Has anyone had therapy with Ken Bryant?

Thanks for this link Tetra.....I found this reply post from Dr Wise Young in that thread, I think he explains it well to what is probably happening with the people who Ken Bryant sees 


A C5 level usually means that your C5 level is intact. C4 controls the deltoids and you have pretty good deltoids. C5 innervates primarily the biceps and you indeed seem to have good biceps. Both are consistent with a C5 level and an injury involving C5 and C6. C6 innervates the wrist extensors. I couldn't see from your video but your wrist extensors don't seem to be normal. Likewise, while you may have some movement of your triceps, they appear weak. This is of course not to say that you have not improved from the treatment. You seem to have pretty good torso control.

What I am puzzled by is what Ken Bryant is doing during the one and half hours of therapy that he charges. I have read Mary Jane's description of how he treated her son and it seems that he was trying to get the patient to move a specific muscle at a time. Many times, people with spinal cord injury may not know what they can do and have never been encouraged to do it. It seems to me that he is helping people discover what they can do in terms of activating muscle. This may be useful but I am not sure that most people would call this "recovery" or a "cure".

It would seem to me that helping people discover what they can do with their muscles is worthwhile but something that most physical therapist can do and probably many do. From Mary Jane's description, it is clear that Ken Bryant is a charismatic therapist who is a good teacher and understands muscles. I am not sure what he is doing to restore function other than to determine what the patient can do and encouraging the patient to exercise those muscles more. However, that may be useful in itself.

I have examined a bunch of people with spinal cord injury and often find something that the person can do that the person was not aware of. Examples of this are common. For example, Christopher Reeve really was not aware that he could move his left forefinger until one day he moved it while he was in an animated discussion with his wife and she noticed it, asked him to repeat it, and he was able to do so. In my opinion, there is a very important role of discovering function that a person may not even know is there.



Wise.