy experience (how have you benefitted?): David has autism and is 7 years old. He likes school and is good playing with his little sister. He is better than average at Maths and is good at English. Top marks in spelling. He is not so good at football and can ride a bike with stabilizers. He sleeps OK sometimes. Sometimes he wakes his parents and then he sleeps with them. (Has nightmares sometimes due to things on TV. His mum cannot think what.) She tries to keep him off a lot of things so he is a fussy eater and only eats limited things. He struggles on sequencing and imagination. He can get tearful over things he can do – his mum calls him a stress head. He is better with adults. He had to move schools due to issues with friends. He has sensory issues – he can get over excited in a swarm of midges. He hates bright lights in supermarkets and can get anxious if starting something new. Has good eye contact. He has asthma – from summer to autumn he will get a cough. If he gets a cough the rest of the year it will go to his chest. Feels it's linked to his asthma and stress. He uses a preventative and has been in hospital with his asthma. He has a nut allergy – throat goes tight and asthma kicks in. He can get very emotional. David's mum writes after 3 Bowen treatments: "My son found the Bowen technique to be very gentle and relaxing. My son was fidgety throughout. However he did become more relaxed and settled during the sessions. When the technique was used on my sons head/scalp, this calmed him the most. The Bowen helped my son to focus on the lovely meditation CD that Marie Hurst played. The CD was age appropriate and my son's imagination was aided. He even said he felt like he was flying like the birds, after one session. "Overall the effects of the Bowen technique were that my son seemed to be more emotional/sensitive following such relaxation. It seemed to make him more aware of his feelings. He was very loving and sensory immediately after, possibly even more unsettled for a while. Longer term I think my son would benefit from a release in some of his stress and anxiety. My son has learned a lot of coping mechanisms to enable him to attend mainstream school but relaxation is needed to balance all this effort. "Normally during a cold my son would require the use of his asthma inhaler. However Marie Hurst applied the asthma based moves to my son and during the following week no inhaler was required. When no work was done for asthma we had to use my son's inhaler three times, despite the cold getting better. My son and I found Marie Hurst to be a very good therapist to visit. "My son does not generally like clinical environments or places that make him feel overly pressured. My son enjoyed the comfortable environment of Marie Hurst's home and loved the calm attention he received there." Reference:
MAR-09 [67] |
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Testimonial of your Bowen Therapy experience (how have you benefitted?): Christopher is 9 years old and has Autism. He can get stressed at times, sometimes he can't cope with people, finds them tricky. He likes classical music. He has no problem sleeping. He has a support worker at school. If he can't get things right straight away he gives up, which leads to stress and outbursts of crawling round the room. He has a little outburst most days. He has very poor finer motor skills – for a 9 year old he is 4-5 years behind. Also immature gross motor skills. Swimming and riding a bike are very difficult. Reading – is in year 4 but is really year 6. His best progress is Maths. Handwriting is very poor. He goes trampolining once a week and swimming twice a week. During the Bowen treatment he can range from being fidgety to very fidgety. After 3 Bowen treatments his mother writes… "Christopher started to attend the Bowen Technique after Marie came to give us a talk at Bolton Kidz2gether. She talked about the research into Bowen technique with autistic children. Christopher was diagnosed with autism aged 6 and displays a number of difficulties associated with the disability. "Initially Christopher was anxious about receiving the technique and did not want to attend. After the first session Christopher left stating "It was nice" and that he would go back again. "Since then Christopher has attended several more times. Below are the benefits we have noticed as a family. Christopher leaves the session feeling relaxed. He is notably calmer – managing his emotions better. He is managing change a little better – being able to talk through reasons why rather than just reacting. He is more loving – he is cuddling and kissing us more." Christopher comes usually every week (for the last 3 months) and he is a joy to work with. His mum feels he is doing really well and lots of people have commented to her how he has improved. He used to go from 0-10 when reacting to something but is now a lot calmer and doesn't react as much or as quick. Reference:
APR-09 [66] |
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What complaint(s) or symptom(s) brought you to the Bowen Technique: Background Ben has autism. He is 11 years old. He is good at Maths but not so good at English. His co-ordination for football is good but he cannot tie his shoelaces or ride a bike, and is poor using a knife and fork. He can get aggravated with his mum and sisters. This happens everyday. He likes his dad more. His sisters are 14 and 4. Ben gets bossed about by them. He is OK at school. He thinks he is fairly confident. Testimonial of your Bowen Therapy experience (how have you benefitted?): June 2009 Ben has just been for his 6th Bowen treatment and by the end of the session which I finish by holding his head after Howard Plummer's face and head moves, he is fast asleep and snoring. Ben's mother writes… "Since Ben has been having the Bowen treatments, he has learned to relax more. He has a more relaxed approach to his day to day activities. He is more loving towards myself, and he starts conversations with me, (usually about school) whereas before he was unwilling to communicate with me. I have definitely noticed an improvement regarding his communication and interactivity. "His relationship with his older sister has become more bearable. He will talk to her now about his homework and computer stuff, etc. At school he has had the confidence to join the form football team and enter the football competition. Ben said "he enjoyed it when he closed his eyes and relaxed"! (Sorry, but unless it involves football, he is a man of few words)!!" Reference:
T2, APRIL 2009 [65] |
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What complaint(s) or symptom(s) brought you to the Bowen Technique: Autism Testimonial of your Bowen Therapy experience (how have you benefitted?): My son Charlie has Regressive Atypical Autism and other complex needs. He find it hard to stay calm and has poor sleep patterns. Charlie is now 7 years old and his sleep has been improved dramatically since he began Bowen. Reference:
01128-05-11 [64] |
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What complaint(s) or symptom(s) brought you to the Bowen Technique: Autism Testimonial of your Bowen Therapy experience (how have you benefitted?): My son Charlie has regressive atypical autism and other complex needs. He finds it hard to stay calm and has poor sleep patterns. Charlie is now 7 years old and his sleep has improved dramatically since he began Bowen. Reference:
01417-3-13 [63] |