The life-altering experience of a traumatic brain injury (TBI) may be causing you or your loved one to have sensory disturbances, issues with movement, memory problems, word finding and fluency problems, balance issues, paralysis, changes in stamina, mood, personality, and much more.  You may appear fine to others but are suffering deeply in a way that others just don’t understand.  The medical system offers some support but you may find it falls short of expectations and doesn’t provide the deep results you need.

The HANDLE Perspective

The HANDLE approach recognizes two primary functions that are weakened with brain injury, vestibular (inner ear) function and interhemispheric integration (communication between the two sides of the brain).  An organized, sensitive vestibular system together with strong interhemispheric integration is required to support most or all of the functions that have been compromised in the case of a TBI. Examples include listening while filtering unnecessary sounds, looking at someone wearing a patterned shirt (implying movement) talking and gesturing, maintaining the body in a balanced, upright position and attempting to take notes.

HANDLE Approach

The HANDLE program deals first with lowest level underlying functions like vestibular function and communication between the two sides of the brain, and later with higher level functions. The nervous systems respond to the repeated movement patterns of the HANDLE activities by growing new neural pathways in the brain.  When the activities are done repeatedly over time this changes the structure of the brain and changes how we experience the world.  Each program is customized to meet the exact needs of the individual, and is created following a detailed assessment.

Results You Might See

• Equilibrium (balance)
  
• Body awareness
  
• Stamina
  
• Audition (hearing, filtering, and focusing sound, processing auditory input)
  
• Vision functions
  
• Processing information (reasoning; organization; memory)
  
• Social skills
  
• Verbalization of thoughts
  
• Orientation to time and space