Overview of our services

Pictogram. Drawing of a child’s hand touching an adult hand.

Paediatrics

A pictogram of the palm of a hand

Hand therapy

A pictogram of a head in profile

Biofeedback/ neurofeedback

A pictogram of brain waves

Cognitive training/ cognitive performance testing

Paediatric occupational therapy

Occupational therapy is useful for infants, children and adolescents who are limited in their ability to act or are at risk of such a limitation, with the result that the child and their family is hindered or at risk of being hindered in their participation in social life. (Source)

  • Movement sequencing disorders following brain injuries
  • Developmental disorders affecting motor skills (fine and gross motor skills)
  • Coordination impairments
  • Cognitive development impairments
  • Perceptual disorders (hearing ability, visual ability, tactile perception)
  • Disorders affecting social development and communication skills
  • Attention deficit disorders (AD(H)D)

The spectrum of clinical characteristics and diagnoses in the field of paediatrics comprises both prenatal syndromes such as Down syndrome as well as postnatal disorders.

Goals and exercises

  • Identify the problems the child encounters during daily activities, at kindergarten/school and in their leisure time
  • Establish concrete treatment goals  together with the child, their family and any other relevant attachment figures (COPM)
  • Carefully observe and promote the child’s physical and cognitive capacities
  • Carefully observe any environmental influences affecting the child,
    including interactions between the child and their parents
  • Support and promote the development of gross and fine motor skills
  • Support (potential) modes of action for treating the child
  • Consult, customise, create and trial suitable therapeutic tools for self-sufficiency and improved social participation
  • Promote physical stability and self-confidence
  • Promote social skills (e.g. with autism)
  • Support cognitive functions (e.g. concentration and retention, orientation to self, time and space, perception and processing)

Treatment approaches and methods used

  • Treatment pursuant to the Bobath concept
  • Treatment pursuant to CO-OP (Cognitive Orientation to daily Occupational Performance)
  • Neurofeedback

Occupational therapy for infants/ babies

Occupational therapy is useful for infants who are limited in their ability to act or are at risk of such a limitation, with the result that the child and their family is hindered or at risk of being hindered in their participation in social life.

  • Delays/disorders in motor skill development
  • Your infant prefers one side of the body over the other, e.g. their head is often turned or resting on the right or left side
  • Difficulties controlling the head
  • Postural stability issues
  • Movement sequencing disorders following a brain injury
  • Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA)
  • Cerebral palsy
  • Spina bifida
  • Down syndrome
  • Uncertainties in handling

Goals and exercises

  • Identify the problems the child encounters during daily activities, e.g. swaddling, feeding, playing, visually following objects, changing positions and locations
  • Identify the child’s abilities
  • Establish together with the parents concrete treatment goals for daily life
  • Support and facilitate the child’s actions and ability to act
  • Consult, customise, create and trial suitable therapeutic tools for self-sufficiency and improved social participation
  • Provide support and guidance for parents in implementing treatment tools at home
  • Provide guidance and support in handling

Treatment approaches and methods used

  • Treatment pursuant to the Bobath concept in paediatrics

The Bobath concept is a neurological rehabilitation approach based on movement therapy. It is oriented toward action and daily life.

The Bobath concept is applied in the treatment of premature babies, infants, children, adolescents and adults with developmental and movement disorders.

Neurological occupational therapy

Neurology is concerned with disorders affecting the central nervous system – the brain and the spinal cord – as well as injuries to the peripheral nervous system. Patients with neurological impairments experience a number of limitations in their ability to act in all areas of life. Occupational therapy relies on current findings in neuroscience and other related disciplines to develop differentiated test procedures and effective treatment methods that allow those affected to increase their autonomy and improve their social participation to the greatest possible extent. (Source)

  • Stroke
  • Cranial/brain trauma
  • Cerebral palsy
  • Parkinson’s disease
  • Multiple sclerosis

These can all lead to a range of functional limitations, including paralysis, sensitivity disorders or cognitive impairments. Occupational therapy assessment covers a broad spectrum of symptoms which can be analysed and treated holistically in order to enable patients to complete everyday tasks.

Goals and exercises

  • Train everyday skills, e.g. with regard to personal, domestic and professional autonomy
  • Mitigate and compensate for the consequences of neuropsychological limitations, for instance as regards attention, action planning, concentration, retention or memory and the development of self-awareness of deficits
  • Select and train expedient compensation strategies for autonomously completing everyday tasks despite limitations
  • Consult, customise, create and trial suitable therapeutic tools for self-sufficiency and improved social participation
  • Adjust domestic and working spaces as well as living environment to enable the greatest possible resource-oriented ability to act
  • Consult with and train clients and their relatives/caregivers regarding potential strategies, technical support mechanisms and assistance with social integration and primarily autonomous completion of everyday tasks 

Treatment approaches and methods used

  • Treatment pursuant to the Bobath concept (IBITA)
  • Forced use therapy pursuant to Utley/Woll (IFUSA)
  • EMG biofeedback
  • Treatment pursuant to the Johnstone concept
  • Mirror therapy

Occupational hand therapy

Hand therapy involves rehabilitating the hand or upper extremity in cases of traumatic, degenerative or congenital disorders. The goal is to regain functionality of the hand and upper extremity by pursuing various treatment methods or compensation strategies that enable the client to resume domestic, social and professional activities to the greatest extent possible.

