One year ago, Sean Bulanda was taking roughly 300 steps a day — mostly between the couch and the bathroom. Today, he’s a stand-up comedian, a songwriter, a certified LSVT Big physical therapist, and the founder of a 2,200-member Parkinson’s support group. This is the story of what happened in between.
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When LSVT BIG first emerged as a rehabilitation protocol for Parkinson’s disease, its core insight was deceptively simple: train the nervous system to move bigger, and daily function follows. The intensive, amplitude-focused program, sixteen one-hour sessions over four weeks, works by retraining sensory perception alongside motor output, helping patients recognize that movements which feel exaggerated are, in fact, simply normal. That principle, it turns out, may travel well beyond Parkinson’s disease.
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What does it mean to truly live with Parkinson’s disease, not just manage it, but live? For Sister Phyllis Supancheck, a physical therapist (PT), educator, missionary, and self-described “Super Chick,” the answer involves mule rides in the mountains of Peru, Bible correspondence courses with prisoners, a receptionist desk at an assisted living facility, and a love of plants.
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