Therapist Testimonials

Balance Wear has been a tremendous asset to my treatment modalities for patients suffering balance dysfunction. The functional improvements for many of my patients have been life-changing. It has truly been remarkable to witness people that report daily falls, now not falling at all thanks to Balance Wear. There have been a variety of diagnoses that I have witnessed such great outcomes when utilizing the Balance Wear Orthosis. Some of these diagnoses include Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s Disease, Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, Cerebellar Atrophy, Huntington’s Disease, Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy, Post Concussion and even orthopedic/spinal dysfunctions.

The most fascinating improvements that I have observed come from the people that suffer from progressive neurological diseases, especially as many of these improvements are immediate after donning the BalanceWear Orthosis. One of my patients with Progressive Supranuclear Palsy was able to reduce fall frequency from 10-12 times a week to not falling at all while also being able to discontinue use of her assistive device. I have observed a young patient; diagnosed with Huntington’s Disease who was falling 6-7 times a week, ride a bicycle again. These improvements can be contributed to Balance Wear.

I have been fortunate to be exposed to BalanceWear through one of my colleagues about a year ago. My colleague was ecstatic regarding her outcomes with Balance Wear and I was just simply amazed. The rest of my colleagues were blessed when Cindy Gibson-Horn agreed to come to New York to provide the extensive training and share the skills she developed when inventing this medical device. I have found it to be very easy to obtain Balance Wear Orthosis for my patients as well as affordable. For patients that experience financial hardship, there have been different organizations that have helped provide aide so that people can obtain this remarkable technology. I highly recommend this product to practitioners and people suffering from balance deficits. I have found such great pleasure utilizing this product to assist many become more mobile, regain independence and improve safety.

Nicholas Froiseth, DPT
South Shore Neurologic Associates P.C.
Patchogue, NY

I wish to submit my case study for consideration to obtain a certification in the assessment and use of the Balance Wear Vest following the completion of the 2-day course I attended in April 2017 in San Francisco. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to attend that class. Adding the Balance Wear Vest as another tool to choose from to help my patients has been very interesting especially with vestibular patients who have complaints of imbalance accompanied by nausea and a “floating feeling”. So far, it has eliminated the complaints of nausea with 3 of my patients – I have researched several articles to attempt to explain this phenomenon and so far I can only hypothesize that it is helping with sensory re-weighting while having a positive impact on autonomic/vegetative complaints. I will continue to pay close attention to the effect the vest has on vestibular patients and continue to share my findings with you. I look forward to having access to the head weighting tools as I anticipate this might also help vestibular patients who present with a head tilt and a deviation of the subjective visual vertical.

I have chosen to present Darlene’s case as she has an interesting complex history, is younger and was a marathon runner for 40 years. Her vascular events have caused havoc on her coordination (PICA embolism with re-bleed of fistula postsurgical intervention for initial event). She and her husband have been challenged by a difficult medical course and several setbacks. She had already attended 16 PT visits when the treating therapist determined she may benefit from a Balance Wear Vest assessment. She was seen at another outpatient clinic part of our Lee Health system. The progress she has made in the 3 weeks from using the vest is remarkable and she received her own vest for a fitting session on 8/26/17. Proper consent was obtained from Darlene on to share the videos as part of this submission.

It has been a pleasure working with you and Motion Therapeutics thus far and I look forward to learning more about the BalanceWear Vest and its’ incredible benefits. Please let me know how I can provide support in garnering approval from potential payers for this incredible device.

Sincerely,

Marie Nathalie Grondin, PT
Lee Memorial Health Florida
Fort Meyers, Florida

Not only am I a physical therapist who assesses people for BalanceWear, I am also a patient who has used BalanceWear for over 4 years.

It helped me recover my balance, improved executive functions, enabled me to tolerate noise and crowds much better, and decreased my fatigue significantly after sustaining a mild head injury after a fall. BalanceWear “gave me my life back”. I used to walk with protective extension and would easily get overwhelmed.

