S

G BRAIN GYM WITH PEOPLE

HO HAVE PARKINSON'S

DISEASE

/0 Anna Shaw, Oregon, U.S.A.

an Brain Gym help my speech?" This was the question
posed to me by an elder in a local retirement community.
Parkinson's disease is a degenerative disorder of the
central nervous system that often impairs the subject's motor
kills and speech. Bill had been diagnosed with the disease thireen years before, and he had other health challenges that
required him to receive twenty-four-hour professional care.
Bill had heard about Brain Gym@through his leadership role
on the resident council that approved expenditures within
retirement community. Seeking to train caregivers and
tial assistants in the B .
program. with a goal 0
ing falls. I had recen
presentation to the adJi11iIristra
tors. Bill had recei\
one of
my brochures and a copy of a
Brain Gym- Journal'
entitled "Lifelong Leaming- (July
2005, Volume XIX, o. _) for
his review.
Brain
Gym,
like the
Educational Kinesiology system of which it is a part, is a
JoAnna Shaw
movement -based educational
model. Its instructors and consultants do not diagnose, treat, or
attempt to cure any medical condition. We seek to support individuals in noticing the correlation between their goals (or
absence of goals) and their daily patterns of movement.
Through a five-step balance process, we help them learn new,
more effective patterns of movement.
Bill asked to meet with me to explore whether Brain Gym
could help him regain his vocal tone and enunciation. He had
completed a series of physical and speech therapies, but was
still struggling to be heard and understood. Parkinson's can
affect swallowing, and hence the speech, as it progresses, and
Bill had been told that there was nothing more to be done. So
~Can Brain Gym help my speech?" was his first question to me,
translated by his caregiver.
As I am careful not to make promises I can't keep, my answer
o Bill was, "I don't know. Many people have been able to reach
physical and mental goals with Brain Gym. I don't know if it
will help you unless we give it a try. One key to success is that
au be able to do your homeplay* activities every day, to reinorce the balances we'll do. It will help if I can train your care_' -ers to help you with the homeplay."
Bill committed to try out Brain Gym for a few sessions to see
how it would go. For his first half-dozen balances, we met once
and sometimes twice a week. In those initial balances, Bill
noticed he was quite dehydrated and that his breathing was

BRAIN

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reversed. (His diaphragm would contract rather than relax when

he breathed in.) I learned that he played the clarinet, and still
had one in his room. So playing his clarinet became Bill's perfect homeplay in order to practice his breathing. He was also to
sip water through a Krazy Straw, a device that reeducates the
sucking reflex.
I trained Bill's caregivers to assist him with his Brain Gym
homeplay. The following are excerpts from the notes that I
made during the fourth balance session, when Bill's voice came
forward.
THE FOURTH SESSIO : 9/6/06, 10 - 11 :30 A.M.
Bill chose to work on his voice today.
Pre_. _ . He lOId me a story about his dog, and demonhowl when Bill would hit high notes
cblriJJlet. His voice was breathy, his consoi
difficult to understand him. His
dido't like the sound of his voice.
He also p.
his clarinet. It was hard for him to produce a
sound, and there was no discernible melody. It sounded more
like playing a scale to warm up.
Learning Menu: Spinal Walking*, Navel Radiation*, and
Movement Reeducation* on feet and calves. His focus was to
relax the tendon guard reflex*.
Post-activity: Bill told me the same story about his dog. This
time he enunciated his consonants clearly, and I understood
every word. There was breath supporting his words. His eyes lit
up as he noticed the difference. He reported that the internal
sound was still not to his liking, although the external sound
was significantly different.
Compared to the conclusions of our prior balances, in which
his voice had become progressively less audible, for him to
have a strong voice at the end of the balance was a big shift.
Then Bill played his clarinet. It seemed difficult until he took a
sip of water, then the music started to flow. He played "It Had
to Be You" and smiled at his accompli hment. It was very
sweet. I felt serenaded.
During this session we played with the Energy Bal1 (a toy
with a battery that
THIS TIME HE ENUNCIATED HIS lights up and makes
a siren sound when
CONSONANTS CLEARlY, A D
two metal conductors are touched,
UNDERSTOOD EVERY WORD.
available from most
stores that sell science-based toys). In the three prior sessions,
he had not been able to get it to light up and make a sound.
After sipping about half a glass of water, this time he was finally
able to get the ball to light up and make its sound. Again he was
learning something about the importance of sipping water for
conducting the electrical energy in his body, and especial1y his
brain.
Besides playing his clarinet, Bill's homeplay was to do the
fol1owing self-help activities that emphasize relaxation of the
tendon guard reflex: the Foot Flex, the Owl, the Energy Yawn,
Bel1y Breathing, and a variation of the Energizer.

