Today we’d like to introduce you to Amanda Perla
Hi Amanda, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
On April 21, 2007, at just 18 years old and a senior in high school, I was the passenger in a car accident that changed my life forever. In the accident I broke my neck and suffered a C6 spinal cord injury. Prior to my injury, I was very adventurous and I danced competitively for 7 years. Coming from such an active past, I found myself searching the internet for more aggressive and challenging types of therapy for spinal cord injuries. I found a recovery center called NextStep in Southern California and began making trips out there for their activity-based therapy program. Then in 2009, my mother and I founded NextStep Orlando, a 501(c)3 nonprofit paralysis recovery center, to bring access to this type of recovery program to the southeast. Today, we are still going strong! I work part time at the facility and train 3 times a week. We have been host to clients with an array of neurological disorders from all of the US and the world!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
After the car accident that left me paralyzed, I spent the next 6 months at a rehabilitation center in Atlanta, Georgia learning to adapt to a new life in a wheelchair and then came home to Orlando, Florida to continue my physical therapy. However, I found traditional physical therapy wasn’t challenging me. There was no focus on regaining movement or maintaining a health lifestyle and while there was a fitness center on every other corner for abled body individuals, there were no options or adaptive gyms for people living with disabilities. That is, until we opened NextStep Orlando Paralysis Recovery Center!
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about NextStep Orlando Paralysis Recovery Center?
NextStep Orlando is an affordable, state-of-the-art, community-based paralysis recovery and fitness center. By offering standardized activity-based therapy programs and interventions, based on research; our center provides the best chance for recovery, independence, and health. Specializing in Activity-Based Therapy, we are the only non-profit paralysis recovery center in the SouthEast to become an approved Community Fitness & Wellness Affiliate of The Victory Over Paralysis NeuroRecovery Network (“NRN.”) lead by Dr. Susan Harkema. The NRN provides support for the development of specialized facilities that provide standardized activity-based recovery interventions based on current scientific evidence for people with neurological disorders for recovery of Function, Health, and Quality of Life!!
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
With more research, more companies like Neuralink and more technology like exoskeletons, the future for paralysis recovery and possibly a cure it is at an exciting and pivotal time right now. Activity Based Therapy, what we offer at NextStep Orlando, is also becoming more recognized by medical professionals as an effective recovery program for maintaining a healthy lifestyle and a quality of life while living with paralysis. There is also a big shift in our culture happening right now to make the world more accessible and inclusive for people with disabilities. I think in the next 5-10 years we can expect more advancements in the both rehabilitative technology and accessibility!
Pricing:
- Guided Exercise $100 an hour
- NeuroMuscular Stimulation $110 an hour
- Locomotor Treadmill Training $120 an hour
- EksoSkeleton Robotic Gait Training $120 an hour
- Theratrainer Robotic Gait Training $120 an hour
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.nextsteporlando.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nextsteporlando
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nextsteporlando
- Twitter: https://www.x.com/nextsteporl
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ProjectWalkOrlandoFL
- Other: https://secure.qgiv.com/event/15thwrt/
Image Credits
Santiago, Ryan, Javonte, Alek, Amanda, Liza, Logan, Jorge, Rachel
