Helping Your Child with Autism: A Home Program from Chinese Medicine (Qigong Sensory Training)

undefined

About the Author ---------------- Dr. Louisa Silva received her Medical Degree from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1979, after which she began her practice of family medicine. Her patient experiences led her to investigate alternative healing practices in addition to her Western medical training. She finished her training in Chinese medicine in 1990 and then began to explore how Western and Chinese medicine could be integrated to best benefit families. In search of a deeper understanding of , she went on to earn a Master of Public degree from the Medical College of Wisconsin, and her board certification as a fellow in the American Academy of Medical Acupuncture. All of these experiences contribute to her work today. Dr. Silva lives in Oregon and practices medicine in a way that integrates Chinese medicine with preventive medicine and public . One of her goals is to provide non-invasive, gentle that uses resources to which her patients already have access. In 2000, when the son of a dear friend was diagnosed with autism, Dr. Silva became aware of the devastating impact of the autism diagnosis on families, and the lack of effective, research-based s. She decided to bring a that had been developed in Europe for children with autism to the United States with the hope of placing real tools in parents' hands to help their children. After joining the Teaching Research Institute at Western Oregon University, she developed and evaluated a training and support program in which parents give their children qigong massage. The program also trained early intervention professionals to train and support parents and work with children directly. During her series of careful scientific study over eight years, she continued to refine the initial massage protocol to arrive at a program parents can use without professional intervention. During this time, Dr. Silva created the Qigong Sensory Training Institute to coordinate , training and research for young children with autism. She serves as director and is the lead researcher and trainer in the Qigong Sensory Training protocol. Read more ( javascript:void(0) )