Category: Adults with Learning Disabilities

  • Walking Back to Happiness

    Peter was in his late forties and in residential accommodation when we met, he had been the youngest child with three older siblings and was reported to have been consistently aggressive and violent towards family members.   As a little boy, when Peter exhibited aggressive behaviour he was shut in a cupboard by his father.  At…

  • Simple Pleasures

    Simple Pleasures

    We all, whether young or old, able bodied or disabled, intellectually impaired or with the capacity to function in all aspects of physical life, have the ability to find a purpose and to reach a fuller potential if we are able to connect to the intuitive pathways beyond our cognitive faculties. We can accomplish this…

  • Energy Field Alignment : An Agent Of Change

    Energy Field Alignment : An Agent Of Change

    This updated blog was first written in 2006  but so much has changed since then.  Hopefully, in the current turmoil, my words will encourage you to reduce your own stress levels and discover your true purpose in life. In the 1990s, in search of  an understanding of spirituality,  I  began my own healing  journey. Healing…

  • Waiting in the Wings

    Waiting in the Wings

    I had been called to a residential home because Leonard, one of the older residents with learning disabilities and a diagnosis of autistic spectrum disorder was exhibiting ‘disturbing behaviour’. Apparently Leonard was making ‘strange noises’ to annoy residents who had gathered in the television lounge to watch their favourite programme. I arranged a visit to…

  • Richard’s Ash Wednesday Pilgrimage

    Richard’s Ash Wednesday Pilgrimage

    Music touches our hearts when words fail.  It allows healing to take place by altering the vibrational field within a room. It can reduce the debilitating effect of a potentially stressful environment and lessens the impact of colds and ear infections during the early months of language acquisition.  This research is documented in the Sensory…

  • Never Make Assumptions

    Never Make Assumptions

    A young Asian man was referred to me because of his limited communication and challenging behaviour. Arif had a history of violent outbursts and his parents and members of staff in his residential home were subjected to regular attacks of spitting, scratching, pinching and biting.  On my first vist, Arif was sitting cross-legged with head…

  • Susie and Chopin

    Susie and Chopin

    Susie, a woman in her forties had learning disabilities and had difficulty expressing herself.  Her mother, with whom she had lived, had passed away two years earlier and since that time Susie had lived in a residential home with four other women  she hadn’t previously known.  Susie was referred to me because the care staff…

  • Vocal Toning:  Rainbow Chakra Tones

    Vocal Toning: Rainbow Chakra Tones

    Toning is an ancient and powerful method of using the voice. The toning process energises the brain and stimulates and regenerates the central nervous system to activate the body’s own self-healing mechanism.  Ancient cultures in both the northern and southern hemisphere understood the law of vibration and recognised sound as energy in motion, acknowledging that…

  • A Musical Memory

    A Musical Memory

    Music has had a marked impact on the life of many of my clients with learning disabilities.  I particularly remember one lady, who was referred to me because, although she was forty- four, she had never spoken.  However, staff in her residential home believed that Jean understood most of what was said to her.  One…

  • Angela Finds Her Voice

    Angela Finds Her Voice

    Angela was a tall, frail looking woman in her forties with dark hair and hunched shoulders.  She spoke in a whisper and rarely made eye contact. Whenever Angela left the residential home in which she lived, she clung to her support worker, linking arms wherever they walked. She had been diagnosed with a genetic condition…