Chirophonetic Therapy: A Holistic Approach to Healing
Since ancient times, the ‘laying-on’ of the hands has been used to bring healing, as has ‘the healing word’. Chirophonetic therapy uses both the touch of the hands – Cheiro, and the sounds – Phonetics, brought together in a powerful healing modality. In our time, through the spiritual-scientific work of Rudolf Steiner, the power of the Logos, the creative Word, has been made available to humanity as a healing force. Steiner showed that each speech sound has innate forces which have specific properties, and, if applied with intention, can have profound effects in healing, education and the arts.
Initially, Chirophonetic therapy was developed to facilitate speech development in non-verbal children. Results soon showed that it was not only effective in stimulating speech in children, but that it could also be used to treat many kinds of developmental delays, learning difficulties and emotional problems, as well as some medical conditions in children and adults.
Chirophonetic Therapy as a Healing Art
The combination of sound and touch induces a state of attentive relaxation. Each sound has a specific character and effect, which is transferred through the massaged stroke onto the patient’s back, arms or legs, while the sound itself is spoken by the therapist. Through knowledge of the healing effect of the sounds, the therapist chooses those sounds, syllables and rhythms most suited to the condition of their patient. These are absorbed through a heightened sense of hearing and through the warmth, touch and movement of the therapist’s hands, often awakening a slumbering will to speak and causing subtle changes in the body. Children or adults with an auditory processing disorder, as well as those with autism and other sensory difficulties, become calm and receptive after a few treatments, and are soon able to absorb and process sounds which previously went unregistered. Some people become generally more receptive to the moods and relationships occurring around them, while others begin to relax and feel comfortable within themselves.
How is it that simple sounds can work in this way?
Through the spiritual research of Rudolf Steiner there is a wealth of knowledge about the sounds, their inherent forces and their effects – the connections of microcosmic human speech to the macrocosm. Added to this, there is, in Anthroposophical medicine, an extensive body of knowledge concerning speech development, the organs, the life processes, constitutions, etc., all of which enable the therapist to put together those sounds and sequences which will best meet the needs of the patient and create an effective therapy.
Training
My own experience of Chirophonetic Therapy began in 1986, when Dr Baur and his wife Gunde brought the therapy to Australia from Austria. I was a very passionate special education teacher at the time, working with children who had severe and multiple disabilities, who were unable to speak or do anything for themselves. But hidden behind their considerable bodily disabilities, their comprehension and intelligence were often intact, and a great yearning lay within them to be understood and to communicate in whatever way was possible. Drs Alfred and Gunde Baur had been working for some time, developing the therapy, combining his expertise as a speech therapist and hers as an anthroposophical doctor. Many children had been helped enormously in their speech and general development, sometimes speech only beginning with the therapy. If speech wasn’t possible, their whole impulse towards communication was stimulated, and development in all areas was enhanced. This was the first of many courses that I attended, both here in Australia and in Austria, as I learned the therapy and deepened my knowledge and understanding of child development and the impediments that can arise. My passion to enhance communication for non-verbal people began here and I was at the fore-front of ‘augmented and alternative ‘ communication in the 1980’s.
Experience
After this 1st course, the students were instructed to go home and find a ‘healthy adult person’ to practise the sounds that we had learned. At the time, I was acquainted with an extraordinary young woman, Heather, who had severe athetoid cerebral palsy, which meant she could not speak, stand or even hold a cup to her lips, feed herself or do any self-willed action at all except to communicate! Her communication was through a small device called a Canon Communicator, which had an alphabet set into small indents on the device, and with her wild and seemingly random arm movements, and one middle finger, she could press into the little indents, selecting letters to form words which were printed out onto a long thin strip of paper. Her ‘audience’ would wait with bated breath, until she pressed the Send button, mostly not really expecting that anything meaningful would come out. But in astonishment, people would read her communications and would realise that here in this impossibly disabled body, a fully intact intelligence lived.
I was telling Heather about this wonderful first course that I had attended and its potential to help people with developmental challenges, and how I needed to find a healthy adult person to practise on. Immediately she started to point to herself, absolutely delighted at the prospect. So, for the next year in between courses, I went to Heather’s home and ‘practiced’ once a week on her back, not having learnt the more specific programmes that would come later. The challenges were great as Heather could not lie flat on her abdomen, and the cerebral palsy created many involuntary movements, but we persisted. As Heather was turning 21 at this time, she had full assessments by the speech and physio – therapists who had worked with her up until then. In every case, the therapists were amazed to find that she had made significant improvements in her skills, despite her age. She previously had not been able to make any sounds at all but was now making some basic articulations. Her posture and co-ordination had also improved, and in her work as a typist, where she was paid by correct output per/hour (very little) she had also clearly registered improvements. Then one day, while I was with her, to everyone’s amazement, including her own, she spoke words for the first time in her life. Her first words were: ‘I love you’ , which came out in a very rusty voice, which she addressed to her housemate. I have written a short bio on Heather, which you will find on my website under Stories. As well, she herself wrote and acted in a short film called Dance me to my Song, which was selected for the Cannes Film Festival, in 1998. Front cover is of Heather being carried by her on-screen boyfriend up the many stairs with the red carpet, to the showing in Cannes!
So, while this is a very dramatic outcome, in every case, when I have given the therapy to children and adults alike, there has been improvement, most rewarding for young children who have disabilities, where their whole future development is enhanced in ways that would not otherwise have occurred. At this point, I am one of only two people in Australia who are qualified to offer Chirophonetic Therapy; there are many more therapists in Europe. Courses are run over 4 years, and if there is enough interest, we would be very happy to begin a new training.
Testimonial
We were introduced to Helen when our son was just 8 months old. He was born with severe spastic cerebral palsy, and our lives were turned upside down, given his intensive needs. Helen was studying Chirophonetic Therapy at the time, and she began working with our son in the second year of his life. The effects were immediately apparent. His physiotherapist noted that his uprightness began to improve and his control over the involuntary spasms that gripped him began to improve. Unfortunately, Helen had to discontinue treatment as her own child was born then. But I am sure that his improvement would have continued to be significant.
Years later, when our son was in his 30’s, he was hospitalized many times in a year for respiratory infections. Helen began treating him weekly and during that year, he had no hospitalizations! He also became calmer and happier, and to date, whenever he sees Helen, he lights up and asks for some of her healing sounds.
Helen can teach parents to treat their own child, so this would bring about incredible assistance to their overall development, to be done on an ongoing basis.
