Therapies

Eurythmy Therapy

The art of eurythmy is the expression of speech and music in movement. This form of movement was initiated and developed by Rudolf Steiner in the early 1900s. Eurythmy is described as visible speech or visible song. When a person expresses thoughts and feelings by way of speech, the larynx and related speech organs perform intricate, fine movements that are specific for each single vowel or consonant in language. In eurythmy these movements are transformed into movements executed by the whole human being, especially the arms and legs.

Eurythmy as therapy is developed from artistic eurythmy. The eurythmy gestures and movements are modified, intensified and are exercised repeatedly, whereby they stimulate healing, restore balance, work on correcting deformation and malfunction and have a beneficial effect on the harmony between body, soul, and spirit. In addition, rhythms, walking geometric forms, and exercises with copper balls and rods can be used.

In relation to those with special needs, eurythmy therapy can also address a wide variety of developmental problems. For instance, children or young people who are hyperactive or lack motivation, who have obsessive fixations or chaotic thinking patterns, who have speech difficulties, or problems of balance, mobility, dexterity, co-ordination or spatial orientation can be helped. Eurythmy as therapy enables the child or young person to become more receptive.

Eurythmy as therapy takes place on an individual basis. The length and frequency of the sessions generally last 15-25 minutes and take place 2-3 times per week. A course of eurythmy therapy lasts at least one term and can continue throughout the school year.

Therapeutic Art

Therapeutic art includes activities like painting, clay modelling and drawing of various kinds. The art practitioner aims to help give order and expression to the child or young person’s life of feeling. As physical well-being and emotional life are closely connected, therapeutic art can help pupils feel more at ease in their feelings, body and surroundings.

The therapeutic work is not used analytically. Individual artistic exercises are identified, based on what has been observed in the sessions using the therapeutic possibilities of colour, form, stories and images. Imbalance brought about through illness can be addressed through the artistic activities indicated above.

Particular colours are used in different situations but the therapeutic approach is always addressed to the individual concerned. Most colour work is based on the laws inherent in the rainbow or spectrum, and is important in supporting the development of the individual's imagination. Clay work can help strengthen concentration and will activity, which may be diminished through illness.

Many special needs can be addressed through this therapeutic activity, including both physical illnesses and emotional disturbances. Therapeutic art can help alleviate symptoms associated with anxiety, hyperactivity, autistic tendencies, rigidity of thought or movement, and obsessive tendencies.

Sessions are normally once or twice weekly and the duration of the therapeutic work is dependent on the individual need.

Therapeutic Music

Therapeutic music is an artistic/therapeutic activity in which musical instruments and voice are used to address a broad range of disturbances and imbalances.

Melody, pitch, intervals, rhythm, beat harmony and tone quality all provide dynamics which work deeply on the human being in specific ways. The task of the therapeutic practitioner is to compose, design and improvise from these elements according to the perceived needs of the individual.

Therapeutically designed wind and percussion instruments are used, as well as more conventional orchestral instruments. In addition to this range of instruments is a modern form of the lyre. Its clarity and warmth of tone give special emphasis to an inward-listening quality. Recorded sound is not used in this therapy.

A wide spectrum of special needs can be addressed by this therapeutic activity. A partial list might include autism, epilepsy, hyperactivity, motivational disturbances and asthma. Developmental disturbances and conditions related to emotional and psychological distress can also be helped.

For individual treatment the sessions usually last between 15-20 minutes, once or twice a week for a minimum of one term. The child or young person's programme includes active or passive participation (listening, playing, singing and moving) according to their needs.

Rhythmical Massage

Rhythmical Massage Therapy was developed in the 1920s by Dr Ita Wegmann, a medical doctor also schooled in physiotherapy and massage therapy, building on the principles of Anthroposophy.

It is a therapeutic form of massage using a gentle rhythmical quality of touch. The oils and ointments used for the massage are individually prescribed by a doctor.

Rhythmical Massage Therapy harmonises the child/young person’s breathing, eases muscle tensions and increases the well-being of the child/young person. The physical and emotional development of the child is supported through strengthening of healthy rhythmical processes within the body, e.g. sleeping-waking and functioning of the digestive system.

It is also helpful for: sleep disturbances, respiratory conditions especially asthma, headaches of various origins, constipation and metabolic disturbances, rheumatic disorders and neurological conditions.

A massage session lasts from 5 to 30 minutes and is followed by a therapeutic rest. A course of massage sessions is usually given once or twice a week for one term.

Equine-Assisted Therapy

Equine-Assisted Therapy started at Camphill School in the early 1970s and initially developed from the ‘Classical Art of Riding’. It seeks to enhance selected qualities of the participant and achieves a therapeutic effect in areas of weakness. The application of riding as therapy can cover a very wide spectrum of disabilities from physical to social and developmental.

From the beginning, therapeutic riding activities at Camphill School developed from insights gained through Anthroposophy. Furthermore, knowledge from medicine, pedagogy, sport and other therapies was applied. This has led to individually structured programmes for each child. From this basis a few children or young people progress to riding skills or activities in small groups as an enhancement for their further development.

