Testimonials

It’s one thing to read information provided by an organization concerning its benefits…and another to hear about those benefits directly from people who have experienced them. For that reason, we are pleased to present testimonials from a number of Awakenings Health Institute clients. We really don’t like to “blow our own horn,” but we love when clients do it for us.

Hey!! I was so excited, I almost called you yesterday.... So glad you told me I should mush on myself wherever I could reach. Literally struggling to breathe all day Tues. Started mushing around my scalene & neck & started to b able to breathe better! AND I had lost the feeling I had gained in my hand in just those few days. I immediately started getting feeling back the 1st night I started mushing!!! Been mushing every night! Getting more & more feeling in my hands & arms!!! Not totally normal, but more than before. I was almost all numb.

So, we will be working out starting this week!!!! AHI whipped me!!! It showed me how out of shape I was. I don't ever want that to happen again. But also reminded me of the potential of the human body by the positive ways it has responded!! That's exciting!! ALSO, it re-enforces how crucial exercise WITH massage & acupuncture is to recovery than just exercise.

Thank you for such as awesome week!!!!! EVERYTHING was perfectly what I needed!! ALL of your staff is awesome!!! Thank you for sharing more about your recovery & a "little counseling" with the message. That was extremely helpful. I've got to get the emotional side well just as much.

Thanks for being such a role model -- as a person & a business I would like to be similar to -- with my own fingerprint, of course!!!

I can't wait to go back!! I'm already thinking ahead to when the 1 week intensive or 3-wk intensive would be possible for me 1. physically & 2. financially.... Physically, mostly!
Please tell everyone at AHI how much I enjoyed being with them & they all touched my life!!!

Talk to you soon!! Take care!!!

I want to thank you for your hospitality. I definitely enjoyed my time at AHI. It truly was a great experience that has opened my eyes to so much. I am so impressed with the level of care AHI provides to each of your clients. Please let them know that I am incredibly appreciative for their participation and willingness to help with my study.

If you need anything from me or UCSD, please let me know. I am actually president of a sorority here, and would love to have my girls lend a hand if you need help with anything. If you're doing any sort of fundraising for AHI or need help around the facility, let me know. It would be awesome to maybe help sponsor a client- do a fundraiser to help them pay for some of the alternative medicine treatments they could otherwise not afford.

Thank you again for everything!

Once again Laura I want to thank you and Awakenings for helping us. You guys have been a blessing to us it has been very hard for us to get any type of assistance and you guys didn’t turn us away even though we don’t have money. You guys have made us feel like family and that I will always remember. Also my son wants to help in any way he can so Awakenings can get more funding to help other people like him. He wants you to know if you need him for a fundraiser event or anything, he is there. He and his friends have started to collect cans and plastic bottles to raise money for Awakenings to help people. He is planning on surprising you guys. I also want you to know that he is score the highest score in math quiz in his class. Well once again thank you Laura I will see you soon and may god bless you and Awakenings. Thank You

He has benefited so much from Awakenings; he is no longer on any pain medication, he is now able to hold his head up for a longer time, and one of his greatest achievements is he has been breathing over the vent and he is getting stronger everyday to hopefully become less dependent or even do away with the machine. Awakenings has been a blessing in our lives and is making it possible for him to continue improving with his goal of getting stronger, healthier and getting off the vent.

Dear friend,

What is it now, three -- four years later? Maybe less. I have just finished watching the movie Awakenings for the first time!

I wanted to write you while my eyes were still wet.

I was quite stricken by the movie, as you may imagine. Specifically, thinking of you and the dedication and effort you have brought to me and so many others. That critical feature of the friendship you have brought, the character of persistence and unyielding faith combined with commitment and hard work, has been of inestimable value. That quality has been perhaps the single most important ingredient in all the physical recovery I have gained to date.

I don't know the course I will take, the practices, therapies, friendships, procedures, or anything else, but I am determined to recover the ability of my body from the spinal cord injury that has rendered it so devoid of familiar function. You have helped me to hold that course, and your friendship, as it has been, will remain, like a homeopathic - as true as support for that as the day we met.

But that is not the whole story. I am writing you now, not to tell you about the work and inspiration you see everyday in your gym, but rather about the living it has helped to produce. My life today is richer and fuller both in what I receive, and what I hope to give than it has been at any point prior in my lifetime. It is clear to me that this is in no small part due to the lifeline your work, coming straight from your heart, has provided. Many things are possible, and I experience it to be true that for the strength of support I was shown, I had ground to grow myself.

I may not be walking today. You or I or anyone we know may not have any clear idea of how I might walk one day. But we hold the vision that one day I very well may, and we can imagine what that might look like, and so for that it is that we continue to work to make that vision a reality.

To paraphrase a line from a favorite movie:

"What person is a person that does not make the world a better place?"
Thank you for being a person in my world.

My relationship with AHI rehabilitation facility is similar to my family and or my closest friends.

I have been training at the rehabilitation center for over 2 years now.

AHI trainers have helped me to build strength [i.e. core strengthening which has lead to an improvement with my balance, and in turn has corrected my posture greatly]. I have regained the ability to use my right arm which has enabled me the ability to drive my power chair with my right arm now. I also began to experience signs of trace movements throughout my legs through weekly repetitive, continual exercise and use of both gait trainer / FES bike. As a result it has empowered me to make better connections with walking, improved my range of motion, loosened my legs and arms, and attempted to use a manual wheelchair.

