The Upledger Foundation and The Ricky Williams Foundation Concussion Program.
Five former professional football players, including Ricky Williams, recently participated in the five-day intensive manual therapy concussion program and preliminary pilot research project at the Upledger Institute Clinic in Palm Beach Gardens. The intensive program was designed for football players with a predisposition to Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE).
The players were treated by 23 therapists from around the U.S., Canada, France and Australia. Therapies utilized during this program were primarily CranioSacral Therapy, Visceral Manipulation and Neural Manipulation.
The objective of this study was to demonstrate that advanced therapies administered by certified, licensed manual therapists would help to alleviate the symptoms of post concussion syndrome.
Ricky Williams, who played professional football for 12 seasons and, like all players, suffered repeated trauma to his head and body during his career, strongly supports this pilot program. In describing one of his best seasons as a player, Williams said, “During the summer before the 2009 football season, I went through the CranioSacral Intensive Program at The Upledger Institute looking to deal with some nagging physical complaints I had from past injuries. I ended up getting the relief I was looking for and much more. I credit much of my well-being and my 1000 yard season to the multi-modality manual therapy program I experienced at Upledger.”
The Ricky Williams Foundation is teaming up with the Upledger Institute Clinic treatment using Upledger CranioSacral Therapy, Barral Neural Manipulation and Barral Visceral Manipulation. The results from this study are far reaching. Not only can these manual therapies help people with sustained repeated trauma, such as with professional football players, but also those who have been in many types of accidents.