Below is a letter from one of the Volunteers in the Australia courses to his Physical Therapist who was on the course. He received scar work from the students of both classes and a neuro-muscular re-education session consisting of Integrated Therapeutic stretching and body mechanics training from me.
Firstly, thank you for asking me to attend the STRAIT course conducted by Marjorie Brooks as a “subject of interest”. I had no idea what it was about or what my role was, so it was a very pleasant surprise to be the centre of attention of so many people clearly dedicated to the art of caring and healing.
One of the traumas from my plane crash was the degloving of skin from around my right foot. I had lost skin around the heel and right side of foot in an area about the size of the my hand. After 5 weeks of stabilisation post the accident, a successful skin graft was performed. There was however significant scarring and lesions as a result. Many edges and other parts of the graft after now 7 months were still deep purple in colour and there was still much unnatural discolouration generally.
A side effect of the 10 or so weeks waiting for graft and sufficient healing to take place with the ankle stabilised in a brace, was that the ankle and general foot mobility was massively reduced. Some bones in the foot were also broken, but had rejoined successfully without surgery. Much of the recent months of rehab work were on regaining ankle and foot mobility.
Its hard to explain what Majorie did, even though I experienced it. It was such a gentle and subtle process. The results however speak for themselves. Importantly, there has been a massive reduction in the discoloured areas in the grafted area, especially around the edges. The skin colour across the graft area is now much more the same as the unaffected areas. Additionally the skin tension is much more relaxed and the continued application of the STRAIT process continues to improve flexibility and feeling.
The flexibility and sensitivity of my overall foot action is also improved. The additional mobility affected in my toes by the process provided has provided significant improvement to my ability to walk in a more natural gait.
Now that my physio Aideen Osbourne, has learnt the techniques and has also integrated them into the other work being undertaken (I had 7 broken vertebrae, plus muscle and facial damage to my lower back and buttocks), I am feeling far more positive about the final results of long term rehabilitation.