Heidi Massa: You’ve made an innovative collaboration with wild river dolphins in your work with disabled children. Where do you do this?
Igor Simões Andrade: In a rural area about forty kilometers from Manaus, a Brazilian city founded in the late 1600s in the heart of the Amazon rain forest.
HM: Manaus is a fascinating place, isn’t it?
ISA: Absolutely! It’s the capital city of the state of Amazonas, and sits at the confluence of Rio Negro and Rio Solimões, which join to form the Amazon River. It’s about 900 miles inland of the Atlantic Ocean. Even with about 2 million residents, this most populous city in the Amazon rain forest is accessed mostly by boat or airplane. In the late 1800s, rubber made Manaus the richest city in South America and earned it the nickname, Paris of the Tropics. Many wealthy European families settled here, bringing with them European culture. For example, the 700-seat Amazonas Opera House, established in 1896, was built with bricks brought from Europe, glass from France, and marble from Italy. More recently, in 2014, Manaus was one of the host cities for the FIFA World Cup.
HM: And your work might make Manaus famous for another reason – Bototerapia. Tell us – do your clients come to you only for Rolfing® Structural Integration (SI), or do you have other certifications as well?
ISA: Besides being a Certified Rolfer since 2005 and Rolf Movement Practitioner, I’m a physiotherapist. The dolphins assist me in both practices.
HM: When most of us think of dolphins, we imagine large ocean mammals. But the ones you work with are different. Please tell us a bit about them.
ISA: I work with the wild river dolphins of the Amazon. In Portuguese, we call them boto cor de rosa, or pink dolphin; but their scientific name is Innia Geofrensis. Botos are smaller than ocean dolphins, growing to about two meters (6.5 feet) in length and 200 kilos (450 pounds).
HM: Wow – these wild animals just show up voluntarily to help you treat disabled kids?
ISA: Yes – exactly.
HM: What’s their social structure in the wild?
ISA: Their lifestyle is solitary for the most part, although they sometimes form groups to hunt.
HM: YouTube has lots of videos showing you and the botos working with disabled children.1 Do the botos assist you with other kinds of clients, as well?
ISA: Oh, yes. We work together with all types of clients, both children and adults, those with and without physical deficiencies.
HM: When did you begin working with disabled children?
ISA: About twenty years ago, I started treating children with Down’s Syndrome through Capoeira Angola – a Brazilian martial art form.2 Besides improving physical strength and dexterity, capoeira enhances rhythm, coordination, and spatial and social perception. These days, the botos and I work with Down’s Syndrome, autism, cerebral palsy, and congenital malformations, among other things.
HM: Do disabled children constitute a large part of your practice today?
ISA: Unfortunately, no. I can make them only a small part because when they are in need, I treat them free of charge.
HM: How did you come to involve the botos into your treatment of these children?
ISA: Around 1998, before I changed my professional direction and became a Rolfer
I got about halfway through school for veterinary medicine, which is where I first learned about equine therapy and dolphin therapy. At that time, dolphin-assisted therapy was happening only in other countries with captive animals, so I decided to try it here with the wild river dolphins. The children get lots of fun and pleasure from the water work.
HM: When you put a child in the water with the botos, do you have an intention beyond inducing pleasurable sensations?
ISA: Several things. First of all, I get the child’s attention to engage him in the treatment. Then, for example, I’m facilitating his finding a relationship with nature; experiencing undulation of the spine; heightening his senses of touch and proprioception; and reducing pressure in the joints. It’s about sensation, relaxation, and play – all at the same time!
HM: How do you integrate the water work with the botos into a regular Rolfing session?
ISA: Over the past nine years of working in the water with botos, I’ve developed many highly effective techniques. For example, I have ways to manipulate the ribs so as to achieve the First-Hour goal of greater respiratory amplitude. Everything is adapted to the client’s particular pathology – but when clients resonate the sounds of the botos’ breathing and vocalizations, their own respiration.
Figure 1: Igor treating a child on a mat, with mothers and other children gathered around.
HM: Do you use special tools for work in
the water?
ISA: Yes. For example, there is a partially submerged platform with some stairs that a person can sit on. The client’s mother can sit on the stairs with the client on her lap, front to the mother and back to me. With the client in this position (see Figure 2), I can work to align the spine and to address scoliotic curvatures. Treating children with scoliosis in an aquatic environment has allowed me to invent, develop, and investigate various maneuvers that render the scoliotic pattern more adaptable. Because the impact of gravity is reduced by the client’s immersion in water, the buoyancy of which provides flexible support, intervertebral pressure is reduced. This, in turn, allows space between the vertebrae and micromovements among them. It facilitates three-axis spinal movement and helps to restore function in the spine as a whole.
Figure 2: Spinal work on the water platform.
HM: Does working with the botos enhance the quality of your manual work with connective tissue?
ISA: It certainly does! It stimulates and challenges me, letting me be more creative and attentive, as well as more intuitive. I make a point of swimming with them and playing ball with them at the start of my day – in part so that I know which of them is present. As I connect with them, and through them with the natural environment, my own perceptions are heightened.
HM: In the YouTube videos, they seem really curious and friendly. Are they typically like that?
ISA: For the most part, yes. That’s how they behave when humans are calm and respectful towards them.
HM: Do they work well with children in particular?
ISA: Though botos work well with all kinds of humans, they seem somehow to be especially present with children. For example, during our sessions, they are highly attuned to a child’s crying or apprehension.
HM: Do you need to teach individual botos to interact with the children?
ISA: In the beginning, I worked with them extensively. Before exposing them to the first group of children back in 2006, I logged over 500 hours of diving and interacting with them. In the process, I came to recognize and really like many of them individually.
HM: These days, do you work with certain botos in particular?
ISA: I work with several of the wild ones who live near me in the Rio Negro. Each day brings a pleasant surprise – seeing who’s showing up for duty.
HM: Have you given them names?
ISA: For sure: Menteco, Edna, Panqueca, Mucuim, Pretim . . .
HM: Do you compensate the botos for their
services?
ISA: In a sense, yes. I support species conservation in many ways, and have put a great deal of effort into gathering information about them and documenting how they’re affected by human activities. And of course, I reward them with fish after our sessions.
Figure 3: Igor feeding a fish to a boto.
HM: Are you doing any kind of formal research regarding your work with the botos?
ISA: Though I respond to inquiries as best I can, because I have no sponsors at the moment, I lack the resources to launch a formal research project – or even to include in this work everyone who asks to participate. I am seeking research partners and financial sponsors. Given the current political and economic challenges here in Brazil, our work is proceeding without the slightest backing from anyone – and surely the botos deserve better than that!
HM: Do you have any suggestions for readers who are interested in the possibilities of engaging aquatic mammals in Rolfing SI?
ISA: Next year I will offer a workshop here in the Amazon for Rolfers who would like to experience working with the botos in natural surroundings, and to explore the botos’ therapeutic potential for their clients, whether disabled or not. I would be pleased to provide more information to anyone who is interes
To learn more about Bototerapia or to contact Igor Simões Andrade, visit www.bototerapia.com.
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