This program of Mental Movement Therapy was primarily designed and developed by Randy Stark, a physical therapist in Austin, TX, and owner of Stark Rehab, LLC. He collaborated with various physical therapists, occupational therapists, nurses and physicians for components of the program. Randy studied Kinesiology, Athletic Training and Psychology in undergraduate school, and then went on to receive his Masters in Physical Therapy from the University of Oklahoma. Over the past 10 years he has been working with patients in every setting and stage of rehabilitation, from the acute care hospital to inpatient and outpatient rehab facilities. For the past 2 years, he has been providing physical therapy treatment to people in their homes. His friends and colleagues would describe him as a constant seeker, learner and questioner of the status quo. Simply relying on the standard treatments he learned in school was never an option.
Through his interaction with patients, he became aware of the important role that mental movement could play in rehab after a stroke. His search for the most effective rehab techniques led him to begin personally guiding his patients through mental practice of the movements and tasks they were working on in therapy. Then he realized that it would be more efficient for the patients to perform this on their own time, rather than during the therapy treatment. He looked for a product that would guide his patients through mental practice of specific rehab movements, but couldn’t find one. So he made one. He started with a simple unedited recording, and gave it to his patients on cd. They loved it! And over time, they showed improved ability to move their arms and legs and increased motivation by the fact that they now had a tool to become more active in their own recovery. He found himself making more and more cds for different specific movements, improving the quality and technique with each.
Randy says, “Sometimes I’m a slow learner, but it finally hit me! If I was searching for this type of rehab tool, but couldn’t find it, maybe there were other people looking for the same thing. And I could potentially touch the lives of stroke survivors everywhere, rather than just one patient at a time.”