Now the riding school and yard is led by a qualified Riding Instructor, trained in the therapeutic aspects of equine-assisted therapies. Practically, a multidimensional approach is applied, including ground work: grooming, equine care, stable management, feeding and the understanding of animal behaviour. Other aspects of the therapy address motor co-ordination and sensory integration programmes, and therapeutic activity specifically directed towards emotional and social rebalancing and the enhancement and building of self esteem, confidence and self regulation, and additionally the actual activity of skilled riding. Also, this therapy involves contact with another living entity, which is important as many children or young people with additional needs struggle to differentiate between the living world and the world of objects.

Equine-Assisted Therapy can be prescribed in order to improve, stimulate or enhance the senses of smell, warmth, movement and balance; help establish dominance, correct posture and body position; give the experience of anterior, posterior and laterality; help develop self confidence and experience of self. The different rhythms of the walk, trot and canter provide physiotherapy, regulate breathing (for asthma and speech impairments), and help counteract depression. Bareback riding enhances contact with the horse and prompts direct transfer of warmth, which provides relaxation for spasticity and hypertonia.

CHILD-CENTRED NON-DIRECTIVE PLAY THERAPY AND THERAPEUTIC PLAY APPROACHES

Through the medium of play, children are able to express their inner feelings and emotions and, in an imaginative, safe way, act out their concerns and fantasies. They are able to build bonds and relationships which enhance their overall development, including physical, cognitive, language and communication, social and emotional, and spiritual.

Child-Centred Non-Directive Play Therapy:

Play Therapy aims to bring about the emotional and social growth of the child in a balanced way. It seeks to harmonise the child's experience of self with the child's experience and relation to the environment. Also, the child is able to explore his emotions through play and to explore his own unconscious experiences. The child can then achieve growth of self through acceptance and reflection. The therapist reflects back to the child aspects of the play process that leads to the development of greater self-awareness in the child. This therapy is provided by qualified Play Therapists.

A range of Therapeutic Play Activities including Therapeutic Play and Intensive Interaction:

Therapeutic Play aims to facilitate the child's development through increasing physical skills, emotional and social growth, and language and understanding. Therapeutic Play is a directive play process that leads the child systematically through the normal phases of development.

Intensive Interaction aims to facilitate the initial building of relationship and communication between two individuals. It replicates the relational process which is developed in the first year of life between an infant and their main carer as the basis for bonding and the development of social relating and understanding of the world. The therapy sessions are usually held once a week but individual children may require more sessions per week. The sessions last up to one hour depending on the needs and abilities of the child. The duration of each therapy is rarely less than six months and might continue for one or more years.

Therapeutic Baths

Therapeutic baths can be divided into several groups:

• Oil dispersion baths
• Substance baths
• Footbaths

A therapeutic bath has many benefits. It stimulates the body’s warmth, improves poor blood circulation and boosts the immune system. The bath encourages the child/young person to feel well within their own body.

The bath is filled with water at body temperature and the substance added or dispersed through a special apparatus. The child/young person is immersed in the water for 10–20 minutes, allowing the skin to absorb the substances.
The substance, usually oil, is individually prescribed by a doctor.

After the bath the child/young person is wrapped in a warm sheet and blankets, resting for up to an hour.
Normally a course of baths is given once or twice a week for one term.

Anthroposophic Therapeutic Speech (ATS)

ATS is an artistic therapy developed from Creative Speech – an art of speaking which has developed from the principles of Anthroposophy.

The therapy combines elements from creative speech such as rhythms, content, breath, sound quality and gesture with the principles of Anthroposophic healthcare. These are applied to help the child, young person or adult address imbalances stemming from pathological, emotional or developmental disturbances, as well as address speech disorders and disturbances in speech development. The therapeutic practitioner aims to harmonise speech through specific exercises combined with movement and stylistic elements of poetry.

This therapeutic activity can help numerous special needs including stuttering and lisping, aphasia, breathing disorders, panic/anxiety disorder, epilepsy and hyperactivity. ATS also addresses psychological and physical disorders that weaken the individual’s experience of self such as depression, shyness, trauma, addiction and sexual abuse.

The sessions are generally half an hour long and take place once or twice per week for a minimum of one term.

Physiotherapy

Physiotherapy services are provided for children or young people with severe physical, as well as psychological disabilities.

Physiotherapy benefits children or young people not only physically but also in other important areas, such as self-confidence and communication skills.

Helping the child or young person achieve beneficial postures, positions of movement and handling may be integrated into their activities of daily living in order that physiotherapy might not be seen as an isolated therapy session but as being relevant to their everyday life.

Regular supervision in relation to orthotic appliances is carried out, including attendance with children or young people at hospital appointments.

The physiotherapist works with the child or young person on a one-to-one basis in a physiotherapy room. This provides a secure and peaceful environment that helps them to relax and maintain concentration.
Sessions are normally twice weekly and last for 40 minutes.

