We are expanding our capacity to serve others, in a personal way! Acknowledged through this letter to you all today, Kim and I are thrilled to formally welcome Lista Qanaatia Spensley-Tagornak to the Relationship Matters Team.
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There hasn’t been an NDT (Neuro-Developmental Treatment) certification program offered in Canada in about 10 years, but there is one coming! We’re not involved in it but are happy to share the information to encourage more OT, PT and SLP colleagues to make NDT part of their practice. NDT is “a holistic and interdisciplinary clinical practice model informed by current and evolving research that emphasizes individualized therapeutic handling based on movement analysis for habilitation and rehabilitation of individuals with neurological pathophysiology.”
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There is a unique new clinic in Hong Kong called BOOST that offers a wide range of cutting-edge and thought-inspiring health optimization technologies. Imagined and created by our visionary friend Karen Wong (Clinical Psychologist) and Tami Tsang (Movement Specialist), their clinic in Wan Chai offers the services of personalized and ongoing assessments with interventions to match each individual.
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Tracy Stackhouse, Cory Dundon and Michelle Maunder are paediatric Occupational Therapists with a shared passion for the pursuit of knowledge.
Kim was honoured to be the first ever guest on their podcast, Spirited Conversations. In this episode, they discussed interoception and making sense of this in treatment. We had a glitch with our video feed this episode so it’s audio only, but we so very excited to finally share this. The conversation covers many levels, from trying to understand and discern interoception vs neuroception, to understanding interoceptive processing with clinical practice examples and hopefully offers everyone new insights into how we can support individuals with different interoceptive needs.
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Our colleague, Leah Dawang, at Unyte, recently summarized 3 key takeaways from The Master Series: Oxford event that we attended and at which Kim presented in September.
Sound in Healing Was a Recurring Theme
Safety is the Foundation
Connection Makes Us Human
The Akhil Autism Foundation podcast provides practical and science-based solutions for families dealing with autism. Featuring guest interviews with experts in the field of autism, including physicians, health coaches, researchers, nutrionalists, herbalists, movement and speech therapists, as well as authors, educators and parents of children on the spectrum. Foundation founder and executive director, Manisha Lad is a Nutrition Consultant, and mother of an only son recovering from autism. He inspired her to not only start the Akhil Autism foundation, but he transformed her to become a Holistic Health Coach and Autism Advocate. Akhil’s Foundation was formed to Educate, Treat, Research and Support Autism.
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“Standing here in the belly of the dragon of Colonialism…*” and also being in the same places where Isaac Newton and countless others of immense knowledge and influence have stood and shared their contributions to the societies of their times – Kim and I recently had a series of privileged opportunities to reflect on the sources from which trauma can arise and - what we might do to create positive change.
Kim and I were participating in the Masters Series on Trauma and Mental Health at Oxford, where Kim had been invited by Unyte to speak about the Safe and Sound Protocol: Opening a Window towards the Conscious Evolution of the Human Spirit.
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Moving to Higher Ground was held at Zephyr Lodge on Liberty Lake, WA in August, 2023. It was the first MTHGs since COVID and was a welcome connection/reconnection between dedicated professionals of many backgrounds aiming to expand both professionally and personally. Coming from across North America, we spent 4 very full days and evenings in a comfy lakeside setting with learning and sharing throughout.
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In this thought-provoking interview between Erin Forward (Speech & Language Pathologist from SpeechTherapyPD.com) and Kim, they share a dialogue that reveals the impact of trauma on one’s brain, body and being. This podcast #241 emphasizes that trauma-sensitive practice is an inter-professional shared body of knowledge that can be applied to have a profound influence on the field of Speech Therapy to create a safe and supportive environment for individuals who have experienced trauma.
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Our friend and colleague Lobsang Phuntsok’s Ted Talk from Japan can now be seen here! Lobsang is the one who founded the Jhamtse Gatsal Children’s Community as discussed in our blog “The Garden of Love and Compassion”. This short talk summarizes his thoughts on the value of unbecoming, on seeing our challenges as our resources, and instilling compassion in education. It represents hope for humanity. Share widely, at will.