  • Burns
  • Tendon/ nerve injuries
  • Fractures
  • Congenital disorders
  • Degenerative disorders

Treatment approaches and methods used

  • Splint treatment with customisation
  • Manual therapy
  • Sensitivity training
  • Fine motor skill training
  • Active and passive movement exercises
  • Hand strength training (gripping function)
  • Self-help training (techniques to protect the joints when performing everyday and professional tasks)

Occupational therapy using biofeedback/ neurofeedback

Biofeedback (BF) is a scientifically proven form of behavioural therapy and behavioural medicine which uses feedback to help make normally subconscious psycho-physiological processes observable (German Society/Association of Biofeedback; DGBfb). BF is most useful when applied as part of a behavioural therapeutic/medical approach (for occupational therapy applications, see below).

Biofeedback is a unitary mind-body therapeutic approach which uses electronic devices to help individuals gain awareness and control over psycho-physiological processes (Gilbert & Moss, 2003; Moss, 2001; Schwartz & Andrasik, 2003). This allows these bodily processes to be directly influenced pursuant to the principle of operant conditioning and enables their regulations to be learned to the point of voluntary control.

A number of psycho-physiological processes can be measured and adjusted through training, e.g. muscle contraction, skin conductance, temperature, heart rate, blood volume pulse, electrical activity and blood flow in the brain. The effectiveness of this method has been tested in the following areas:

  • Pain therapy (tension headaches, migraines, facial pain, chronic back pain, etc.)
  • Psychiatry (anxiety disorders, panic attacks, phobias, hyperactivity, attention deficit disorders, breath training, stress management, mental training, etc.)
  • Psychosomatics (chronic muscle tension, etc.)
  • Neurology (epilepsy, tinnitus, sleep disorders, etc.)
  • Neuromuscular re-education

A special form of biofeedback application is neurofeedback (NF), the goal of which is to train and optimise electrochemical processes in the brain. An electroencephalogram is taken and the measurements are shown to the patient undergoing treatment via audio/visual or tactile feedback. Various disorders such as ADHD, epilepsy and migraines can sometimes be linked to divergent brain wave patterns, which can be positively impacted through this training.

Biofeedback and neurofeedback are holistic methods for increasing awareness of the connection of the body and mind and the mutual impact they have on each other. These methods are used to achieve self-regulation, control and flexibility, in turn improving health, learning ability and everyday performance. (Source)

Psychiatric occupational therapy

In psychiatry, occupational therapy can be useful for patients of all ages and with a range of psychiatric and psychosocial disorders, impairments and acute or chronic illnesses.

Since modern psychiatric occupational therapy centres around the client, the following explanations should always be understood as examples and options. Each individual patient’s medical diagnosis and occupational therapy assessment are used to establish appropriate paths of intervention – i.e. treatment and consultation as well as prevention – which is pursued with the objective of achieving the greatest possible autonomy, participation and quality of life. (Source)

  • Anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorders
  • Stress-related and adjustment disorders
  • Personality and behavioural disorders
  • Mood affective disorders such as depression and mania
  • Psychoses
  • Problems with addiction (alcohol, drug, medication, gambling and new media addictions)

Goals and exercises

Assess, stabilise, promote and produce/recover:

  • Basic mental functions (e.g. drive, motivation, resilience, persistence)
  • Emotional skills (e.g. mental stability, expression of emotions, capacity for experience)
  • Introspection and reality-based self-perception as well as perception and assessment of others
  • A positive self-image, self-confidence and ego strength
  • Ability to communicate and interact as well as further social skills
  • Cognitive functions (e.g. attention, concentration and retention)
  • Situationally appropriate behaviour and work-related skills
    (e.g. punctuality, flexibility and self-organisation)
  • Practical life skills and the development of strategies for self-care, self-sufficiency and autonomy
 

Treatment approaches and methods used

  • Skill-centred methods
  • Cognitive training

Cognitive training/ cognitive performance testing in occupational therapy

Cognitive training is used to treat cognitive and neuropsychological syndromes in people of all ages as well as the resulting incapacities. Precise training can help you to regain and optimise cognitive functions. Such training focuses in particular on concentration, retention, short- and long-term memory, attention, perception, problem-solving strategies and the ability to learn.

Cognitive performance testing

One aspect that sets our practice apart is that we test the effectiveness of medication intended to mitigate various symptoms of attention deficit disorder. This testing is only conducted on behalf of specialist doctors (neurologists) and summarised in detail in a comprehensive report.

Treatment approaches and methods used

  • Computer-based training (RehaCom, Cogpack, FreshMinder)
  • Reproduction of everyday situations in order to help the patient to learn to cope with them autonomously.
  • Selection and training of expedient compensation strategies for autonomously completing everyday tasks despite limitations

Geriatric occupational therapy

Geriatrics focuses on the health care of ageing persons. Clients in this age group often suffer from complex impairments to their autonomy and ability to act due to a combination of multiple factors conditions (comorbidity).

  • Neurodegenerative diseases (e.g. Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia)
  • Late-life depression
  • Degenerative and rheumatic diseases of the musculoskeletal system
  • Conditions resulting from accidents (e.g. fractures), amputations or other surgical procedures (e.g. in orthopaedics)
  • Neurological disorders (e.g. stroke, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis)

Goals and exercises

  • Train autonomy (customised to the patient’s living situation)
  • Provide guidance on self-help for eating and drinking, personal hygiene and dressing, movement and communication with the goal of maximising independence
  • Improve and maintain motor-functional skills for mobility and dexterity
  • Improve and maintain sensory abilities
  • Activate cognitive and neuropsychological abilities, e.g. for improved orientation and attention
  • Consult with and guide relatives in performing everyday tasks and providing care as well as in adjusting domestic spaces and therapeutic tools

OUR PRACTICE IN KARLSRUHE

Nowackanlage 15 / Ground floor
76137 Karlsruhe

Tel.: +49 (0) 721 – 35 98 06
Fax: +49 (0) 721 – 93 75 811