FELDENKRAIS METHOD® in Gainesville Florida

The Anat Baniel Method for Children(sm) Josie Davenport, LMT LCSW ABMC

Movement is the language of the brain.
For over 25 years we have proven that children with disabilities can learn to move far beyond expected diagnostic limitations when given the information that the brain needs for learning. Before placing a child in a sitting or standing position when they don't yet have the neurological information, we try to help them put the  pieces together. We make sure that children have enough information to move in and out of each new position with minimum effort.

Given the conditions for learning, the brain can form 1.8 million new connections per second.
First, the conditions that hinder learning are: feeling overwhelmed; being expected to learn one set way; feeling powerless or not capable of the task; feeling unsafe due to past trauma. The learning switch can be turned on by first looking at what the child can currently do and helping the child build on that. By staying with the child’s current understanding of movement and helping them to feel the success of each step, we build on those successes. Children with learning delays may initially reach learning goals later than other children, and without the foundation of their own experience they stay behind. However, given small initial successes in learning, their development can later move exponentially to the point that they not only "catch up" but can be free to excel and develop their own talents.

ABM helps children perceive differences.
We help children learn various combinations of movement such as using the levers of the skeleton efficiently. We help them compare difficult and easy vectors of movement. Given these possibilities in an atmosphere of gentle and playful exploration, their nervous system is free to learn and choose movement combinations from an informed self image rather than by conforming to an outside demand for the "right" way to move.

Parents report new learning right away with ABM.
When a child does something on their own for the first time, we are careful about not making them self conscious. The new learning is fragile and can be inhibited easily. Rather, we want to give the child the space to continue inventing combinations of movement so they can feel what works for themselves. Parents and teachers are asked to give children plenty of “floor time” so they can explore and build on their new learning.

Children who can benefit from this method include:
    •    ACC
    •    Autism
    •    Brachial Plexus Injury
    •    Cerebellar Atrophy
    •    Cerebral Palsy
    •    Down's Syndrome
    •    Failure to Thrive
    •    Fragile X
    •    Multiple Sclerosis
    •    Partial brain loss
    •    Premature Birth (Preemies)
    •    Stroke

NEW! Workshop In the ABM for Parents and Professionals who live and work with
Special Needs Kids -
Participants will experience first-hand brain-changing movement lessons and the touch components that can help to facilitate learning in individuals with developmental delays. Day two will include a children's clinic with question and answer periods.

There are two modalities for learning in the Anat Baniel Method(sm): transformational movement lessons(TML) and functional synthesis(FS). These are the same lessons delivered two different ways, by guiding verbally or through gentle touch contact. There are more than a thousand movement lessons, many of which are developmentally based, which support and enhance a diversity of dynamic movements. In this workshop, you will experience a group of these lessons, first as movement lessons and then as hands-on skills that directly correlate with those lessons. Participants are taught to pay attention to small differences which can be enhanced comfortably into larger easy movements that may not have been options even a half hour earlier.
    •    Learn the 9 essentials for lifelong vitality
    •    Experience brain-changing movement lessons
    •    Learn about  neuro-plasticity and it's relevance to children with disabilities
    •    Observe children receiving lessons from experienced ABM practitioners
    •    Learn hands-on techniques based on the Anat Baniel Method(sm)
    •    Enjoy the learning process!

Teachers: Josie Davenport, LMT LCSW ABMC
                Josie has been a licensed massage therapist for more than 20 years and
                is a licensed clinical social worker. She has taught courses in the evaluation
                and treatment of injuries, deep tissue bodywork, gestalt communication skills
                and Anat Baniel Method? transformational movement lessons. Josie is a
                Certified Feldenkrais? Practitioner with over 15 years of advanced training
                and experience working with infants and children with special needs, anti-
                aging and improving performance skills in adults.

                Cheryl Eichner, PT ABMC
                Cheryl Eichner has been a Feldenkrais ® and ABM(sm) practitioner
                for many years. During the past 3 professional trainings and advanced
                trainings at Anat Baniel's Center in San Rafael, CA, Cheryl has been the
                primary assistant trainer in the course. It is a gift for Cheryl to come
                to Florida to teach and empower parents with special needs children.

When:      Sept. 17 - 19, 2010
                Free Children's Clinic Sept. 18th with a team of ABMC practitioners
                Call to schedule your appointment!
                Parents may bring children without attending the workshop.
                Call Josie Davenport to schedule your child's appointment!

Times:     Friday evening 6 - 9 pm
                Saturday 9 am - 5:30 pm (Includes Free Children's Clinic)
                Sunday 9 am - 5:30 pm
            
Where:    Florida School of Massage, 6421 SW 13th St., Gainesville, FL 32608

Cost:        $275 advanced registration (by August 17)
                 $325 after August 17

CEU's:      18 Florida  - LMT, RN, LPN, PT (OT & Speech pending approval)

Questions: Call Josie Davenport 352-514-5076

Register:     Call the Florida School of Massage 352-378-7891


Josie Davenport, LMT LCSW            
MA3599     SW5130
Awareness in Motion
Anat Baniel Method(sm)
http://www.josiedavenport.com/
http://www.floridaschoolofmassage.com/
http://www.anatbanielmethod.com/

