What Services Does Centre for Neuro Skills Offer?
Centre for Neuro Skills offers post-acute rehabilitation for traumatic and acquired brain injuries through residential inpatient programs, day treatment, and outpatient services. Their multidisciplinary approach includes physical, occupational, speech, cognitive, vision, and vestibular therapy, along with case management, family counseling, medical coordination, and community reintegration support. Programs span from intensive 24/7 residential care to continued long-term support, with specialized tracks for adolescents and substance misuse recovery.
Clinical Therapy Programs
CNS structures its therapeutic services around rebuilding functional independence rather than simply treating symptoms. The facility provides physical therapy focused on regaining ambulation and balance, cognitive rehabilitation for memory and problem-solving deficits, and speech therapy for communication and swallowing disorders, all delivered through individualized treatment plans.
Core Therapeutic Disciplines
The therapy portfolio addresses the full spectrum of brain injury effects. Services include physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, educational therapy, vision therapy, vestibular therapy, cognitive therapy, patient and family counseling, neurobehavioral rehabilitation, and complimentary integrative therapy. Each discipline works collaboratively rather than in isolation, with therapists meeting regularly to coordinate goals and adjust interventions based on patient progress.
Physical therapy at CNS goes beyond basic mobility work. Therapists utilize advanced technology—including ZeroG® Gait and Balance Systems and Bioness Integrated Therapy Systems—to help patients rebuild strength, coordination, and endurance needed for real-world function. The emphasis sits squarely on practical outcomes: walking independently, navigating community environments, and returning to physical activities that matter to each individual.
Cognitive rehabilitation tackles one of brain injury’s most challenging aspects. Memory deficits, poor concentration, and problem-solving difficulties can derail someone’s ability to work, manage daily tasks, or maintain relationships. CNS therapists build these skills through structured exercises that progressively increase in complexity, always tying practice back to real-world application.
Specialized Therapy Services
Beyond standard rehabilitation disciplines, CNS provides targeted interventions for specific complications. Vision therapy addresses the fact that 90% of traumatic brain injury patients experience visual dysfunctions, helping patients overcome tracking problems, visual field loss, and perceptual difficulties that interfere with reading, driving, and spatial navigation.
Vestibular therapy treats the dizziness, vertigo, and balance problems that plague many brain injury survivors. Educational therapy helps younger patients—and adults returning to school—rebuild academic skills compromised by injury. Neurobehavioral rehabilitation addresses the emotional dysregulation, impulsivity, and social skill deficits that often prove more disabling than physical limitations.
The integration of complimentary therapies reflects CNS’s holistic view. Aquatic therapy, available at select locations like Bakersfield and Fort Worth, provides a low-impact environment for rebuilding strength and range of motion while the water’s buoyancy reduces fall risk and joint stress.
Medical and Support Services
Rehabilitation requires more than therapy sessions. CNS wraps comprehensive medical oversight and support services around each patient’s clinical program.
Medical Coordination
CNS provides multidisciplinary medical oversight through physicians, neurologists, and neuro-optometrists, with consultant physiatrists carrying significant responsibility for program review and approval. This medical structure ensures therapy protocols align with each patient’s neurological status and medical needs evolve as recovery progresses.
The nursing team monitors health status around the clock in residential programs. Nurses track medication usage, manage physical injuries, and collaborate with physicians to support optimal outcomes. For patients with complicated medical needs, CNS either provides in-house disease management or coordinates with community specialists.
Some brain injury complications require specialized medical attention. Neuroendocrine testing identifies hormone deficiencies caused by brain injury, with appropriate hormone therapy assessed and administered based on physician input. Sleep disturbances—nearly universal after brain injury—receive attention through integrated strategies combining behavioral interventions, environmental modifications, and medical management when needed.
Case Management and Family Support
Case managers collaborate with therapists to track progress across behavior, speech, medication, physical therapy, cognition, self-care, occupational therapy, education, counseling, academic skills, money management, and emotional adjustment. They serve as the central communication hub, keeping families informed and coordinating the many moving parts of rehabilitation.
The family support extends beyond progress updates. CNS offers professional therapeutic counseling both individually and in groups for spouses, children, relatives, and others close to the patient, recognizing that brain injury impacts everyone in the patient’s sphere of support. Counseling addresses the confusion, frustration, grief, and relationship strain that families commonly experience.
Transportation services might seem like a minor detail, but they’re essential infrastructure. The Transportation Services Department employs professionally trained and certified drivers who understand the brain injury community, ensuring safe passage between residences and clinical facilities for patients who can’t drive themselves.
Rehabilitation Program Models
CNS offers four primary program structures, each designed for different recovery stages and living situations.
Residential Inpatient Rehabilitation
The flagship residential program provides the most intensive level of care. Patients receive up to six hours of therapy five days per week in clinical settings while Neuro Rehabilitation Specialists provide 24/7 residential care focused on rebuilding the natural rhythm of living.
