~ Our Programs ~

ROCK STEADY BOXING

(Our Core Program)

Rockin’ Steady ‘N’ Rollin’ Easy Music Therapy

Healing Through Art

Hear Me Now! Voice Fitness

EMF Parkinson’s Support Group

Compassionate Conversations

ROCK STEADY BOXING

ROCKIN’ STEADY ‘n’ ROLLIN’ EASY MUSIC THERAPY

GIVE ‘n’ TAKE IT EASY COMPASSIONATE LISTENING AND CAREGIVER SUPPORT

HEALING THROUGH ART

ROCK STEADY BOXING

You're Not Alone

Mindful Of Limitations As You Do Your Best To Be Your Best Through Specially Designed Fitness Exercises

  • Nationally recognized physical fitness program
  • Designed by and for Parkinson’s patients
  • >900 chapters across the country
  • Exercising with non-contact boxing improves balance, agility, speed, eye-hand coordination and overall conditioning

And it’s not all boxing all the time!

Physical Fitness

Samples of Numerous and Varied

Cardio:

  • Warm-up, rowing, stationary bike elliptical trainer, indoor/outdoor short distance jogging
  • Various one/two leg activities on balance devices

Agility-

  • Footwork – forward/back–side/side–in/out of 4 box square
  • Basketball (hand), soccer ball (foot) dribbles through cones

Flexibility-

  • Stretching hamstrings, quads, and calves and upper and lower back

Eye-hand coordination–

  • Boxing-heavy/speed bags/dummy/paddles

Core Strength–

  • Quad stretches, push-ups, sit-ups, “superman-banana”, “bicycles”, I, Y, and T pulls on resistance band

Dexterity-

  • Washers on posts/rings on poles, pyramids, ball and spoon relays

Mental Sharpness

Samples of Numerous and Varied

Memory:

  • Tracking multiple steps in all exercises, various word and number puzzles

Acuity-

  • Switching channels while performing physical exercises, e.g., speed bag, count by numbers right hand, letters left hand
  • Name animals or countries or states, e.g., while punching heavy bag

Awareness/Mindfulness–

  • Overall objective of combining physical and mental tasks is to help you perform functional movements of everyday life, be aware your surroundings and limitations, e.g., sense falling? How to recover balance or break fall, get up

ROCKIN’ STEADY ‘n’ ROLLIN’ EASY MUSIC THERAPY

You're Not Alone

Enhance Your Overall Well-being Through Music

  • A flexible program designed to help you physically, mentally, emotionally, and socially through active and receptive music expression

Join others as you enjoy learning and feeling the impacts of making music on healing and overall mental and physical health.

GIVE ‘n’ TAKE IT EASY CAREGIVER SUPPORT & Compassionate Listening

You're Not Alone

Difficult times, struggling and  questioning our way is part of the shared human experience. Compassionate Listening is a practice to help handle challenging situations when you feel most vulnerable or reactive. In our compassionate Listening gatherings we join together to :

Quiet the mind to be fully present

Develop the Fair Witness (working with Judgment) – Cultivate a process of meta observation

Notice what is happening in your mind, emotions, body and spirit

Suspend judgment; contain triggers; listen fully to another person’s story and perspective

Experience and communicate empathy, gratitude, forgiveness and perspective

Take responsibility for your actions; set and hold boundaries

Learn the language of healing: listen and speak from the heart

People who join our sessions benefit by practicing compassionate listening and experiencing being fully heard. Hearing how others struggle with similar issues often dissolves feelings of having to go through trying times all alone. There is something magical about connecting with people who share similar values of healing and bringing compassion to light, starting with our inner world.

Five 90 minutes long Compassionate Listening gatherings of eight to twelve people are held twice per month, currently scheduled for first and third Wednesdays of month  beginning at 11am.

HEALING THROUGH ART

You're Not Alone

Take A Healing Journey Through Art

Join Annapolis Arts Alliance Artists as they guide you in the production of your own work of art

  • Experience two hours of creative immersion
  • Use acrylic paints, stamps, and fish form cutouts to design your own under the sea artwork
  • Creative expression is encouraged in your chance to paint, relax, and tap into the joy of making art
  • No previous art experience is necessary
  • All supplies are provided

IN ALLIANCE WITH

COMING TO EMF IN SPRING, 2024!