As a result of the injury, I was not able to return to my full time job, however, I volunteered where I could and be safe and attended the BBTW (Balance Based Torso Weighting) courses as I knew I could assess people safely for BalanceWear. It took some time to become certified and I needed to attend the course again, however, assessing people for BalanceWear is my passion.

Usually I get teary eyed when I see the same day changes that can be made. Increased step and stride length, ability to sit on chair without falling over or sit on the edge of a bed to get dressed independently, faster gait velocity, and improved upright posture. A lady with bilateral lower amputations and bilateral upper limb amputations (as well as me and another lady who had had a broken back and brain injury) as she began to walk with her LE prostheses for the first time said, “I don’t have to think to walk or keep balanced.” A lady with an incomplete spinal cord injury was able to walk upright and with equal weight bearing on both legs versus a lean to the left giving her more independence and freedom to walk in her home a little without someone supporting her. Another woman was able to get up from the toilet without using her hands and didn’t need help from anyone.

Not everyone has a significant change, however, what is significant is what is important to the individual. I love that everyone who wears BalanceWear is able to get thousands of repetitions of upright posture, equal weight bearing, improved sitting, standing and walking balance. To me. BalanceWear is “priceless”.

Cindy Fuller PT
Fresno, CA

Brittany Stresing, LImBionics

As an orthotist and prosthetist, I treat balance conditions such as ataxia, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s, and more on a daily basis. These can be very difficult neurological conditions to treat for orthotists and therapists and was often frustrating for us to make the great advances we would like to see in rehabilitation, that is until we began treating with the BalanceWear LSO weighting method. Therapists and I have seen incredible improvements that we wouldn’t have expected! I am the first to say I was skeptical of this treatment at first, but after my first patient having incredible success, that changed immediately.

So many of my patients have not only walked more stable with the BalanceWear, but I have seen incredible improvements in handwriting, shoulder relaxation, improved stair climbing, arm swing, decreased sway, reduced drop foot in one case, and reduced spasticity in one patient’s arm. I am always fascinated by how different people have slightly different outcomes but all that are successful candidates are incredibly thrilled with improvements in their function and quality of life. I am thrilled to treat so many BalanceWear patients in the mid-Atlantic area and continue to spread the word about this amazing orthotic balance-based weighting treatment.

I highly recommend BalanceWear to those with balance issues!

Brittany Stresing,
CPO FAAOP
 President of LImBionics of Durham
Durham, NC

I cannot thank you enough for training us. We are seeing amazing results with BalanceWear. It is changing people’s lives. I saw a patient today with essential tremor and peripheral neuropathy. Without BalanceWear, she cannot walk more than a couple feet without losing her balance. It took everything I had to hold her up. After I strategically weighted her, she walked all around the gym, turning left and right, with absolutely no loss of balance!!! I am so excited to continue to learn how to weight patients to help them.”

Dawn Root, MPT

I have personal as well as professional experience with BalanceWear. I have MS and tried Balance-Based Torso-Weighting: BBTW.

I attended the BBTWW Class Oct 8-9, 2012. We had ample opportunity to apply the knowledge with volunteer patients in the class. Back at my office in Pennsylvania I have used it with several types of patients with different diagnoses; traumatic brain injury, multiple sclerosis, and several chronic back and neck patients. The differential in exercise tolerance is amazing, also patients report decreased pain. I have looked at pre and post BERG and DGI scores and note great immediate results.

Thus far it has been amazing. Thank you so much. It is great to offer a product such as this.

Click here to see a video profile of one of Lesher’s patient success stories.

Andy Lesher MSPT CMT
Bala Cynwyd, PA

I have been using the Balance-Based Torso Weighting Vest for the past year to improve the balance and coordination of people with Multiple Sclerosis, Cerebellar Ataxia, Dystonia and Parkinson’s Disease. Using the strategically weighted vest, these people are able to immediately improve their walking speed, decrease their fall risk and improve their ability to stand without the use of a cane or walker. I am thrilled to be a part of using this discrete technology to improve the quality of lives of my patients. Click here for Kate Mitchell’s research poster.