This dual-setting approach—clinic by day, residence by evening and weekend—creates what CNS calls “environmental validity.” Patients don’t just practice skills in sterile therapy rooms. They relearn Activities of Daily Living in actual home environments with clinically trained staff present around the clock, practicing morning routines, meal preparation, medication management, and social interactions in contexts that mirror post-discharge life.
The residential facilities themselves support this philosophy. Homes feature full kitchens for meal preparation, private bedrooms, ADA-compliant layouts, and safety features including security cameras and locked medication storage. Located in regular neighborhoods near shopping, restaurants, and community resources, these residences facilitate the gradual reintegration that helps patients transition from rehabilitation to independent living.
The program bridges the gap between rehabilitation and home life through this period of structured living, addressing a critical vulnerability: patients who jump directly from hospital to home often struggle because they haven’t practiced real-world skills in real-world settings. CNS’s community-based residential model fills that gap.
Day Treatment Program
Day treatment patients reside at home and commute to CNS for therapy up to five days per week, six hours per day, practicing independence and life skills at home with loved ones. This model works for patients who don’t need 24/7 supervision but still require intensive structured therapy.
The day program maintains the same multidisciplinary approach and therapy intensity as residential care. The key difference lies in where patients practice and generalize skills—at home with family rather than in a CNS residence. This arrangement often appeals to patients who live locally, have strong family support systems, and have progressed beyond needing constant supervision.
Adolescent Brain Injury Program
CNS offers a dedicated program for patients up to 18 years, focusing on regaining developmental skills, fostering independence, and supporting reintegration into educational settings. Brain injury during childhood or adolescence presents unique challenges: it doesn’t just interrupt life but can impair future learning capability.
The adolescent program integrates therapeutic care, educational development, and recreational activities. Therapists, nurses, and case managers work collaboratively with families to set individualized treatment goals and ensure successful return to school. Educational therapy plays a central role, helping young patients rebuild academic skills and work with schools to plan appropriate accommodations.
Day treatment and outpatient options are available for adolescents depending on location, with Bakersfield offering pediatric/adolescent postacute day treatment and outpatient rehabilitation alongside adult programs.
Continued Care Services
Recovery doesn’t end when active therapy concludes. CNS’s Continued Care Program maintains patient outcomes achieved in active therapy through Supported Living arrangements focused on sustaining skills. Some patients transition to continued care from inpatient, day treatment, or assisted living programs; others need ongoing support because they’re not ready to return to independent life.
The Enrichment Center within CNS clinical settings provides a structured environment where continued care patients participate in activities that maintain cognitive, physical, and social skills. This level of care recognizes a reality that medical insurance often ignores: some brain injury survivors need long-term support to sustain their functional gains and quality of life.
Community Reintegration Services
Rehabilitation ultimately aims at helping people resume meaningful lives in their communities. CNS explicitly structures services around this goal.
Reintegration focuses on skills that ease transition to home, work, and public interface, with therapists helping patients practice reentry skills in actual real-world settings. This means venturing beyond the clinic—grocery shopping, using public transportation, navigating restaurants, managing finances at banks—all with therapist support that fades as competence builds.
Home evaluation services assess whether a patient’s residence will support their functional level or requires modifications. Staff work with families on adapting the physical environment and establishing routines that promote independence rather than dependence. Community reentry assistance extends to vocational planning for patients aiming to return to work or school.
The emphasis on real-world practice distinguishes CNS’s approach from facilities that conduct all therapy in clinical settings. Skills practiced only in therapy gyms often fail to transfer to home and community. By deliberately practicing in varied real-world contexts, patients build the flexibility and problem-solving capacity needed for genuine independence.
Specialized Services
Several specialized programs address specific complications or populations.
Substance Misuse Program
For individuals with both brain injury and substance misuse history, CNS offers an individualized program recognizing that alcohol and drug treatment alone doesn’t address the cognitive deficits and other issues related to brain injury. This dual-diagnosis approach treats both conditions simultaneously rather than sequentially, addressing the complex interplay between substance use disorders and neurological impairment.
Getting sober after brain injury presents unique challenges. Cognitive deficits impair the executive function and self-regulation needed to maintain sobriety. Meanwhile, substance use hinders neurological recovery. CNS’s integrated approach breaks this cycle through coordinated medical, therapeutic, and behavioral interventions.
Telerehabilitation Services
Telehealth technology enables real-time clinical interactions across the entire continuum of care, allowing practitioners in one location to communicate with patients in another. This capability expanded dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic and remains a valuable option for follow-up care, continued therapy for patients who’ve returned home, and extending CNS’s reach to patients in remote areas.
Telerehabilitation works particularly well for cognitive therapy, counseling, case management check-ins, and family education. While it can’t replace hands-on physical or occupational therapy for patients needing that intensity, it fills important gaps in the care continuum.