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2008

HAPPY DEVELOPMENTS
After sixteen meetings over a period of LX months, Bill
wrote a nice testimonial letter in support of the retirement center
training caregivers and residential - istants in Brain Gym. In
his letter, Bill said, "I have worked bard in this program. It bas
improved my speaking, strength.
<pJalityof life. I recommend it."
As a result of our work. I
giYen a contract to train eight
certified nurse's assistan and residential aides in the health
center (the nursing home Bill was in) and four caregivers in the
special care center (the secured facility for elders with dementia and Alzheimer. ).
It was about a year ago that Bill did his last balance with me.
I have stayed in
h with him through this past year, and am
glad to say that he and his caregivers are doing well in sustaining the progress he achieved.
In the meantime, word of our work, and the work of the staff
members who took Brain Gym@ 101 with me in January of
200 . spread within the community. Bill gave me approval to
tell his tory so he could continue to help others, something he
has been doing all his life. I am grateful for his courage to
explore the work, and for the doors that opened as a result of
his leadership and support.

am

A NEW GROUP

OF PARKINSON'S

PATIENTS

BECOMES INTERESTED IN BRAIN GYM

Bill's story inspired curiosity in about 25 percent of the other
SOPSG members. They felt motivated to explore whether they,
too, could find relief and hope. Prior to hearing about Bill's
accomplishments, they'd had only the dire prognosis of continued deterioration, increasing medications with complicated
side effects, and a new surgical procedure called deep brain
stimulation (DBS) as the only possible solution to control the
symptoms of this debilitating disease.
In the spring of 2007, the head of the Southern Oregon
Parkinson's Support Group (SOPSG), a resident of the same
retirement community as Bill, was talking with one of the
administrators. He had heard what happened for Bill, along
with other stories that were circulating about residents whose
caregivers had used Brain Gym to assist them with dressing,
walking, transferring from a bed to a chair, or participating in a
group exercise program.
And so it happened that, a few days after my presentation to
the SOPSG, I was invited to work with those members who
wanted to experience the Brain Gym work for themselves. They
wanted to see if Brain Gym balances could improve the quality
of life of those living with Parkinson's disease.
I said that I could work with up to sixteen members, and recommended that these individuals and their caregivers begin
with a twelve-hour workshop. In this workshop, I would introduce them to Brain Gym, explain why and how to do some
Brain Gym homeplay, and talk about the value of the privatesession process known as the Edu-K in Depth balance*. At the
end, those individuals with Parkinson's diagnoses would be
given an opportunity to enroll in a six-month series often Edu-K
in Depth balances. (Again, I considered caregiver participation

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to be important, since the caregivers would playa pivotal role

in the success of those members using Brain Gym at home.)
The workshop was structured as four three-hour days within a
one-week time frame. I would be assisted by three of my previous Brain Gym students, who would provide to the participants
any needed help with the movements.
Fifteen people started the program, and ten completed it. The
ages of the participants ranged from sixty-five to ninety, and
each person completed a self-assessment before and after their
series of individual balances. In their initial balance, I asked
them to rate themselves on a scale of I to 10, noticing the following
categories that we used as a baseline for measuring change:
breathing, physical balance, mental balance, emotional balance,
reading, writing, seeing, hearing, speaking, memory, focus,
quality oflife, physical mobility, measures of Parkinson's symptoms (tremors, dyskinesia or distortion in performing voluntary
movements, "freezing," rigidity), and measures of self-maintenance
ability (toileting, eating, dressing, grooming, and bathing).
The designations of "poor," "many," and "dependent" were
on the I end of the scale, and "excellent," "none," and "independent" were on the 10 end. At the conclusion of the program,
we measured the changes from before to after and the amount
of change in each category for each individual was tallied.
Those with a cumulative change greater than 20 (four people)
were considered as having made significant improvements,
those who scored between 10 and 20 (five people) were considered as having made moderate improvements, and those
with a cumulative change between I and 10 (one person) were
considered as having made some improvements.
This is a tally of the participants' self-assessments of their
changes in twenty-two categories:
The greatest overall reported gains were in breathing and
mental balance, with a cumulative score of more than
twenty in each of these categories
The second greatest gains were in physical balance, emotional balance, writing, quality of life, tremors, "freezing,"
rigidity, and physical mobility, with a cumulative score
between ten and twenty in each of these categories
The third greatest gains were in the areas of reading, seeing, hearing, speaking, memory, focus, dyskinesia, and
self-maintenance, with a cumulative score between minus
one (in dyskinesia) and ten in each of these categories