Therapeutic Councelling

This therapeutic activity has developed out of the need of some children or young people to participate in a therapeutic process of helpful/healing conversations. Through talking and listening, one is not only able to share concerns, but also search for ways to learn and, with encouragement, grow stronger. Through this it is hoped to bring about greater awareness of self and self-expression. Specific areas of conflict may be explored as appropriate. Questions of relationships to self and others may be explored with the aim of developing a sense of responsibility, and improving one’s self image and the quality of personal life.

Sessions are normally between 40 minutes to an hour in length and take place weekly. The duration of this therapeutic activity is dependent on individual need.

Therapeutic Speech / Eurythmy Therapy

In this group therapeutic activity combining speech and eurythmy, non-speaking children or young people passively participate in an artistic therapy that can stimulate in them the potential to use their organs of speech.

By hearing speech, the listener's larynx and related speech organs perform intricate and fine movements which are specific for each single vowel or consonant in language. In eurythmy these movements are transformed into movements executed by the whole human being. In this way the intricate, fine movements of the larynx and related speech organs of the non-speaking child can be subtly encouraged into activity.

Where normally eurythmy is accompanied by speech in a synchronised wholeness, this therapeutic activity separates the two, allowing the child to hear the spoken word followed by seeing its corresponding movement performed in eurythmy. The child or young person can then concentrate and focus on one sense impression at a time, thus producing a calming effect which can help them to internalise the movements of speech.

The children or young people watch and listen to single sounds being spoken. They then watch the corresponding eurythmy movements that are executed in silence. From single sounds they are led to listening to the beginning of the St John's Gospel and then watching the corresponding eurythmy movements, again executed in silence. Listening to a poem that is spoken and acted concludes the therapeutic activity.

The sessions are generally 15 minutes long, one to three times per week. The block of sessions lasts at least one school term.

Therapeutic Exercises

The therapeutic exercises are provided as a therapeutic measure for children with degrees of movement, balance and co-ordination problems, sensory issues, or both.

The practitioner seeks the child’s own motivation and engagement in activities that benefit the child’s balance, movement control and confidence.

The activity rate depends on the child’s needs, and rest or an especially relaxing ‘activity’ may be incorporated.
Through engaging in activities, the child experiences his/her body-scheme and improves sense of space, whilst learning related skills.

Language and communication (also rhymes/songs as appropriate), and feedback/feed forward are used throughout the sessions. Every step is recognised and celebrated.

Through ‘multi tasking’, the active child can be helped to make ‘automatic’ basic body skills, which may otherwise interfere with daily learning and life functions.

With some, work is done towards learning to handle over-sensitivities and towards relaxing high stress levels, e.g. through learning appropriate self-regulation techniques.

The practitioner works with the child on a one–to–one basis which ensures peace and a protected space to help relaxedness and attention. The sessions take place in a room equipped with mats, body-balls, and various equipment that can be suspended as needed.

30-40 minute sessions are given once or twice weekly, usually throughout several terms.

The practitioner is a Camphill staff member who regular supervision.

Qualifications:
BA/Cur. Ed (2006) (Aberdeen), PG Dip/Autism (2003) (Strathclyde),
PG Cert/(Foundation course) Sensory Integration (2008) (Cardiff).
Two 4 and 5-day professional training workshops in Sensory Integration (2005, 2008).

Listening Space Therapeutic Activity

Listening space is a group therapeutic activity involving music and eurythmy movements. The music is played on a recorder and a modern lyre. The clarity and warmth of tone produced by the lyre gives special emphasis to an inward-listening quality.

The art of eurythmy makes speech visible through movement. The musical elements of beat, rhythm, melody, pitch and intervals are expressed with arm movements and movements in space.

The therapeutic activity begins with the element of rhythm. The child or young person moves forwards to lively, quick music which is then gradually brought into balance by moving backwards to slow music. As the latter becomes more dominant, stillness is achieved. They then sit down and listen to a piece of lyre music, composed especially to help harmonise breathing. To conclude the therapeutic activity the child or young person moves their arms to the pitch of the melody. This requires a degree of concentration that has been developed through the previous activities in the therapy.

Listening space is mainly for children or young people who are restless and hyperactive, but can also be beneficial for those who are easily over stimulated by sensory impressions.

Ideally listening space takes place in the morning, before school begins, to help the child or young person gain concentration and receptiveness. The sessions take place one to four times per week and last for one term, although they can be extended throughout the whole school year.

Colour Light Treatment

Colour, movement and sound work together to form a therapeutic activity that is calming and harmonising and, if necessary, stimulating.

Shadows are produced on a screen by channelling daylight through coloured acetate sheeting. Behind this screen, movements and gestures are formed, giving a changing coloured display that can be synchronised to music and speech.
Colour light treatment can be beneficial for a variety of disturbances. The treatment harmonises sense impressions and breathing processes, it soothes restlessness, induces relaxation and helps alleviate emotional stress. The quality of peace and harmony can then be carried into daily life.
Sessions are usually 10-15 minutes, twice weekly.