Ascendotherapy
Alternative therapy project based on climbing
adapted to the different dimensions of the person
Beginning
It all starts when Albert, (current founding partner), loses his leg as a result of a car accident being in the first amputated climbing guide.
Far from slowing down our momentum, the mountain and in particular, climbing, they make Albert a paragliding champion in just 1 year.
Therapy?
The therapeutic of physical exercise added to the natural environment, is indisputable and we want to apply it as a therapy aimed at physical rehabilitation, spatial adaptation and cognitive improvement.
We will receive the support of health professionals to apply the method to follow according to each specific participant.
What does fix?
Cognitive and physical improvement, balance and muscle strengthening, chronic low back pain, lack of motivation ... our project offers a path in all these areas.
It is assimilated to a municipal swimming pool in which physical rehabilitations are carried out, social cohesion activities or cognitive improvement therapies.
How it will be done?
It could be offered as a service given by our activity company. But we want to implement it as a therapy and social project.
We want to have something to offer the community
That is why we want to be a platform, a cooperative, an association, and not a company where our benefit is the need of others.
We need participants to be able to leave the city, at least until they manage to build an adapted climbing wall, it is the most ambitious project.
We know that climbing is an integral activity that exercises all the fields that surround the person: cognitive, emotional, social, physical and environmental. Thus, we will create a complementary therapy based on climbing.
Physical Rehab
- Improves prehensile strength by strengthening the forearm and distal area of the hand
- It strengthens the stabilizing muscles of the body, abdominals and lumbar
- Improves aerobic condition. The intervals of activity and rest, relaxed movements such as simple lifting, with more energetic impulses, train our transferable aerobic capacity on a daily basis.
- Reduce levels of sarcoplasmic hypertrophy by increasing sarcomere hypertrophy which is translated into a reduction of fluids around the muscle fibres making a muscle stronger but less swollen
- Increases relative strength by focusing on the back without forcing it so it uses its own body weight and allows a non-repetitive natural progression
Cognitive Improvement
- Improves self-confidence by overcoming small goals.
- It helps to improve self-assessment and expand personal boundaries.
Proprioception and laterality. It gives us a total awareness of our body, deciding precisely where to put the hand, foot, scapular hip and pelvic hip… - Concentration. It helps us escape from other thoughts due to the attention the activity requires.
- Constant decision-making. The route to follow is chosen quickly as muscle fatigue increases over time until you find the next movement.
- The falls factor. Falls are very common, and climbing is another part of the activity (normalizing them). We acquire strengths that then, unconsciously, help in our routines.
Improves self-control of emotions - It works memory, remembering small series of movements projecting towards oneself in the immediate future.
Autism of high autonomy
- Improves balance and intramuscular proprioception by focusing on joint movement width and flexibility.
- It works fine, medium, thick and dynamic psychomotor coordination
- It is an accompanying activity while maintaining personal space. In this way we encourage the bond by keeping a distance
Social Integration
- It is a sport of values. The challenges are personal, you don’t compete with the other.
- Reduces social stigma, gender, age, physical complexion… with proper accompaniment.
- Responsibilities are achieved, the safety of other people depends on you.
- Confidence in the other is at the same time fundamental.
Be part of a group or sector. Apart from the close bond with the string couple, it is a collective with a solid philosophy and principles. - We develop respect for the natural environment, not only for the environment in which it is practised but also for its sustainability.
It demands discipline, because it promotes the need for perseverance. - We increase the number of rewarding experiences and experiences.
What do we need?
We need people who believe in the project.
That is why we have decided to start with the transparency of this website of mountain guides, bringing this little illusion of our valleys: that our project is yours.
Only in this way will the name Ascendo make sense
What are the guarantees?
Behind this project we not only have mountain guides committed to volunteering and social change.
One of the preceding engines to these words, was the amputation of a leg from one of our guides.
He lost a leg, but gained a life and his motivation serves us as an example.
Albert G, amputated climbing guide is also part of this project.
In the field of psychology we have Dr. Marc R. specialist in neuropsychology … and the graduate Blanca C. specialist in the autism spectrum co-founder of Idea.
In the physical adaptation and rehabilitation we have the trauma surgeon doctor Augusto C. specialized in spine and main advisor in the application of climbing and its benefits with chronic lumbar ailments.
In the social part, the margin is extended, Juliana L, graduated in Sociology working actively in the social integration. Especially interested in monitoring the project in order to provide empirical evidence of ascension therapy and its benefits. Santi B. degree in Sociology and active educator in the field of youth associations against social exclusion, Pepe S, social integrator with experience in physical functional diversity.
Medical studies conducted focused on therapeutic escalation
- Self-esteem. A number of young people were subjected to study before and after a climb on Mount Damavand. The result was that a single session significantly increased the level of self-esteem regardless of the age or gender of the participants. Improving self-esteem is correlated with bodily ailments and their improvement with mental health and depression
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18715127 - Self-efficacy and perception. Children with special needs were questioned by measuring their levels of self-efficacy and self-perception before and after six weeks of climbing sessions. Both insurers and climbers wanted to increase these levels significantly
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19799097 - Depression. Another study looks at climbing as a possible therapy for depression, showing positive results.
Concludes with the need for in-depth research http://bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12888-015-0585-8 - Psychosomatic rehabilitation. A descriptive German clinical report proposes climbing as a therapeutic tool. Patients are led to confront their unconscious behaviour and social and relational patterns. Participants experience a positive social relationship. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19206038/
- Comparative effectiveness. Comparison of psychotherapy study with escalation compared to usual psychotherapy http://bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12888-015-0585-8
Other entities that apply therapeutic climbing
- Escalo-therapié. French association based in Peru where therapeutic climbing is practised with people with Down syndrome, behavioural disorders and autism:
http://escalo-therapie.e-monsite.com/ - Climbing program for TEA in England http://www.aact-climbing.com/index.htm
Italian association linking psychotherapy and climbing http://www.climbingtherapy.it/ - Montagne. French association created in 1995 so that young people and / or adults in difficult situations due to social exclusion, school failure, illness and other disabilities find in the mountains a motivation to help them live together or overcome their situation. http://www.montagne.org/
- In France, a hospital built its own therapeutic climbing wall for rehabilitation. http://www.arfp.asso.fr/fr/un-mur-descalade-a-visee-therapeutique/
- In Austria, a rehabilitation centre uses therapeutic climbing: http://www.nuhr.at/index.php?channel=659&content=10756
Austrian Association of Therapeutic Climbing http://www.climbingtherapy.com/
Social inclusion project in Uruguay through climbing http://www.lamuralla.com.uy/web/Proyecto_Inclusion_Social.php - Experientia Association, in Valencia. Dedicated to therapy through adventure. http://asociacionexperientia.org/, http://asociacionexperientia.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/dossier-de-prensa-abriendo-vc3ada-31-03-2016-06-04-2016.pdf
- Non-profit association in Denver, Colorado developing therapeutic climbing with autistic children. Both on climbing walls and on the rock: https://www.autismclimbs.org/