Helen King Children's Physiotherapy

20/04/2026

What toe walking!?

Just right challenge using a different coordination.

M.A.E.S Therapy

20/04/2026

Understanding your body somewhere and then somewhere else.
Not using compensations.
This is a child who is often on tiptoes. He isn't on his tiptoes now - why?
Because I am changing how he is using his brain to coordinate movement. Finding the just right zone.

Same principle throughout treatment.

We may look like we are working on walking at the end, but we are not.....we are working on understanding body in different alignments, feeling a different position and understanding it. Exploring within it. Multitasking - maintaining a pressure on the quad stick at the same time as moving.

JUST RIGHT CHALLENGE - that's when you see the brain try something new. Get that wrong you go back into using stiffness.

M.A.E.S Therapy

20/04/2026

See previous caption

20/04/2026

Change your reference - some children understand their body from one point and all movement comes from there. But typically we understand our bodies from many different points of reference. 

Movement from one point you means you can't freely move one body part from another - parts of the body move as a block. The importance is understanding reference, where is it, can it change, is it stuck? The reference can be one body part to another or you within the space you are in. It's not an exercise, it's understanding of how each child understands their body and what strategies they are using to compensate for that.

See caption.

M.A.E.S Therapy is the only approach that teaches about this.

If you want to truly understand CP and other movement difficulties you need to invest in a course or therapist that invests in a deep understanding of the brain.

It's not the easy option, but it is 100% the right one.

20/04/2026

18/04/2026

A fabulous couple of sessions with this young man and a very happy Mum.
Tone changing significantly, not with Botox or baclofen, but with therapy that understands where the brain (and therefore the body is getting stuck) and opening new pathways to understand his body and move in new ways.

This needs:-
- an understanding of the brain and how it gets stuck - trying to do more with less combinations of movement.
- an understanding that tone can change within a session if you know what is driving it
- knowing that how you use play in your session can have a massive impact on accessing new ways of moving
- understanding it takes time to make small changes, but many small incremental changes make bigger functional changes in the long term
- analysing movement and treating each child with a unique treatment that helps that individual
- a parent who is happy to explore in many different ways and to not rush the process but understand what is important in the long term

A perfect mix, making for the best therapeutic outcome, working for long term participation not short term fixes.

04/04/2026

A special day for Lina: her first powered wheelchair, just in time for her second birthday. Lina lets go of her mum’s hand and moves herself forward for the first time, thanks to Wizzybug. She came with her family last month to collect her free Wizzybug powered wheelchair from us at Designability....

04/04/2026

Good Luck for opening day today Beans of Baschurch!

I'm looking forward to checking it out today ♥️☕🧁

04/04/2026

For the majority of families, the first time they hear about H.I.E. is when it happens to their loved one. This adds to an already difficult time - feeling scared and isolated, and often desperate for answers.

We want to change that. Helping families feel informed, supported and held is what we’re all about.

We may not be able to stop H.I.E. from happening, but we can make sure that no-one has to face it alone.

04/04/2026

The 4th April is H.I.E. Awareness Day. There might be lots of activity on social media. It’s great to reach new people, who might not know about H.I.E. and the support available. It also might feel a bit much, especially for families who navigate each day after their H.I.E. event.

We welcome your support if you are able, and encourage you to take a break if you need to.

Always here for you, so please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

24/03/2026

M.A.E.S Baby ART Course 2026 - completed 🤩

People ask why I do the same course every year.....

Well, I don't do the same course every year.

Every year I visit a different part of a child's brain, in fact, not a brain but a dynamic. I see the way a child can function differently in a 1 hour session, an interaction, the use of the eyes being different, a change in a combination of movement not seen before, or a change of state, a tension reduced.

Each year, I learn something different, this year, I also learnt about myself.

I stay in M.A.E.S because I don't see any other therapy that can change a system a little bit almost immediately.

I see that movement isn't just about movement dysfunction, it's about the WHOLE system. If you just tinker with the movement system you will miss A LOT!

This course lets you see past the obvious signs of tone, coordination, trunk stability - these are all symptoms of a system. Work on the signs - the system may improve but it will plateaux. If you want to change the plateaux - you need to understand the system and that system includes the therapist. Both have to change to create the space for the child to change into.

Is it easy - no.

Is it worth it - absolutely!

I came back changed from my week with Jean-Pierre Maes on the Baby ART course and my amazingly wonderful international colleagues from the UK and 8 other countries! Every single person is a part of that journey.

With that my clients immediately changed too! On my first day back

You can ask them.....

01/03/2026

Thank you Physio First for Spotlighting me! 

Working as Paeds Physio and running a business and a family is pretty full on, so it's wonderful when your contribution is shared by your profession. 

I left my NHS role in 2019 - just before COVID and my business has grown and grown through some pretty difficult times. 

My passion for individualised care, supporting families through difficult diagnoses and the analysis and understanding of the way the brain changes in response to a lesion is my super power. 

It is more than preventing contractures and teaching others how to support a child. 

It's about actually developing new connections, understanding what's blocking development, and knowing where to start with the child in front of me in each moment. That could be cognition, psychology, movement, more play, less play, interaction and so much more. 

The interplay of all the systems - which takes me from a "physical" therapist to a physio who understands the brain and how to get the most out of this dynamic organ. 

This only came from M.A.E.S Therapy. Thanks to the brains of Jean-Pierre Maes and the Management support of Jonathan Salsbury that keeps M.A.E.S Therapy International teaching and treating alongside the most wonderful International M.A.E.S Therapy Team.