A miracle ...

is what the three of them perform every Thursday. Ödön attends four training sessions every week (and sometimes additional alternative therapy), and from these the Thursday session suits him wonderfully. The harmony between him and the two therapists is excellent. They’ve created a common space and atmosphere, which opens up special channels for him. Through this communication, attention and information flow become more intense, and he will do things that propel him [forward] all week. He is liberated mentally, spiritually, and physically. After today’s session, his problematic right hip joint became so soft, that it remained in place [without additional adjustment], and I could put him directly in the baby carrier. (Because this is possible now, he’s mobile again! In the beginning of the year he could not even spread his legs enough to sit on my lap.)

Last week they wrapped him in a blanket, moved him around to music, ran around with him, his body sometimes even touching the floor through the blanket. I’d have bet that he would react by crying. Instead, he got upset when at the end of the session he had to come out of the bundle.

The previous time Feri had wrapped him, almost in fetal position, tightly in a blanket and had turned him on his side, while Bori was playing various percussion instruments quite professionally (and I say that as a musician), close to, or even touching  Ödön, so that he could feel the vibrations through his body. And my officially “epileptic” son enjoyed this! He listened, and showed that he could feel as Bori continued to play the music on his body (i.e. gradually moving the [percussion] mallets from the instrument to Ödön’s body, in quick, lively, rhythmic and attentive movements). The highlight was when Ödön in his joy was stuffing his hands into his mouth, and Bori was playing on him from his forehead down to his chin, he would raise his hand precisely for as long as the drumming was close to his mouth. With the proficiency of a musician! I could not have done it better myself. That’s how much getting in the right mood means!

So what is this class, and who’s running it? It is the [coordinated] joint class of Borbála Ránki, musical therapist, and Ferenc Kálmán, movement therapist, at the Budapest Korai Fejlesztő (Early Intervention Centre Budapest). Feri applies the body mind centering (BMC) technique, which is quite rare in Hungary (and to our knowledge is only used by one other person).

I would not like to undervalue the work of our three other therapists, Ödön needs these impulses as well, but in his current state, this Thursday session is what magically opens him up. This is also good for my spirit, as I get a glimpse of Ödön behind the obstacles.

NOTE: This blog entry is the translation of what I wrote on 23. April 2015. I thank my cousin, Márton Marschall, the translation, and  my godmother, Csilla Bálint, to peruse the text!