Kate Mitchell, PT, DPT, NCS
Drexel Medicine Multiple Sclerosis Clinic
Philadelphia PA

I have experienced the BalanceWear orthotic both professionally and personally. I am an occupational therapist, but I am also a family member of someone who’s had a stroke. The Balance-Based Torso-Weighting treatment and orthotic have done amazing things and given people a renewed sense of freedom and control over their own bodies.

As a professional therapist I have seen an individual who stumbles, sways to one side as she walks, or who has difficulty walking a straight line later demonstrate the exact opposite. Once my patients were evaluated using BalanceWear’s Balance-Based Torso-Weighting method and fitted with an orthotic with strategically placed weights they are able to gain dramatic control over their body.

The BalanceWear stabilizing orthotic seems to be to help ‘reset’ their brain and body. I think it as giving the person a light switch to turn the light bulb on in their brain so that their body can do what they want it to do. The orthotic does not make my patients symptom-free (no swaying or stumbling), however it definitely improves their coordinated movements. The BalanceWear orthotic gives them more confidence so that they might be able to talk and walk at the same time or even just look up while walking instead of staring at the floor in concentration.

On a personal level, my mother had a stroke 10 years ago. I saw that the BalanceWear stabilizing orthotic improved the quality of her movements. She still uses a cane and a foot brace to walk, but she’s got more zing in her step. Instead of small, short steps, she can take longer strides. And best of all, she’s standing straighter! As she gets older, she seems to be shrinking, but the BalanceWear orthotic helped her sustain her 5’3” height!

I recommend the BalanceWear balance stabilizing orthotic to anyone who has balance problems. In my experience, it’s liberating!

Marcella Yep-Chow, Occupational Therapist
Pleasanton, CA

Cindy Gibson-Horn, inventor of Balance-Based Torso-Weighting (BBTW), is an exceedingly innovative and effective physical therapist. For several years, we have worked together on treatment teams for subacute patients recovering from brain and spinal cord injuries. As a neuropsychologist, one of my first concerns for many of these patients is safety, which is often jeopardized by poor balance, grossly unsteady walking, difficulty turning, and poor motor coordination.

Some time ago, I requested that Ms. Gibson-Horn consult with the rehabilitation team for a patient who had been anoxic – using her unique BBTW evaluation and treatment method. This patient had considerable difficulty getting up and down from a sitting position, walking with an appropriate and safe gait (his legs were widely spread and his feet were outwardly pointing), and his balance was grossly impaired. His deficits were deemed by the team to place him at considerable risk of falling. I met with Ms. Gibson-Horn and the patient to enlist his cooperation (he had previously been very resistant to physical therapy). Following the BBTW assessment performed by Ms. Gibson-Horn, he was fitted with a BalanceWear stabilizing orthotic.

Although I had seen how the BalanceWear orthotic had helped other patients, I was astonished to see this patient begin—within minutes—to walk with his legs closer together, feet pointing forward, turn multiple times without beginning to keel over, and move his arms more consistently with his steps. Ms. Gibson-Horn asked him to sit and stand first from a chair and then from his bed. He positioned his feet correctly, stood up, and again exhibited no tendency to fall. The BBTW treatment and orthotic were crucial to his improved physical functioning and potential for greater independence. Just as significant, such obvious progress and the ability to be more physically active, enhanced his motivation for continued participation in a physical therapy program and improved his future recovery.

In the years that I have worked with Ms. Gibson-Horn, I have recommended her BBTW treatment method and stabilizing orthotic for patients recovering from stroke, traumatic brain injury, neurological disorder, brain tumors, etc. In every situation, patients who were treated and fitted using the BBTW method, and who used the BalanceWear orthotic, achieved significant improvements when using it as prescribed under the supervision of physical or occupational therapists. I strongly recommend this effective and reasonably priced product for patients who struggle with imbalance and poor motor coordination.

Jen E. Tellier, Psy.D,
Alameda, CA