One man is on a mission to heal, and he’s doing it by empowering physical therapists with the unique tool of magic.
After a serious car crash years ago, illusionist Kevin Spencer ended up in neurological intensive care with brain and spinal cord injuries. He spent nearly a year in physical therapy and grew tired of the repetitive process that wasn’t working quickly enough. It was then that Spencer realized the movements required to do the simple magic tricks he learned as a child, were the same kinds of movements that he was doing in traditional forms of therapy. He soon after developed the Healing of Magic program, and has been teaching the skills to occupational therapists across the globe.
The most important aspect of this therapy technique is the ability of the client to transfer the skills learned by performing magic tricks into activities related to daily life.
“Some of the things that we found, for instance with a stroke client, it may take them 20 to 24 weeks of traditional therapy in order to move them to their goals. But when you put a magic trick into that process, often we see them reach those same goals at 10 weeks or 11 weeks, almost half the time,” says Spencer.
Watch this Need to Know segment as Kevin Spencer demonstrates the technique for physical and occupational therapy students at Nazareth College.
