Category: Adults with Learning Disabilities

  • Silencing Self Doubt – A Personal Story

    Silencing Self Doubt – A Personal Story

    Many  who work with children with additional needs or adults with a learning disability experience helplessness in the face of challenging circumstances in the workplace.  Admitting to ourselves that we don’t know what to do is uncomfortable and in such situations we jump into control mode, taking action to contain and manage the situation.  Telling…

  • 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 interacting with others was difficult for her.   Her mother, with whom she had lived all her life, had  passed away two years before we met.  After her mother’s death, Susie was taken to a residential home to live with four  women  previously unknown to her. …

  • 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…