Spiral Movement Center

Our intensives are designed for any child or adult with special needs and disabilities, regardless of severity, who have a strong desire to make progress and learn more about their bodies. The intensives are designed to help people achieve new gross motor and somatic milestones. The intensive will explore learning key movement skills, releasing blocks and contractures in the body, and achieving a deeper internal self-awareness.

We have two rooms with a maximum total occupancy of 5-6 people. The main guest room on the 2nd floor has a pull-out trundle bed as well as a folding couch, in addition to a Queen-sized bed. The third-floor guest room has two single bunk beds.

Accommodation at the Center costs approximately $100 per night, per room. There are two rooms available.

Board is not included in the rental cost for residents. We do provide a fully equipped modern kitchen with lots of cupboard space, fridge, and freezer space to accommodate your needs. Personal fridges are available in both of our guest rooms as well.

The Center is equipped with state of the art, ultra-quiet laundry and dryer machines for our guests.

We normally recommend two 1-hour sessions a day for your child, each day, for the duration of the intensive. Rest is an important part of an intensive, so sessions are usually widely spaced apart throughout the day. There are also optional breaks on weekends. The timing of the two daily sessions can be adjusted to meet you and your child’s needs.

Not at all. There are many excellent AirBnb hosts in downtown Toronto and we are happy to assist you in locating accommodation close to the Center for the duration of your visit.

The Center has one available guest parking spot behind the building. Please consult our Visitor Guide for directions to the parking spot, as well as the availability of street parking.

At this time, the Center does not provide child care or babysitting services for our guests.

The ground floor of the Center is wheelchair accessible. The guest rooms however are on the 2nd and 3rd floors, only accessible via stairs. We are happy to provide assistance navigating the stairs.

There is a shared bathroom and a kitchen on the same floor as the main guest room. We offer towels, blankets, and tissues for your use. The Center is equipped with a toaster, electric kettle, microwave, dishwasher, laundry and dryer, high definition televisions in both guest rooms, and high-speed internet access. We also provide a stroller, a sled, and a high seat for your child’s use. However, please check in with us to ensure all your needs can be properly accommodated.

Costs vary depending on several factors, including the duration of your stay, length of sessions, your financial situation, and if your family will be will be staying as residents at the Spiral Movement Center. All intensives require an up-front payment 1 month prior to the start date. Please look at our permission form for our refund policy.

An intensive ranges from 1 week up to 1 month. We normally recommend 2 weeks. Contact us to discuss options and we can help you determine the optimal length of your stay.

Our staff follows the guidelines provided by Toronto Public Health. We wear masks. provide hand sanitizer for all our clients and sanitize our equipment between sessions. If any staff or clients observe symptoms of COVID-19 we will inform you ahead of time and cancel our sessions.

We work with a wide range of disabilities and conditions at the Spiral Movement Center including autism, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, global developmental delay, genetic disorders, and many other challenges in the special needs/disability spectrum. The reason why we are able to work with such a wide range of children is because Adapted Spiral Praxis is a universal process of motor integration. Despite the immense differences between various conditions, we believe that the underlying process of re-education is the same in every child. Thus, in Adapted Spiral Praxis, we are more concerned with the individual needs of each child, rather than their diagnosis. Further, each child, even with the same diagnosis, often requires something different in order to fully realize their potential. For some children it is a strong and sustained focus on bodywork and releasing physical contractures; for others, an approach that focuses on gross motor development may be what is needed. Some children come in with very mild concerns, for example poor motor sequencing skills or behavioural issues, or an untapped desire for creative expression. Regardless of the diagnosis or symptoms, we will find a way to make progress with your child by tailoring our therapy to their needs. Underlying all our approaches is the core truth that children love to move, and we will do whatever we can to empower them to do just that.

No, we are not currently covered by OHIP. Some of our clients use Special Services at Home funding or Autism Ontario funding to pay for their sessions.

