Jul 23 2008
Wilbarger Technique
A few weeks ago a friend commented that she didn’t see what the Wilbarger Technique- a specific brushing and joint compression technique - was supposed to do. I couldn’t really explain it myself, at least not in plain English. But I think I may have it now.
Picture the brain that has some proprioceptive oversensitivity as a sort of high-strung mother hen. The parts of the body are her chicks. Our hen, in addition to being a little high-strung is also not so great at keeping track of those chicks. Now they tend to stay pretty close to her, but she doesn’t seem to always know that. So she spends a lot of energy trying to figure out where those guys are! When she gets worked up, so do the chicks.
But what if we help her out by doing a sort of head count every couple of hours? Once she knows where her chicks are, she’s happy, she can relax a little and get on with the rest of her henly business (whatever that is).
My best understanding of the protocol is that it helps the body ‘check in’ with itself. Once the brain knows where everything is, it can calm down and focus better on the other myriad tasks it needs to attend to.
M’s PT had us do that for a few years. She did not seem to mind it. I can’t really say if it helped her much though. I suppose she can handle more input now though. I hope it helps.
I tried this for a while with my son. He didn’t really mind it all that much. What worked the best for him was a weighted vest, a wetsuit like blanket that he could roll himself up in and a weighted blanket.
The J-man likes this so much now that he will bring the brush to one of us if he needs it.
My son and my niece used to love something like this. When they started getting crazy, I would lay them on the floor and push on their legs and joints, squeeze them and bend them and such. It was quite odd but it helped for some reason. They kept asking me to do it harder. I tried it with my other niece and she reacted like I would have - “Ow! That hurts,” even when I was still fairly gentle.
I like your explanation, none of us ever understood how this helped the two calm down so well.