With dogs in the bluebells

ABR Therapy

Advanced Bio-Mechanical Rehabilitation is a bio-mechanically based approach used to treat spinal injury (amongst other serious neurological conditions such as cerebral palsy and brain injury).

ABR is different from all other methods of treating spinal injury. It does not employ conscious muscular effort, as in conventional physiotherapy, nor does it use surgical intervention, drugs or stem cells. Instead we employ bodywork techniques to address the structure of the body.

ABR recognizes that nerve damage is rarely a barrier to recovery and instead sees the depletion in intrinsic capacity as the essence of the condition. It is this structural capacity of the body that we seek to rebuild as the basis of recovery.

 

In the following video I talk more about ABR

 

 

ABR Therapy was invented by Leonid Blyum and from small beginnings, in the year 2000, it has spread to be a worldwide movement, with centres and groups in many countries.

There are no quick fixes to paraplegia and ABR does not claim to be a miracle cure. It is a way of health, and an approach to life, that allows for steady and predictable improvements in the condition. Changes are seen in hundreds of hours of work and it is important to put in sufficient hours each week to make progress.

Paralysis is instantaneous upon injury, but paraplegia is the condition that results not just from paralysis, but from the structural depletion that slowly takes place in the weeks following injury. I did not begin with ABR Therapy until more than four years after injury and so have had many ingrained changes to overcome. Had I begun immediately after injury, then the task would have been somewhat less challenging and progress faster.