Every child is different. They have different disabilities or limitations, and different ways and speeds of learning. We have had some children undergo very rapid and awe inspiring transformation in as few as three or four sessions, from unwilling to do any activities to gleefully taking on new and increasingly harder challenges, while other children may take longer to see the fruits of their efforts — again, depending on many factors. We hold transformation as a necessity and make constant adjustments in our therapy to ensure that progress in one form or another is always happening, and almost all of our clients see significant changes within 8-10 sessions, if not even sooner. The results you can expect depend on where the child is starting. For a child with severe contractures, we may expect to see improved mobility and relaxation in their limbs and torso. For a child without any physical mobility issues but who lacks coordination, we may expect them to quickly integrate a range of new gross motor skills. Movement is itself transformative, and can lead to positive change in unexpected ways as well. Some families have reported their children with autism becoming increasingly self-regulated and happier, for example.

At this time we are only located in Toronto, Canada. We have plans however to begin offering Adapted Spiral Praxis intensives in different locations around the world. In the Summer of 2019 we held a two-week intensive in San Francisco, and once lockdown conditions permit we plan to the UK to hold a mini-intensive with a number of families with a rare genetic condition known as AADC. Please contact us if you would be interested in having an intensive in your area in the future.

Currently travel is not possible due to the ongoing pandemic. However, in normal circumstances we do travel and intend to resume our travel plans once lockdown conditions permit. In the past we have travelled to San Francisco and the UK to work directly with clients with severe disabilities. We have been in discussions as well with families in India, the Philippines, and South America for the possibility of hosting intensives or workshops in those areas. We will notify all our recipients of our newsletter once hosting and travel become a possibility again.

We are currently offering a series of online, 5-day workshops to become certified in the Adapted Spiral Praxis Motion and Adapted Yoga programs, throughout the year. Receive Spiral Praxis teacher training certification after one year. As well, these programs count towards receiving the ISMETA Registered Somatic Movement Educator and Registered Somatic Movement Therapist designations. Please visit https://adaptedspiralpraxis.com/certification for more details and to register.

Please feel free to reach out to us using the contact form at the bottom of this page. We would love to hear from you and would be happy to answer any inquiries you have.

Our doors are open to all children who have an interest in learning to move and heal their bodies. We welcome you to contact us for a free assessment of your child to determine if working with us would be a good fit.

Our private sessions are tailored to the needs of each individual child. Some children require bodywork to prepare their bodies for movement. Other children require experience in fundamental gross motor skills. More advanced children can begin to explore sequencing, movement coordinations, and even creativity and personal expression. We work with each child based on their interests and what they love to do, and create lesson plans ideally suited for them to make enjoyable and rapid progress. Our movement curriculum consists of 12 basic gross motor skills, including rolling, jumping, bear crawling, and hopping. We also explore adapted yoga and fitness activities such as hanging, situps, and lifting weights. All our activities are modified to the needs and abilities of each child. No child is ever pushed to do something they do not want to do, or are incapable of doing. But we will challenge your child to explore new activities and expand beyond their comfort zone!

While our central focus is on children, we do occasionally work with adults with disabilities as well. Please don't hesitate to contact us to see if your child or loved one would be a good fit for our Center.

We value safety above all else. We always have at least two highly trained staff members present to ensure that the utmost safety is observed in all activities. Our therapy is completely non-intrusive, and we will never push a child to do anything they don't want to do. We don't believe that pushing into pain has any beneficial value, and in fact is harmful to the happiness and development of children.

In special circumstances we do offer online sessions to help parents and caregivers work with their children. Given the current pandemic, we recognize the increased importance of being able to access effective services for your child remotely. Please contact us if you are interested in working with us online.

Normally we have three staff present and one instructor in each class. Class sizes vary from 4-10 students. Classes are structured in such a way to ensure that students have their personal needs addressed. If necessary, a dedicated staff person will be assigned to work with a child, though we strive to have all participants learn independence and the ability to remain calm throughout the class.

Adapted Yoga is for everyone. All yoga poses can be modified or adapted in some way to make them doable regardless of each person's mobility. If, for example, a pose calls for squatting and this is too difficult, a chair can be provided and used instead. There is benefit in being able to do the poses even in an adapted way, and we take great joy in helping people discover creative ways to explore their bodies and take part in yoga.

We are still planning to offer small group classes, within the limits mandated by Toronto Public Health and the Ontario Government, in the Fall of 2020. Currently, class size will be restricted to 4 students maximum. Enrolment is first come first served. Please contact us to register.