In the following example you will encounter a 90 year old man, which came a few years ago to the Body-Cognition institute due to severe pain in his limbs, difficulty walking and straightening up. He had been told by doctors that he should undergo spinal surgery for spinal Stenosis – an abnormal narrowing of the Canalis vertebralis in the cervical and the lumbar vertebrae. Yosepha advised him to start therapy in the Body Cognition method in order to ease his severe pain before undergoing surgery. According to the Body Cognition method, therapy is administered as needed – once or twice a week. A therapy session is 45 minutes, and it is a combination of passive as well as active therapy – depending on the patient’s condition. Between therapy sessions the patient diligently does his “homework”. Thanks to the treatment and the body awareness acquired by the patient over the years, he is able to function despite his complex situation. So far there has been no need for him to undergo surgery.

The following video shows one of the treatments,
You can see a clear difference in the patient’s ability to straighten up before and after the treatment.
Notice the serenity, softness and expertise of the therapeutic touch. 

watch the first video:

Seven years passed since we last filmed Ben.

We returned to film Ben for a ‘before and after treatment’ video.

Although not unscathed by the passage of time,

Ben has preserved an independent ability of movement management thanks to both:

his long history of receiving Body Cognition movement lessons and thanks to Yosefa Michaeli’s frequent treatments.

Yosefa:

“The man was referred to me by a Neurosurgeon about 30 years ago. The Doctor knew us both. The obvious diagnosis was Stenosis of the neck and lumbar vertebrae. His complaints were in accordance. His posture was not erect.

The aim was to try avoiding a surgery. Ben is highly intelligent, an intellectual, but lacks a detailed skill of body, at least according to

the Body Cognition Method’s premise and its use in healing us.

 

The reasoning was, that a treatment that would loosen the muscles around his neck, upper chest and shoulder blades as well as the muscles motivating the pelvis, legs and lower spinal column – would spread apart the cramped vertebrae, thus alleviating the

Stenosis. A life’s work.

 

Since then, we have been diligently continuing with the treatments twice a week. In parts of the treatment the man is active and in others, passive. Both parts are accompanied by theoretical explanations based on his capacity and a detailed account from him, specifying how the movement affects him, where the painful areas are, and certainly according to what feels good to him, relates to the relief of the problematic areas.

 

The years passed, we both aged. As the film shows, the capacity is reduced. “In honor” of his 99^th birthday, I concluded that it would be wrong to continue letting him go down to the floor – it is excessive and risky.  For the same reason, we shall avoid walking without a walker.

 

The complaints lessened. His health is good. He does not require medication. We continue our meetings which are adjusted to the occurring changes.

 

Ben never exercised in a group. Always on his own. Anything that I wished to teach, I taught through and according to the Body Cognition Method, which is – repetition of a movement; changing components of movement instruction; combining movements and always accompanied by a theoretical “justification”.