THE INDIVIDUAL
BALANCES
I approached each session using the protocol of the Edu-K in
Depth balance. Each participant established an overall goal for
the series as well as a specific goal for each balance. I used
muscle checking* (the muscle indicators for the Three
Dimensions*) to help the participants notice how different preand post-activities* would affect their muscle balance and how
choosing activities from a learning menu* and doing Brain
Gym homeplay would help them create and sustain bilateral
muscle balance. These elders were learning how their thoughts,

- MARCH

2008

feelings, and physical sensations differed depending on their

focus. This was helpful to them as, at the start of the program,
many had encountered difficulty accessing the self-awareness
required for noticing.
In the pre- and post-activities and learning menu, I taught
about differentiating the Puppet (one-sided or homolateral)
movement from the Cross Crawl (contralateral) movement.
Here they learned about relaxing their reflex into one-sided
movement (arm and leg automatically move at the same time on
the same side of the body) so that their contralateral core postural movement pattern might be restored and active when they
chose to walk, write, read, or use other life skills. Every participant preferred the Puppet movement when starting the program and when under stress. Again, the muscle checking
helped them learn about relaxing muscles for the Puppe IDO\'ement and activating muscles for the Cross Crawl.
I noticed that many of the participants' automatic movemen
were similar to the developmental reflexes I see in children and
adults with learning and other stress-related challenges, except
more pronounced. In particular, these participants often had a
high degree of reactivity between the movements of their eyes
and of their body (a developmental reflex known as the asymmetrical tonic neck reflex or ATNR). When I would ask someone to follow the movement of an object with her eyes, it was
not unusual for her arm or leg to follow the same path.
In most balances, the learning menu included Dennison
Laterality Repatterning,
Three-Dimension
Repatterning*,
Homolateral
Reflex
Repatterning*,
or Total
Core
Repatterning*. Navel
Radiation*
before
THESE ELDERS WERE LEARNING
repatterning
also
proved
a helpful
learning menu item.
In my experience the
repatteming processes,

HOW

THEIR THOUGHTS,

FEELINGS,
SENSATIONS

AND

PHYSICAL

DIFFERED

unique
to
Brain
DEPENDING
ON THEIR FOCUS.
Gym@ and Edu-K,
have the greatest success in allowing the movement of the eyes
to differentiate from the movement of the body and letting less
effort be used in such activities as reading, writing, and walking. Those who experienced some degree of this differentiation
after several balances that included repatterning were the same
individuals who seemed to make the best progress toward their goals.
At the start of each session, we would explore through muscle checking how well, after doing their homeplay, the participants could sustain relaxed muscles for the Puppet movement
and looking at parallel lines and active muscles for the Cross
Crawl and looking at an X.
One thing that I explained in the very beginning was that,
when we do a balance, all parts of the brain begin to cooperate.
This means that the various areas of the brain (for thinking,
feeling, action, and so on) can function more effectively as a
unit. Generally, patterns in pre-activities show an imbalance
toward thinking too much or reflexive action, with little connection to feelings. So those who allow their feelings to come

10

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up in the balance process are (and were, among these participants) the most successful in achieving their goals.
POSITIVE FEEDBACK
Many heartwarming testimonials came from the SOPSG
project. Even during the introductory workshop, many caregivers said that they noticed changes in the walking gait of their
loved ones. Some participants who had shuffled their feet and
walked as if falling forward began picking up their feet and
transferring their weight from one foot to the other.
One caregiver called me to say, "Tom would not be walking
today without your program." Tom had been completely
dependent for all of his self-care needs. Before the Brain Gym
program. he couldn't lift his arm more than an inch on his own.
After a fe\\' sesSlODS.be was walking, dressing himself, feeding
the garbage!
One
described as "debilitating fatigue"
before the progralIIl. HeI' energy level was so low that she was
unable to spend
m
time with friends as she would have
liked. She strug ed to _ her hair in the morning, and had to
use a wheelchair to hop. Ye her energy began to shift from the
first day of the "Introduction to Brain Gym" workshop. At the
end of the workshop she spoke up, saying, "I was a skeptic."
She told the story of how hard it had been to dry her hair and
how this had changed after the first day of the workshop. In her
last balance session, she shared how she had recently walked
through the Colorado Airport without a wheelchair and how she
could now enjoy shopping at Macy's with a friend.
LAVONA'S STORY
Another participant, La Vona, experienced such significant
changes that she actually assisted in the second twelve-hour
Brain Gym workshop that I gave for the SOPSG Phase 2 group.
La Vona has recommended Brain Gym to other people in her
community who have a Parkinson's diagnosis. She wrote a testimonialletter about what she had noticed in herself and others,
and told me she would be happy to have her name, as well as
excerpts from her letter, used in this article.
I was a participant in the Brain Gym sessions for Parkinson s
patients and their caregivers. The first day. I saw expressions of
helplessness and depression. The second day. frowns were
replaced by smiles. Patients who could not talk the day before
began talking. A patient who could not lift his arms without
help was lifting his arms by himself. Patients were feeling positive effects from Brain Gym. A cheerful ftelingfilled
the room.
We set goals on the second day. Parkinson s had affected my
handwriting. and I wanted to be able to write larger and more
legibly. On that very day. my handwriting improved. I have continued having private Brain Gym sessions with 10 Anna. Some
of my goals have been:
1. More energy and endurance so I could accomplish
more at home
2. More ability to comprehend directions
3. The ability to relax
4. More physical balance
5. An improved posture

