Cuddle Therapy with Alzheimer's & Dementia
@ copyright 2009
How must it feel to be 'locked' into a world that is alien to everything you ever knew? Ask somebody with Dementia!
How does it feel to watch a loved one live in a world so distant, that although you are standing next to them, they do not even know who you are? Ask the family of a Dementia patient!
How would it feel to be able to remember just something more about your life than you did yesterday? Watch a dementia patient using Cuddle Therapy!
How would it feel to see your loved one smile with pleasure at holding something close to love again? Watch a dementia patient rocking a 'reborn doll' during Cuddle Therapy!
Having worked using Cuddle Therapy often alongside EFT, as separate issues, then combining the two for use with Premature babies and new mothers, I decided to see if it would be of any help for people with Alzheimer's and Dementia.
I was kindly invited to visit Park House in Budleigh Salterton, Devon. The matron, Lily Perry and her staff made us very welcome. Previous to our arrival matron had an idea which of her ladies may benefit from the Cuddle Therapy and I followed her advise and worked within her guidelines.
Although I was sure that using these dolls would be of some benefit, I was certainly not prepared for the reactions I did get.
Most of the ladies took to the dolls straight away. They were eager to 'cuddle' the dolls and I was able to get some kind of repoire with each of them whilst they had the doll. When I felt the time was right and their words were coming from their 'true higher self' I decided to Tap, on myself. I just followed their language and tapped the Basic rounds.
None of the ladies became distressed. However, had they done so, I would have continued tapping on myself without words and not used any of the words the lady was saying. Very soon into this, I was being told all kinds of details about how they felt, how they 'perceived' their lives to be, and tapping had never been so easy, or rewarding. Since then I have developed Cuddle Therapy using a revised form of EFT, which is explained and taught in my workshops. The benefits of Cuddle Therapy are becoming clearer all the time, and my aim is to see it within the system for every person that needs it.
We originally agreed to stay for about an hour. However, the afternoon became such a great success, and everyone loved the dolls, we stayed for over 4 hours, and left with the ladies and staff asking when we were going back.
The following week I spoke to the Matron and was told that the ladies she had chosen were 'very hard to get through to, as a rule', yet I had managed to break this barrier, along with the dolls, in minutes. I was also told that these ladies 'wandered about all day and were hard to settle down'. We found that with these dolls in their arms, they stayed 'babysitting' with no desire to get up and wander off. However, the most surprising thing for me was that we were told that after the EFT and Cuddle therapy combined, these ladies were more settled and needed less medication for several days to come.
I was able to see that I had 2 'tools' on that day. One was the dolls for the Cuddle Therapy and this allowed me to 'tune in' with these ladies so I was able to use surrogate EFT as healing tool. These dolls are already used as Cuddle Therapy, I just took it one step further and bought EFT in. I was able to do this because the dolls 'grabbed' their 'in the now' attention, allowing me to listen to what they were saying and able to tap on issues that were coming to the surface.
Cuddle Therapy takes helping dementia to a NEW level.
Reborn doll therapy has been used in recent times with great success in the treatment of Alzheimer and Dementia patients around the world. It can have such a positive effect that the patient's psychotropic drug dependency can be reduced.
At Ashcroft Care Home based in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, UK, they have reported that reborn doll therapy has cut the number of patients using psychotropic drugs from 92 per cent at the start of 2008 to 28 percent.
Reborn dolls in particular seem to have the best effect with these patients, as they are so much more lifelike than traditional dolls. The dementia area is a large market that is reasonably untapped for reborn doll artists. In my research I visited a website that showed the most touching photographs of Alzheimer's patients holding their dolls. They appeared happy and calm.
The reborn dolls seem to alleviate the agitation or distress suffered by the dementia patient. They help to reduce withdrawal and help overcome communication difficulties between the carer and the patient. This research on reborn doll therapy was recently presented at a British Psychological Society Conference.
Reborn doll therapy seems to work extremely well with female patients as it takes them back to a time when they were housewives and highly productive. Due to effects of dementia many of these patients still believe they are young, so when they adopt a reborn doll, it brings back happy memories of parenthood. Having a doll can reawaken positive memories of being useful and needed; being loved and of loving.
Doll Therapy is best introduced in the early to middle stages of Alzheimer's. In the early stages the patient may know the reborn doll is not real but will enjoy the pleasures of naming it and constantly changing it's clothes. Women in the middle stages of the disease are likely to communicate with the doll; they may sing to it, talk to it, rock and cuddle it. They start to become extremely attached to their doll and keep it with them for many hours of the day.
Introducing a doll in the late stages of Alzheimer's is not quite as effective as in the early stages. By introducing it earlier the patient becomes used to the doll and they will be used to getting comfort from it. Reborn dolls however, are not a cure and the sufferer will not suddenly transform back to their former self because of a reborn doll but it is the comfort the patient feels that is the real benefit of reborn doll therapy. "I have worked with people with Alzheimer's disease for 12 years and if you ever witnessed one of my residents singing, cooing, interacting with the life-like doll, you would know that it does work. Many of our ladies were homemakers and their number one priorities were family. It was a time in their life when they were useful and had a sense of purpose. Giving someone a "doll" brings them back to that safe and secure time in their life. We must join them on their journey, not ours!!!" (A quote from a discussion forum for Alzheimer's patients).
