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Joaquin Farias | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1973 (age 51–52) Murcia, Spain |
| Citizenship | Canada |
| Occupation | Neuroscientist |
| Known for | Farias Technique |
| Notable work |
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| Website | fariastechnique |
Joaquin Farias (born 1973) is a Spanish-born Canadian neuroscientist, researcher, and writer specializing in movement therapy for dystonia. [1]
Farias was born in 1973 in Murcia, Spain. [2] He holds master's degrees in neuropsychological rehabilitation, psychosociology, and ergonomics and a doctorate in biomechanics. [3] [2] [4]
At the age of 21, while training as a professional musician, Farias developed dystonia, leading to involuntary curling of his fingers and impacting his ability to play the piano. [1] [5] He began his research work on dystonia in 1996 following his own experience with dystonia as a young musician, which led him to create his own exercises to manage his condition. [1] [5] [2]
After his recovery from dystonia, Farias developed a training program based on neuroplasticity principles. [1] In 2018, he started the Dystonia Recovery Online Program, an online programme that presents his movement-based exercises and approach for people with dystonia.[2][6] [2] [6]
Farias has also worked as a coach for musicians, Olympic and Paralympic athletes, and dancers who experience focal dystonia and other practice-related movement problems. [7] [8] [9] [3] [5] [2]
Previously, Farias served as a professor at the Music and Health Research Collaboratory of the University of Toronto. [4] He also serves as the director at the Neuroplastic Training Institute in Toronto. [2] [4]
Psychiatrist Norman Doidge, in the updated paperback edition of The Brain’s Way of Healing, discusses Farias’s movement-based neuroplastic rehabilitation for dystonia as an example of plasticity-based treatment and lists him among clinicians who have contributed to neuroplastic approaches to neurological disorders. [10] [11]
Media coverage of Farias’s work has highlighted its use by high-profile patients with cervical dystonia. In 2018, As reported that Jordi Roca, pastry chef at the three-Michelin-star restaurant El Celler de Can Roca, was being treated “with the techniques of Dr Joaquín Farias” at the Neuroplastic Training Institute in Toronto in an effort to recover neck mobility and his speaking voice. [12]
Farias's work hypothesizes a link between dystonia and the insular cortex, which plays a role in controlling motion and emotion. [5] Farias theorizes that repetitive activities might reinforce improper neural pathways, thereby exacerbating the condition. [5]
His method, which he calls the Farias Technique, [13] involves using movement-based exercises to help retrain brain functions related to motor and sensory processing. [5] The core of his treatment approach is centered on relearning and normalizing repressed movements, through specific exercises. [5] His approach has been described as using movement-based exercises to help re-balance what he characterises as an overtaxed nervous system in people with task-specific dystonia, and as interpreting their symptoms in terms of autonomic nervous system dysregulation. [14] In a 2023 article in The Guardian, Farias was quoted as saying that dystonia involves non-motor symptoms and dysregulation of the autonomic nervous system, and that more research is needed in this area. [15]