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As part of its “Clinical Conversations” series, Unyte hosts Dr. Stephen Porges, author of Polyvagal Theory and creator of the Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP), in a conversation with Unyte’s Clinical Advisory Board members, Dr. Les Aria, Kim Barthel, Jillian Hosey and Paula Scatoloni, to explore how they integrate the SSP into their practice, and the exciting innovations they’re cultivating.
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Sex is a part of life. When healthy, consensual, legal, within one’s personal values and emotionally safe, sex has the potential to be a powerful and positive aspect of our human experience. When its power is abused, the impacts are devastating and complex. We know that this form of trauma can be amongst the worst parts of people's entire lives. What adds to the negative impacts of sexual trauma is ongoing silence. When light is shone on these secrets, however, survivors/victors do not feel as alone, and healing can absolutely happen.
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While trying to learn everything possible between learning and movement, Kim Barthel came across “the most active classroom in the world” and the inspiring teacher behind it, Jukka Sinnemäki. What’s ironic is that it’s often occupational therapists who find themselves supporting teachers to appreciate the need for movement (it’s known to enhance the brain’s capacity to learn) and in this case it was Jukka who has won international teaching awards on this topic, and it turns out he’d never (yet) met an OT!
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Neuro-Developmental Treatment is “a holistic and interdisciplinary clinical practice model informed by current and evolving research that emphasizes individualized therapeutic handling based on movement analysis for habilitation and rehabilitation of individuals with neurological pathophysiology.” Understanding NDT’s current theory and practice can be confusing for clinicians. “Has NDT evolved since its origins 60 years ago?”, “Does NDT support individuals with ASD as well as CP?”, “Because clients are so unique in their movement systems, are NDT’s benefits still hard to quantify from a research perspective?”
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The term “regulation” has become an everyday word, used liberally to describe the perception of a person’s behavioural state. For example, when we see a child sitting very still in the classroom, we often interpret this to mean they are “regulated” because they look calm. When we witness a person yelling at someone in the street, we may say “wow, they’re dysregulated”. What is challenging about making assumptions about behaviours as arousal states (even though they could be accurate) is that we also may be completely incorrect.
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This grounded conversation with my esteemed colleague, Martha Henry-MacDonald, Physical Therapist and Esoteric Healer/Educator highlights the relevance of energy in the healing process. Together with her colleague, Steve Kramer, Martha created the School for Integrated Consciousness.
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The Relationship Matters Team is still feeling the love after last week’s trip to the Westernmost community in all of Canada to visit our friends at White River First Nationand Nelnah Bessie John School in Beaver Creek, Yukon, sponsored by the Yukon First Nation Education Directorate.
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THIS COURSE IS NOW OPEN FOR EARLY BIRD REGISTRATION! The course content is not yet available, but we anticipate it to be available by January 9th, 2023 . This date is an estimation and is not intended to be an official release date.
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Kim was so honoured to be a recent guest on Ann Helene Kristensen’s Babysteps Sansemotorik podcast! From Ann Helene’s episode page: This episode will be in English, as I have some Kim Barthel with me. Kim is a world-renowned and recognized Occupational Therapist who works with, among other things, developmental neurology and trauma therapy. Kim is the author of the Canadian bestseller Conversations with a rattlesnake and she is a lecturer all over the world. I met Kim on a course in the summer of 2022 where she held a course on Holistic Assessment and interventions: clinical reasoning in practice. I was lucky enough that Kim wanted to participate and share her knowledge with you in my podcast. I hope you like the episode
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In Becoming a Behavioural Detective, we learn to appreciate the complexity of why people do what they do. It can be difficult for therapists, educators, and parents to hold in mind all the multiple possibilities of physiological, emotional, environmental, relational, and contextual variables that may contribute to a person’s “challenging” experience in the moment. Thankfully, Occupational Therapy training in particular instills in clinicians many skills that evaluate human behaviour with a relatively holistic mindset. In my experience with OT, I appreciate that this mindset is backed with clinical reasoning that is ever-increasingly informed from research and practice across many disciplines.
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