My acupuncture therapist Adam is an amazing person both as a therapist and a friend. In the 2 years we have been working together I can say I’m quite satisfied with our progress we have been making. For example stimulating my body before and after therapy allows me to make connections with different parts of my body I have current and nonexistent, absent function with. Dealing with pain issues, controlling my body temperature, and my spasms’ are just a few ongoing problems Adam is allowing me to overcome. Always at my side, he has been instrumental in developing my perseverance, maintaining my fortitude, and mental health. Consequently he has been successful in improving my overall mental and physical condition.

The AHI staff has always been more than helpful for me and my family’s needs from anything to accommodating me with my schedule changes, nutrition consultations, to assisting with fundraising activities and message therapies. They are an outstanding holistic approach to mental and physical rehabilitation facility. In my estimation I would highly recommend to anyone to this facility.

Additional I have experienced inner peace, reduction of anxiety and focus of effort. For me achieving a quiet in your head takes you to the center of yourself, where discovery blossoms and is "part of working on oneself to develop your inner capacity". I truly believe I am an example of their mission statement, ‘’Increasing the quality of life by Improving functionality of individuals one life at a time’’.

"When you decide to take control of your recovery you can’t go wrong with Awakenings Health Institution. Laura Karch-Capitelli is an expert trainer, and an accomplished director."

"I’m glade that I started working out regularly. It has improved my life in several ways. I regained sense of hunger. I got rid of the chest strap. I have good circulation, no problems with edema or pressure sores. I hardly think about weight shifts! My body has regained the ability to sweat below the level of injury and has better temperature control. I could list much more, but basically I feel better mentally, and physically. I have more ability, and need less care, and have more independence."

"After returning home in 2004, and working with two trainers at a local gym for five years I realized that my workouts were in a rut. I had a spinal cord injury in April, 2000 (level C6&7 ASIA A.) I had a very complete injury, but now I can crawl on hands and knees. I have made a lot of progress, but needed to upgrade the workout."

"I was a client at Awakenings for only a week in May, 2009, but I first met Laura when she was a personal trainer at another spinal injury recovery facility. Even then I could tell she was already a skilled trainer with a lot of insight."

"AHI has made an extraordinary impact on my life by helping me become physically and mentally stronger and more confident to live my life with no limits. I am now achieving my goal of independence by driving myself and not needing as much caregiving. The AHI staff are very competent, caring, and fun to work with! In addition, I am building a community of other differing-abled people that I can learn how to overcome the many challenges we face with a spinal cord injury. The combination of holistic therapies and physical training has resulted in continuous improvement in the quality of my life and relationships."

"I have been a client at AHI since October of 2007. Ten months after suffering a severe C-3/C-5 spinal cord injury, my friend Paul Jacobson (another client of AHI) encouraged me to visit Awakenings and talk to Laura about my prospects for rehabilitation. Although I had learned to walk again, and could move my upper extremities, I was very disappointed about my inability to make any further progress. Laura and another associate convinced me that they could help improve my physical abilities and I started therapy later that week. Over the last 20 months AHI has helped me learn about multiple approaches to healing and recovery in an encouraging but challenging environment. AHI’s knowledgeable team members understand how my body responds to different therapies and makes adjustments to continue helping me get better. Progress can sometimes be slow, but I have come a long way. I still have a long way to go, but AHI has restored confidence in my ability to continue the awakening process of recovery."

“I started at Awakenings Health Institute for pre-surgical gait analysis and strength training about seven months ago. I told Laura that ‘I feel like I am 47 going on 1,’ as I have cerebral palsy. This neurological disorder, for which there is no cure, affects 750,000 Americans. When I started here, it was all about the pre- and post-surgical rehab. Now, it’s all about me and my physical health. For the first time in 15 years, my cholesterol and glucose blood levels are down. These are things you do not see on the outside. What you do see on the outside is me standing up straighter, a sturdier gait, a stronger core, and I am now sitting up on the floor, unsupported, for the first time in my life. However, the biggest gift that Awakenings is giving to me is learning to trust in myself.”

Dreaming of running on the beach,
Angela Gould

“I have been here since the beginning with Heather and Laura. In fact, I think that I was the first at Awakenings. My experience here has been wonderful. Everyone is very courteous and caring. I feel like we all work together as one big, happy family. They are very accommodating and work with our schedules to get the most out of the work outs. I am a quad and I feel that the training and care that I have received here has helped my progress and strength more than anything else. The service they provide is so valuable and has helped many. The center is beautiful and warm and the trainers make the workouts fun and keep us motivated to strive for more.”

Karin

“Well, I think that Awakenings is just the thing to give me that boost. It keeps my mind and life progressing in a positive direction and has been very beneficial in my recovery. Everyone is friendly, courteous, and so caring. It really helps to keep me motivated and my head in the game. I would recommend Awakenings to anyone in need of physical therapy or training.”

Betty

“The Awakenings Faculty has a group of top quality, highly skilled trainers and experienced practitioners. They are professionally committed to a higher quality of personal training and treatments and they get excellent results. They are committed to providing emotional, motivational and spiritual growth to help achieve your inner strength and goals. I believe that I could not have found a more caring, concerned and helpful group of professionals. “

Joe Radzikowski

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Testimonials