Anyone who has practised on a climbing wall knows that you never climb in exactly the same way twice. Joints, muscles, ligaments, tendons, fasciae and nerves are stressed and stimulated differently each time. In addition, there is a clear goal – “to reach the top” – and the focus is on enjoying the moment of climbing with all the senses. It is only gradually becoming recognized in Switzerland that climbing walls can be used for effective therapeutic purposes.
Goal: Institute for Therapeutic Climbing
Whether illness, accident or surgery – the 2022 SNE prize winner, Roseline Bestler, knows from her therapeutic practice that body perception, coordination, mobility and strength on the climbing wall can be particularly effective when climbing is accompanied by therapy: “As an instructing, observing and correcting climbing therapist, I also get clues as to where the actual cause of a condition is that manifests itself, for example, in back problems.” Therapeutic movement sequences on the climbing wall are beneficial to children from the age of six to older adults. In addition to physical complaints, certain neurological or psychological conditions are also suitable for treatment.
Bestler, who herself completed a two-year additional training course in Germany, wants to give more attention to therapeutic climbing in Switzerland. Together with an existing specialist group, she is in the process of creating a Swiss-wide range of further training courses. The SNE Sponsorship Award of CHF 5,000 is helping her to get a little closer to achieving her goal.
Award ceremony at the SNE Symposium on 30 September / 1 October 2022, Landhaus Solothurn
Roseline Bestler will present the concept of therapeutic climbing at this year’s SNE Symposium on 1 October 2022; the evening before, she will be presented with the SNE Sponsorship Award 2022.
Legends
1) Roseline Bestler, winner of the SNE Sponsorship Award 2022
2) Roseline Bestler supports a patient with scoliosis
photos: Fritz Moser
