“For The First Time, We Don’t Have To Leave Home”: Wellington Boy Raika Inspires Arrival Of Life-Changing Therapy Clinic

Wellington families will soon have access to world-class paediatric therapy services, as Centre of Movement announces a limited-time pop-up clinic bringing the Trexo robotic walker and intensive therapy to the capital, currently the only clinic in the Southern Hemisphere offering this technology for children with mobility challenges.

For local boy Raika and his family, the clinic marks a groundbreaking and emotional turning point. Living with hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy (HIE) and cerebral palsy (CP), Raika has spent much of his young life travelling away from home to access the specialised therapy he needs. Until now, that has meant regular trips to Rotorua, an exhausting and often challenging journey for the whole family.

“This is the first time we don’t have to leave our home to give Raika these opportunities,” his mother, Letava, shares. “It’s hard to explain how much that means to us. Having the Centre of Movement come to Wellington means the whole family can attend and see Raika in the trexo in person and not through video recordings.”

The pop-up clinic will deliver intensive therapy programs designed to support children with neurological and developmental conditions, led by a highly skilled multidisciplinary team made up of Occupational Therapists, Physiotherapists and Exercise Physiologists. The team will be offering therapies such as Dynamic Movement Intervention (DMI), Universal Exercise Unit (Spider Cage), Task-Specific Electrical Stimulation (TASES), the Trexo robotic walker, and a range of other specialised services tailored to each child’s goals and function.

Raika is especially excited to experience the Trexo robotic walker, an advanced device that supports assisted walking and mobility training, opening up new possibilities for independence and development.

Centre of Movement says the opportunity to bring these services directly to communities like Wellington is a major driver behind our outreach work.

“We absolutely love delivering these pop-up clinics,” Sam Baxter said. “Being able to reach communities and families who may not have otherwise been able to access our services is exactly why we do what we do. It’s incredibly rewarding to expand our community here in New Zealand, helping families connect, support each other, and feel like they’re not on this journey alone.”

Centre of Movement Exercise Physiologist, Sam Baxter, highlights the clinical significance of the Trexo technology and the opportunities it creates for children.

“The Trexo is a wearable robotic gait trainer that attaches to a child’s legs and torso, helping guide them through a natural walking pattern,” he/she explains. “It allows us to deliver consistent, repetitive gait training in a way that simply isn’t possible to replicate manually, which is incredibly important for building strength, coordination, and establishing those new neural pathways.”

Sam says the impact can be profound, both physically and emotionally.

“For some children and their families, this is the very first time they get to experience walking,” he says. “That moment is incredibly powerful, not just for the child, but for their families as well. It’s exciting, it’s emotional, and it opens up a whole new world of possibilities using advanced, evidence-based technology.”

But for Raika’s family, this moment is about more than just one child.

“We know we’re not the only ones who’ve had to travel for this kind of care,” Letava says. “Having it here in Wellington means other families won’t have to go through what we have. It gives our whole community something we’ve been missing.”

Adding to the significance of the pop-up clinic, Centre of Movement founders Emily and Stephen Pennisi will be travelling from Australia to personally support the program, working alongside their highly skilled New Zealand-based team to deliver intensive, high-quality therapy.

The Wellington pop-up reflects a growing movement to improve access to specialised paediatric therapy across the country, ensuring more children can receive early, consistent, and innovative care without the burden of travel.

For Raika and families like his, it’s a step closer to a future where opportunity isn’t limited by location.

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