Adapting Alexander Technique for
People Living with Parkinson's and their
Care Partners
London Continuing Ed Training Day
for Alexander Technique Teachers & Trainees
DATE: Saturday , 3 February 2018
TIME: 9:00AM -5:00pm
LOCATION: St John’s Wood Church, Lord’s Roundabout, St John’s Wood, London NW8 7NE
Closest Tube: St. John's Wood Station ~ Jubilee line
Next closest: Baker Street Station ~ Metropolitan, Circle, Hammersmith & City, Bakerloo, Jubilee
COST: £135 AT teachers £100 AT trainees
REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED
Space is very limited.
www.thepoiseproject.org/teacher-training-london
The main objective of this course will be to learn about the particular needs of People Living with Parkinson's (PlwPD) and to suggest the most successful ways to apply Alexander principles when working with this population both in one-to-one and group settings.
You will learn about the motor and non-motor symptoms of PD as well as the wide variety of PD diagnosis.
Our focus will be on how AT can help PlwPD develop practical skills for self-management of motor symptoms affecting balance, gait and postural tone, including falls, freezing, forward neck posture, and slowed movement, as well as non-motor symptoms such as anxiety, apathy, low speech volume, swallowing, and sleep interruption.
AT can offer PlwPD hope and increase their confidence, independence, and overall quality of life. AT can help them chose optimal postural tone and improve their overall functioning during iADLs (instrumental activities of daily living).
For the second part of the training day, you will learn about the particular needs of care partners of PlwPD. AT can also give tremendous support and a more positive outlook for the spouses and other family members and care partners of PlwPD. Training care partners at the same time as their care receivers helps them be able to better cue PlwPD when cognitive decline may be present, which is a late stage aspect of PD. This training will focus on how to deliver AT in a way that gives practical ongoing skills for care partners to better take care of themselves as they navigate the special physical and emotional demands of caregiving. This training can be generalized to how AT can support care partners in many other caring situations as well, especially when the care receivers have cognitive decline. Outcomes will be shared from The Poise Project's current research study on "Partnering with Poise," an AT-based course for care partners that is being funded by the Parkinson's Foundation.
All training day participants will have the opportunity to practice with people living with Parkinson's and their care partners as part of this Saturday training day. Individuals from the local Parkinson's community are being invited to attend an hour and a half workshop with us during the training day. This will give teacher participants the opportunity to practice both one-to-one and group interactions and share and receive feedback from workshop participants.
As many training day certified teacher participants as we can accommodate will also be invited to take part as volunteer teachers in the public workshop the following day, on Sunday, 4 February, 2018, that Dan Shepherd and Monika Gross have organized as part of an international Alexander Technique for Parkinson's (AT4P) Awareness Day. Donations raised will go to The Walter Carrington Educational Trust for their AT for Parkinson's program.
For more information about the Sunday, 4 February 2018 public event, please contact Dan Shepherd by email at: danielshaershepherd@gmail.com
Please share this training day event on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1779528865676821/?active_tab=about
Constance Clare-Newman gives a tune up to a PlwPD at the Parkinson's Foundation Moving Day® Los Angeles in October 2017
Diana Glenn gives an AT tune up to a care partner at the Parkinson's Foundation Moving Day® Boston in October 2017
The training will be led by Monika Gross, Executive Director of The Poise Project, along with Glenna Batson ScD., PT and Research Consultant for The Poise Project. Daniel Shepherd will also speak about the AT4PD - Alexander Technique for Parkinson's International Awareness project.
We will be viewing two training videos of Dr. Maya Katz, a movement disorder specialist at UCSF, who is a collaborator in our teacher trainings in the US. The first covers basic information about all the stages and symptoms of Parkinson's and the areas that she feels AT can be of particular help. It will include illustrative video clips of particular patient cases. The second covers the special needs of care partners in the Parkinson's setting.
The Poise Project has partnered with Dr. Katz to set up a patient referral program for PlwPD to work with AT teachers in the Bay Area. Teachers who participate in this London training day will be considered to be trained to become part of a pool of teachers we will draw from for any similar patient referral projects and future AT-based group class programming that we are able to establish in the UK moving forward.
SCHEDULE: Saturday, 3 February 2018
9:00am-9:45am
Introductions
Background on The Poise Project (Monika Gross) and AT4P (Daniel Shepherd)
9:45am-12:15pm
Basic training for working with PlwPD
12:15pm-1:30pm
Basic training for working with Care Partners
(Not only specifically of PlwPD, but also the common physical and emotional demands on carers, especially in cases where care receivers have physical and cognitive decline)
1:30pm-2:30pm
Lunch break
2:30pm-4:00pm
An AT workshop for PlwPD and their care partners, where you will have an opportunity to work with local members of the Parkinson's community
4:00pm-5:00pm
Post-workshop debriefing discussion.
Questions & practice time.
Sharing of learning outcomes for the day
AT workshop led by Monika Gross at the Constructive Teaching Centre in London, October 2016
Some of the topics we will cover:
Definition of Parkinson's and symptoms
Current research in AT for PD
Report on THE POISE PROJECT AT for PD initiative and our targeted team presence at the 4th World Parkinson Congress in Portland OR in September 2016 as well as our continued broad outreach across the US. There were 4500+ international delegates at the WPC in Portland and we want the AT community to feel well prepared to meet the demand when interest in AT is successfully generated amongst this population and more funding is in place for subsidizing programs
How traditional AT educational methodology can be adapted for this population and some best practices as recommended by AT teachers with expertise in the field
How to include care partners to support learning and increase retention of AT principles for PwP, as well as to give them self-management skills to address the serious stresses of their own circumstances
Working with middle and late stage PwP, particularly when there is cognitive decline.