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2008

I have progressed in all of these goals .. \(v endurance and

energy level has so improved thai Fill 1101 completely ahausted
when the clock shows L:30 p .. Even though Fm slcJl\; I
accomplish much more in lilY Itome. I also walk, garden. and
help care for our yard. DoiItg Bruin Gym has enabled me 10
function much better thall I
ill the past.
Following directions is
. ~ easier. My understanding is
improving, along l\ .
~:
My ability to relax is also
getting better. HOl\.
that is!
My balance
improved. I
up and dOl\
I also
and

cr

e noticed
positive
Jo Anna (right) and La rima formed
dumges
within
a good working relationship.
->'Self as I have
.vrked towards my goals. I have a long ways to go before my
goals are completely reached. But I'm excited about my progress.
I have learned that through our lives we establish patterns of
behavior in our brains. These patterns influence our physical
and mental health, however the negative behavior patterns can
be changed. They can be replaced with positive, healthy patterns
that will make our lives healthier, happier, and more productive.
A Sample of LaVona's Handwriting in October 2006,
Before the Brain Gym Workshop

La Vona's Handwriting After the Brain Gym Workshop

and Several Balances

As I write this article, three months after the end of LaVona's

SOPSG Brain Gym program, I can report to you that she has
been able to sustain her gains by doing her Brain Gym homeplay every day.
THE hE
E TS OF SUCCESS
The successful results achieved by the Parkinson's support
group participants were an outgrowth of their own desire and
ability to learn about their mind-body relationship and to grow
through the balance process. Educational Kinesiology was new
to them. Yet, with a leap of faith many were inspired enough to
sign up for the program.
In my introductory comments, I invited workshop participants to play with the activities and to detach from wanting to
change their Parkinson's symptoms. I also followed the drawing-out concept, saying, "Are you open to the possibility that
your prognosis might change? The mind is a very powerful
force in this process. If you believe you can or you can't, you
are right."
Many of them had previously surrendered to the "fate" they
saw others experience. Many had stopped setting goals, and I
encouraged them to choose a life-skill goal that they could
move toward.
There is a tendency to attribute the successes people achieve
in Brain Gym to the learning menu activities they used. And,
truly, repatterning did contribute much to these folks' success.
Yet their inspiration, their intention to find purpose in their life,
their willingness to show up for weekly or bi-weekly sessions,
to stick out the tough times when feelings and memories came
up, and to do the homeplay activities also greatly contributed to
their success.
There are Brain Gym~ Instructors all over the world, and
some in your own area will have a wealth of experience working with adults and children who had a variety of goals and a
variety of physical, mental, and emotional challenges. Go to
www.braingym.org to fmd an instructor or consultant in your
area. I encourage you to call and interview them to determine
if they have experience in helping people with similar challenges and goals to your own.
I gratefully acknowledge those who invested their time, facilities, and money in this program. I give thanks to those with
whom I had the pleasure and honor to facilitate balances. They
were as much my teachers as I was theirs. May the work we did
together bless the lives of many others, as well.
Jo Anna Shaw has been a licensed Brain Gym@instructor, an
Intention Mapping70 coach. and a workshop facilitator since
1993. She has a masters degree in business, and has been recognized by Brain Gym@ International with the Outstanding
Achievement Award for her contributions to the field of
Educational Kinesiology. Jo Anna facilitates private sessions
and workshops in Jacksonville, Southern Oregon, and has a
website at <www.masteryconsulting.com>.
She can be reached
by email at<Joanna@masteryconsulting.com>.
and by telephone at (541) 899-4447 ...

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2008

II