About the Brain Balance program
Where: 12084 Montgomery Road, Cincinnati
Director: Greg Marischen
Telephone: (513) 257-0705
Website: www.brainbalancecenters. com
Three-Month Individualized Program
Time: three hours per week
1-hour sessions M-W-F after school
30 minutes in sensory motor room
30 minutes in cognitive room
It was supposed to be a fun day on the sun-kissed water. University of Minnesota law school student Greg Marischen was with his girlfriend and two college buddies skiing on White Bear Lake on June 16, 1991.
“I was in the water waiting for them to bring the towrope around. I could see that the boat was out of control and coming toward me,” said Marischen, who grew up in Kettering and ran cross-country at Alter. “So I went under to get out of the way, but with my lifejacket and skis, I could only go under so far. The propeller hit me in the head and crushed the left side of my skull.”
Three things kept Marischen alive that day. Someone in a nearby boat saw the accident and used their cell phone to call 911. St. Paul-Ramsey Hospital was only 5 miles away, so it only took 10 minutes for emergency personnel to arrive. And that hospital happened to be one of the top medical centers in the country for the treatment of head injuries.
“I really should have died; I lost over a gallon of blood that day,” Marischen said.
That’s not the only thing the then 23-year-old lost. He lost the use of his right leg. More than one doctor told him he would never walk again. But after a month of hard work and aggressive therapy at Miami Valley Hospital working on the weak areas of his brain, he could see some improvement. He was only in a wheelchair for six months before he was once again walking and using a cane. Six months later, he resumed his education.
The same type of physical and cognitive therapy that helped Marischen has evolved and been perfected for a program that is helping children with neurobehavioral and learning difficulties.
About seven years after his accident, a doctor in New York started working on various therapies for neurological disorders. Robert Melillo, based in Long Island, developed a non-medical Hemispheric Integration Therapy, or HIT. He also wrote “Disconnected Kids” and “Reconnected Kids” published by Perigee Books.
Melillo’s work with young patients and his own son, who had ADHD and Asperger’s syndrome, led to the growth of Brain Balance Achievement Centers in 40 locations nationwide. One of its newest centers is located in Blue Ash, 20 miles north of Cincinnati. Marischen directs that 2,300 square-foot center and supervises two other directors, a special education teacher, a sensory motor coach and a nutritionist. Not only is he interested in the therapy because of his own experience; two of his sons use it. His oldest son, 12-year-old Jacob, has ADHD, and his 7-year-old son Joe has a learning disability. Brain Balance also helps those with obsessive-compulsive disorder, dyslexia, Tourette’s and autism.
“The program is all about the plasticity of the brain. After aggressive therapy focused on the weak areas of the brain, it has the ability to rewire itself and make those connections,” said Marischen, who has been walking without a cane for more than a decade.
Contact contributing writer Pamela Dillon at pamdillon@woh.rr.com.
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