Having taught the Feldenkrais(R) and Anat Baniel(sm) Methods since 1995, I remain inspired by the amazing possibilities that neurologically based movement lessons can elicit in people of all ages. I am especially delighted by the changes that I have witnessed in very young children who are simply too young to believe in their diagnosis. The children that I have had the honor of knowing and teaching, completely floor me with their presence and joy in learning.
Clare - An 8 month old child with down's syndrome who was so atonal that she was always floppy, learned to sit up on her own using her low back and needing no props at all in just a few lessons over a two-month period.
Benedetta - An 18 month old, was first brought to me because she did not use her Left arm. After one lesson she began to use that arm. She had been in a lower body cast the first four months of life and did not bend her knees or use her feet, and learned to roll both directions in one series of lessons (a few days) and learned the rudiments of army crawling in a few months. She learned to use either hand for playing with objects.
Michael - A three year old missing his mid-brain learned to use his back to come to side sitting on his own and to army crawl fast through the house within a year of working with me.
Children's eyes often straighten during lessons. They make up new sounds. They get interested in themselves, cause and effect games, interacting with others.
Who can benefit from the Anat Baniel Method for Children?
Children benefitting from the work have had the following conditions as well as others:
Ataxia    Autism    Autism Spectrum Cerebellar Atrophy    Cerebral Palsy Down's Syndrome    Failure to thrive Hypertonia    Hypotonia    Macrocephaly    Microcephaly    Multiple Sclerosis Muscular Atrophy    Periventricular Leukomalacia    Prader-Willi Syndrome Premature Birth    Rett Syndrome    Sensory Integration Dysfunction Shaken Baby Syndrome    Spinal Muscular Atrophy    Stroke
What changes are seen when children receive lessons from a practitioner trained in the Anat Baniel Method for Children?
This method provides children with experiences that give them an opportunity to upgrade their nervous systems. Anat Baniel Method for Children practitioners seek to wake up children's awareness of feeling what they are doing. Many parents report that the first changes they see include:
Improved mood Better sleep Greater comfort Increased alertness and awareness of their surroundings As children "wake up" to themselves their experiences in and outside of the lessons should provide a variety of information that their brain organizes. Functional changes that have been seen as children continue the work include:
Fragile X Syndrome    Hydrocephaly
Brachial Plexus Injury Delayed Development
More effortless movements Better balance Improved ability to move; crawl, walk, run, jump, reach Greater problem solving skills Improved speech Extensive information about this work is available at www.AnatBanielMethod.com
Call or e-mail for your child's appointment:
Free Children's Clinic (hosted 3x year) Saturday, June 5th, 2010 Florida School of Massage 6421 SW 13th Street, Gainesville, FL, 32608 Josie Davenport, LMT LCSW
(MA3599 SW5130) 352-514-5076
josiedav@mac.com

"I have long been intrigued by this subtle form of retraining the nervous system, which I currently recommend to patients whose movement has been restricted by injury, cerebral palsy, stroke, fibromyalgia, or chronic pain. (I find it to be much more useful than standard physical therapy.) I also believe that the Feldenkrais Method can help older people achieve greater range of motion and flexibility, and help all of us feel more comfortable in our bodies."   Dr. Andrew Weil

Good news for kids with neurological challenges, artists, musicians, athletes and the elderly. Scientists have redefined our brains ability to change, create new pathways, and to keep learning and changing right into old age. Basically our brains love to learn as long as we set up the learning in an interesting and digestible way.

So how does the brain learn the best and easiest way?

Lets take an example of a child who can't sit up due to a neurological disability.

    First of all if I just prop the child up, no learning occurs at all, or
    the child learns to make themselves rigid like a block or a triangle in order
    to keep from falling over.

But what if I help that child to feel the movement possibilities of all the bones that they have in relationship to a specific function. Beginning with the easiest functions like flexing or rolling, I help the child build slowly more complex movements. By moving them delicately and pleasurably and not over-riding their system, the child can learn to feel the possibilities of movement  in relation to the specific task that matches their interest.

I move slowly at first - and make it easy to do - children then get the feeling of ease and safety and can digest the movement into the possibility of a movement repertoire.

I help them to feel to let go of the powerful muscles around their pelvis and abdomen, they can begin to use those powerful muscles to their advantage which can begin to translate into sitting on their own. This learning to let go comes only through safe, small and playful - easily digestible movement.

Children with neurological difficulties can learn the timing of turning one vertebra at a time, they can learn to lean through their skeleton and use gravity to their advantage in order to feel light.

"Movement is the language of the brain." states Anat Baniel, And motor learning can cause increased learning globally - including verbally and cognitively.

Please visit Anat Baniel's web page and watch video footage of this work with Carter who has CP. http://www.anatbanielmethod.com/
Bibliography:
Norman Doidge, MD, The Brain that Changes Itself, Penguin, NY, 2007.
Sharon Begley, Train You Mind, Change Your Brain, Ballentine, NY, 2007.
Anat Baniel, Move Into Life, the Nine Essentials for Vitality, Harmony, NY, 2009.

Josie Davenport, LMT LCSW, co-owner of the Florida School of Massage since 1987,
Is a Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner® and an Anat Baniel Method for Children? practitioner. Josie offers free children's clinics 3 times a year to give parents and children the opportunity to experience this innovative and gentle method.

Josie also teaches Transformational Movement Lessons? for adults and elders including, musicians, singers, dancers and other professionals who would enjoy moving with greater fluidity, power and pleasure.


". . . The body reflects attitudes of the mind, improve the function of the body
and you must improve the state of the mind."
Moshe Feldenkrais, D.Sc.

Josie Davenport, LMT LCSW
MA3599 SW5130
Florida School of Massage
6421 SW 13h Street
Gainesville, FL 32608
352-514-5076
http://www.presencemoves.com/
http://www.freechildrensclinic.org/
http://www.floridaschoolofmassage.com/
http://www.anatbanielmethod.com/