June 2008                                                            Newsletter--p.2

...From Leigh

   

 

Taking the Brain by Storm

On the Wings of Angels is offering hope to adults with cognitive difficulties through their H.A.L.O. (Helping Adults Learn Optimally) program. This program aimed at providing stimulating and enriching opportunities to enhance brain function utilizes The Serper Method™.

            The Serper Method™, created out of necessity by Dr. Lynn Lazarus Serper, has very interesting beginnings. Dr. Serper suffered a brain aneurysm and stroke, which resulted in aphasia, at 48 years of age.  She then recovered and went on to earn her Doctorate, and develop The Serper Method™ based on her experience with exercises she developed and utilized for her personal rehabilitation.  Dr. Serper shares in her inspirational book, Brainstorming, how she went from stroke victim to stroke survivor through professional and personal rehabilitiation.

            Prior to the aneurysm/stroke, Dr. Serper had been a teacher for children with learning disabilities and had completed her course work in a doctoral program at the University of Massachusetts – Amherst.  Five years after suffering the ruptured aneurysm, Dr. Serper completed her dissertation and received her doctorate in Cognitive Education.  In 1999 Brain Enhancement Services, Inc. was incorporated and in 2002 was awarded a grant from the Hass Memorial Trust Fund to investigate, in affiliation with the Boston University School of Medicine, cognitive intervention using The Serper Method™ as a Brain Enhancement Strengthening Treatment (BEST). Additional programs and research details on The Serper Method™ can be found on her website, www.serpermethod.com .

            Cindy Murdoch, mentored by Dr. Serper, has become the first Certified Cognitive Educator for the Serper Method™ in the state of Texas. Ms. Murdoch heads up On the Wings of Angels’ H.A.L.O. program providing opportunities for all persons in all settings to have the chance to care for his or her own brain health.

"Cindy Murdoch is an excellent person to bring The Serper Method™ to Texas.  Cindy is a talented, knowledgeable and gifted teacher," states Dr. Serper.  “I've had the pleasure of working with Cindy, and I am extremely pleased with her excellent skills and creativity in using The Serper Method™ as a tool for memory, logic and reasoning, problem solving, thinking skills and as a treatment for most conditions that arise from brain illness or injury.”

“. . . a faith in possiblities for the human mind,” quoted from Dr. Serper is what On The Wings of Angels H.A.L.O. program is all about. It was developed and designed to improve cognitive skills, social skills, and memory for all ages, and is a challenging, yet non-frustrating way to exercise healthy, and newly developing, brain cells with the goal of maintaining brain strength.  The aim is to build and rebuild access to previous and current learning that often forms an individual’s thought and memory.  The program can provide stimulating and enriching opportunities to enhance brain function.

The format is based upon educational theories, reaching back into old memories using stories, history, and geography, and stimulating new connections by means of various activities. The key strategy of success is that the exercises are purposeful and relevant, providing ways to refill the memory banks and through the process, enhance social interactions and self-worth.

            Research and study groups, both using The Serper Method™, have shown that individuals with dementia (including Alzheimer’s), tramautic brain injury, stroke, aphasia, and chemo therapy induced cognitive decline display increases in cognitive skills and speech fluency as well as growth in self-confidence, independence, increase in social initiative and more ease with social conversations.     

“I feel like my brain is waking up,” is a sentiment shared by many participants of the H.A.L.O. Program. Additional insights from participants in Denton include a statement made by a very perceptive individual, “I’m more alert and aware of what’s going on around me. I was kind of looking through a tunnel, and now I feel like I have peripheral vision.”

Another shared, “I’m better able to plow through the fog caused by my medications. Challenging the brain to go places it hasn’t gone in a long time. It’s making me think in ways I haven’t needed to think in a long time. It’s providing me with the opportunity to reach for knowledge I haven’t had before.”

A daughter who had come to visit her mother called to report, “Mom, didn’t ask me the same things over and over again. We were able to carry on a real conversation. It was great!”

 

If you would like to order Dr. Serper’s book BRAINSTORMING: The Serper Method of Brain Recovery, Regrowth, and Vitality, visit her website at www.serpermethod.com  “Her amazing story of recovery is an inspiration to all who read it. You’ll see why I think her middle name, Lazarus, is so prophetic,” shares Cindy Murdoch.

If you would like more information on the H.A.L.O. program, contact Cindy Murdoch at (940) 391-8751 or caringangels@att.net .

 

Helping Adults Learn Optimally