Brunnstrom Approach

The Brunnstrom Approach is a therapeutic intervention developed by Swedish physical therapist Signe Brunnstrom for treating hemiplegia following a stroke. It establishes a sequence of stages describing how motor recovery typically unfolds, and it emphasizes the synergic movement patterns, involuntary flexor and extensor muscle groupings, that emerge during that healing process. Rather than suppressing these early synergies, the approach encourages patients to develop and use them in the earliest recovery phases, with the aim that this synergic activation of muscles will, with training, transition into voluntary, controlled movement.