Cultural and Linguistic Services
CNS recognizes and honors patients’ cultural needs and preferences, using interpreters to support treatment and honoring special dietary needs, religious practices, and observances. This cultural competence matters for building the trust and engagement essential for rehabilitation success. When patients feel respected and understood in their full cultural context, they participate more fully in therapy and follow through with home programs.
Locations and Accessibility
Since 1980, CNS’s clinical locations in California and Texas have provided rehabilitation services to thousands of patients nationally and globally. The organization currently operates seven facilities:
Texas Locations:
- Dallas/Irving
- Fort Worth
- Houston
- Austin
- Plano (opening late 2025)
California Locations:
- Bakersfield
- Los Angeles/Tarzana
- San Francisco/Emeryville
The new Plano clinic at approximately 20,000 square feet will include the full service set: vision, neurobehavior, cognitive retraining, speech, physical and occupational therapy with certified clinical staff, plus advanced care technology. This expansion responds to population growth in North Dallas and increases access for patients in neighboring states like Oklahoma.
Each location operates under the same clinical model and philosophy while adapting to local community resources and patient populations. The geographic distribution across two states reflects CNS’s growth from a single facility to a recognized leader in post-acute brain injury rehabilitation.
Clinical Philosophy and Outcomes
CNS was founded on the philosophy that patients never stop improving, with staff building treatment plans based on who patients were before requiring rehabilitation. This stands in contrast to traditional models that assume recovery plateaus at fixed timepoints post-injury.
The philosophy emerged from Dr. Mark Ashley’s personal experience. His brother Steve suffered devastating brain injury in 1971, left completely disabled with locked-in syndrome—cognitively intact but unable to move, speak, or breathe independently. Conventional medicine offered no hope for recovery. Yet through intensive rehabilitation Steve learned to speak, drive an electric wheelchair, feed himself, and eventually live independently and even marry.
Steve became CNS’s first patient when Dr. Ashley founded the organization in 1980. His recovery became the model for CNS’s philosophy: patients don’t plateau. This belief drives treatment decisions, program design, and the persistence CNS staff bring to challenging cases.
Research supports this optimistic yet realistic view. 79% of moderate to severe TBI survivors without disorders of consciousness at rehabilitation start achieve full or partial independence by discharge. Even among the most severely injured, 82% of those in coma, vegetative, or minimally conscious states regain consciousness before discharge, with 40% achieving full or partial independence. These statistics validate CNS’s conviction that recovery potential extends beyond what conventional timeframes suggest.
Accreditation and Recognition
In April 2025, Newsweek named CNS one of America’s Greatest Midsize Workplaces, making it the only neurorehabilitation provider listed in the healthcare category with a 5-star rating. This recognition reflects organizational culture as much as clinical outcomes—staff satisfaction and retention directly impact patient care quality.
CNS maintains accreditation from CARF International (formerly Commission on the Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities), along with licensing from state and local entities. The organization’s research arm, the CNS Clinical Research and Education Foundation established in 2011, conducts original studies and collaborates with leading institutions to advance brain injury treatment understanding.
Dr. Mark Ashley’s contributions to the field extend beyond CNS operations. He has authored four books on traumatic brain injury rehabilitation, published numerous peer-reviewed research papers, and serves as Adjunct Professor at Southern Illinois University’s Rehabilitation Institute. The Brain Injury Association of America recognized him as 2025 Luminary of the Year for his transformative contributions to brain injury rehabilitation.
Frequently Asked Questions
What types of brain injuries does CNS treat?
CNS treats both traumatic brain injuries (from external forces like falls, vehicle accidents, or sports injuries) and acquired brain injuries (from internal causes like stroke, anoxia, tumors, or infections). The facility also addresses complications from concussions, including post-concussion syndrome, and has developed expertise in treating COVID-19 patients with neurological symptoms.
How long do patients typically stay in CNS programs?
Program length varies dramatically based on injury severity, individual progress, and insurance coverage. Residential inpatient stays might range from weeks to several months. Day treatment programs can extend for similar periods. Some patients transition through multiple levels of care—starting with residential, progressing to day treatment, then to continued care—over a year or longer.
Does CNS accept patients from outside California and Texas?
Yes. CNS serves patients nationally and internationally. The organization assists families with relocation logistics, temporary housing for visiting family members, and coordination with out-of-state insurance providers and medical teams.
What role do families play in the rehabilitation process?
Families are integral team members throughout treatment. They participate in care planning, attend family education sessions, join therapy sessions when appropriate, and receive counseling to address their own adjustment challenges. Case managers maintain regular communication with families about progress and coordinate discharge planning well in advance.
The breadth and integration of services at Centre for Neuro Skills reflects decades of refinement in post-acute brain injury care. From the moment patients arrive through their eventual community reintegration, CNS provides medical oversight, intensive therapy, real-world skill practice, and family support organized around a central conviction: people with brain injuries can continue improving when given comprehensive, individualized, and persistent rehabilitation.