Successfully launched in Spring 2024

HEAR ME NOW!
VOICE FITNESS

You're Not Alone

JOIN HEAR ME NOW! VOICE FITNESS GROUP 

  • A 1-hour program of voice exercise, education, and discussion focused on clear speech and communication.
  • Discussion includes topics such as voice, communication strategies, and swallowing in PD.
  • Learn to speak louder and clearer and learn tips for maintaining your strong voice at home.
  • This program incorporates evidence-based speech therapy techniques and is run by Lauren Mowbray, certified speech-language pathologist and provider of SPEAK OUT voice therapy.
  • Strengthen or maintain your voice in a fun group environment, appropriate for various levels. 

EMF’S OWN PARKINSON’S SUPPORT GROUP

You're Not Alone

  • Support groups have been shown to help people to manage challenges, including health issues, by providing opportunities to share feelings and coping strategies and learn more about treatments and other resources.
  • The group is open to members, their families/care partners, and members of the community.
  • There is no charge for this program.

 

Florence McAlvanah, BA, and BS and MS, in Nursing, a boxer in the Monday, Wednesday, Friday class and an EMF board member, leads this program. 

Courageous Parkinson’s Conversations

You're Not Alone

Difficult times, struggling and  questioning our way is part of the shared human experience. Compassionate Parkinson’s Conversatioins is adapted from a full Cpmpassionate Listening, a full practice to help handle challenging situations when you feel most vulnerable or reactive. In our compassionate Parkinson’s Conversations, we incorporate some elemnts of Compassionate Listening  like learning about:

Timing – when to initiate a serious conversation

Rehearsal – put yourself in the other position

Develop the Fair Witness (working with Judgment)

Suspend judgment; contain triggers; listen fully to another person’s story and perspective

Experience and communicate empathy, gratitude, forgiveness and perspective

Learn the language of healing: listen and speak from the heart.

We plan to introduce sessions aimed at fostering compassionate interactions, and offer new ways for people with movement challenges, their families and caregivers, to develop life changing communication skills. 

Engaging in regular meetings help us sustain compassion with the support of others and enhance our self-compassion journey. Come on out and join in..

Testimonials

Easy Reading By & About

Empower Motivation Fitness - logo - Health, Support against Movement restrictions

Empower Motivation Fitness

2024 West Street, Suite 101

Annapolis, MD 21401

November 8, 2023

For Immediate Release

The David Junkins Endowment Fund for EMF supports the work of Empower Motivation Fitness (EMF), a 501(c)3 not for profit organization, by providing a strong underpinning for its operations in reaching patients suffering from Parkinson’s and other movement disorders and impairments with life changing programs.  Named after Founding Board Member the late David Junkins, a Parkinson’s sufferer who worked earnestly to help others facing movement impairment, the fund was established in in early October of 2023 after a three week fund-raising effort.

The need is vast in Anne Arundel County alone.  By World Health Organization projections, the county has approximately 3500 people afflicted with Parkinson’s.  2000 of those get some sort of care from a physician or physical therapist (including EMF), leaving approximately 1500 with no regular help in addressing their disease/symptoms.  The majority of these come from underserved communities within the County.

People with movement disorders have a variety of conditions and needs and no one program can meet all of those.  However, an organization dedicated to providing access to multiple therapies for those facing illness and impairment, plus providing support and encouragement to caregivers, under one umbrella can make a real difference for those affected by movement disorders.

The ultimate goal of The David Junkins Endowment Fund for EMF is to build up enough resources to provide for the day to day operations of a fully staffed multi-disciplinary organization reaching 250 movement impaired clients able to afford programs, and another 250 movement impaired people currently being untreated due to financial hardship.

With adjunct professionals offering a variety of programs and complete subscriptions to those programs, ultimately a bigger space specifically designed to treat 500 people plus caregivers is envisioned and the endowment will provide the financial base for making land acquisition and building a state-of-the-art facility possible.

We have partnered with the Community Foundation of Anne Arundel County to establish this fund and already we have secured $32,000.00 in donations.  But this is just the first step of an initial goal of $5,000,000.00 in Endowment Funds needed so that we can serve the needy and the hurting.

You are the friend we need in our efforts, whether it be through donating monthly or yearly, or designating The David Junkins Endowment Fund for EMF in your legacy planning.   Please generously include us in your planned giving for 2024.

For more information or to make a donation:           https://www.cfaac.org/EMF

Read about our Health and Fitness Program