After a very early Monday morning trip to the American consulate in Frankfurt to replace my lost passport, (my trips to Germany are never without incident-last year’s challenge was figuring out a way to escape Europe while the volcano continued to erupt) I arrived back in Bad Sobernheim at the Asklepios Katharina Schroth Clinic, fortunately, without missing any clinical time.
For two days, I observed sessions and had long talks with Axel Hennes, senior physiotherapist, and my good friend, about treatment protocols for Schroth patients.
We had the opportunity to share ideas, methods, discuss what works well, and what doesn’t work so well. It was interesting to learn they experience some of the same stumbling blocks I do over the course of a patient’s treatment. For example, figuring out ways to ensure home exercise compliance.
It was interesting to learn about the new modifications and methods they are incorporating to make it as easy as possible for the patient to find success doing the exercises at home. This is a topic I am concerned with for my patients because after going through this personally I know how challenging it can be to practice at home with life’s constant demands of work, homework, sports practices, music lessons, activities, social life etc. I definitely picked up a thing or two to incorporate and share with my patients.
While there, I also had the opportunity to talk with parents from other European countries whose children were participating in the program at the clinic and realized the challenges faced by the scoliosis patient opting for conservative treatment are global.
On another note, this year is a milestone year for the Schroth Method, its 90th anniversary! First, in mid-April, the Asklepios Katharina Schroth Clinic will celebrate fifty years of the Schroth Method in the town of Bad Sobernheim. Then, in early May, the family of Katharina Schroth will celebrate the anniversary at a celebration to take place at the workshop of Dr. Hans Rudolf-Weiss, grandson of Katharina Schroth, in Gensingen, Germany. Dr. Weiss is the developer of the Gensingen Brace. Christa Lehnert-Schroth, PT will speak.
I wish I could’ve timed my trip a little differently to attend one or both of the upcoming celebrations, but it just was not possible.
I left Tuesday afternoon to head home to Boston. It was an action-packed few days and a valuable experience. As always, every trip to Germany seems to re-invigorate me and get me more excited about how the Schroth method can benefit patients.