Emotional and psychological considerations when working with individuals with a degenerative disease, both for participants and for teachers
The realities of financial concerns when delivering AT for PwP and a discussion of how we can work together to find future solutions to removing barriers to access
How best to talk about AT to the medical care providers, allied health professionals, and research scientists that you may come in contact with in the field of Parkinson's disease and when advocating for AT for this population
MONIKA GROSS is Executive Director of The Poise Project, a nonprofit with the mission of maintaining natural poise and continuous personal growth throughout all stages and challenges of life through the principles of Alexander technique (AT).
The Poise Project is committed to removing barriers and making AT available across socio-economic groups and to those with chronic conditions. It received a $25,000 Parkinson's Foundation 2017 Moving Day® Community Grant to deliver "Partnering with Poise," an AT-based course for care partners of people living with Parkinson's disease, at six sites across North Carolina. We have just been awarded a second Parkinson's Foundation Moving Day® Community Grant for $10,000 to expand our "Partnering with Poise" care partner course to the Washington DC area in Fall 2018.
Monika had her first AT lesson in 1976 and was certified in 1985 in Lydia Yohay's (ACAT) teacher training program in NYC. She is a teaching member of the American Society for the Alexander Technique (AmSAT) and Alexander Technique International (ATI), as well as a member of the local regional AT teacher consortium Alexander Teachers of the Mountain Region (ATMR). She is also a Registered Somatic Movement Educator with the International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association (ISMETA). Monika holds a BFA in Drama from the North Carolina School of the Arts.
Monika is co-owner of Form Fitness & Functiona, and has a private AT practice in Asheville and in Charlotte NC. She also offers AT training via Skype or Zoom.
Email: monika.gross@thepoiseproject.org
Website: thepoiseproject.org
Phone: (USA) 1-828-254-3102 (EST)
Skype: thepoiseproject
GLENNA BATSON, ScD., MA, M.AmSAT, M.ISATT is a Research Consultant for The Poise Project. Glenna is a graduate of Hahnemann Medical University in Physical Therapy. She holds a Masters in dance education and received her doctorate in clinical neurology in 2006. Glenna certified as an Alexander technique instructor in 1989. For twenty-two years, she was a professor of physiotherapy (Masters and Doctor of Science) in America for the North Carolina State University system, where she pioneered a number of research projects in integrative medicine, studying the effects on balance of these different complementary approaches: Alexander Technique and motor imagery for the community elderly and elite dancers, and improvisational dance for Parkinson’s disease. She is Professor Emeritus at Winston-Salem State University and Research Associate Professor in Health & Exercise Science at Wake Forest University. A Fulbright Senior Specialist, Glenna completed residencies in dance science and Somatics at Trinity-Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, London, and the Universities of Tallinn and Tartu in Estonia. Her career has taken her down four intertwined paths: dance, body-mind education (Somatics), human movement science, and rehabilitation medicine. Seeing the art in science and the science in the arts, Glenna has written many articles to unify concepts from these distant disciplines as to ignite interest in the crossing tributaries of knowledge. In 2014, two of her books were published: Body and Mind in Motion: Dance and Neuroscience in Conversation and (as co-editor and contributor) Dance, Somatics and Spiritualities: Contemporary Sacred Narratives. Glenna has advocated for Alexander technique work for many years and has taught in over 13 countries worldwide. In 2015, she co-directed the 10th World Congress for the Alexander Technique at the University of Limerick in 2015. Glenna lives with her husband in Newbridge, Co. Kildaire, Ireland.
Email: glenna.batson@gmail.com
Phone: +353 085 2549010 (GMT)
Website: http://glennabatson.com/
CV: https://tinyurl.com/ya7xfbyr
Publications: http://glennabatson.com/articles/
DR. MAYA KATZ is an Assistant Professor of Neurology at the UCSF Movement Disorders and Neuromodulation Center. She specializes in the treatment of Parkinson's disease, essential tremor, dystonia and other movement disorders. Her research interests include identifying disease modification strategies and improving outcomes for patients treated with deep brain stimulation. She is also interested in developing multidisciplinary clinical approaches that incorporate palliative care principles.
Dr. Katz obtained her medical degree at Cornell University. She completed her residency in Neurology at Mount Sinai Medical Center, where she served as chief resident. She then completed her Movement Disorders Fellowship at UCSF in 2013. Dr. Katz is board certified in Neurology and is an active member of the American Academy of Neurology and the International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.
Email: Maya.Katz@ucsf.edu
Phone: 917-374-7649 (PST GMT -8)
Fax: 415-353-9060
CV: https://tinyurl.com/yanjpkjj
Research and Publications: https://www.ucsfhealth.org/maya.katz
DANIEL SHEPHERD is the founder of AT4PD - Alexander Technique for Parkinson's. He is currently in a three-year training to become a certified a Alexander technique instructor in Anthony Kingsley's training program in Mayfair. You can learn more about the AT4PD initiative by joining our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/192909304602112/
EMAIL: danielshaershepherd@gmail.com
PHONE: +447714465170 (GMT
