Friday, April 21: Improvement is Possible, Free Sessions for Kids with Neurological Issues

On Apr 19, 2006, at 8:40 PM, someone emailed:

Hi Chris,
I saw your ad in the tribune stating free lessons for children with neurological issues. My son is 11 years old and was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome and OCD over a year ago. Do you think you can help him, and if so how. Are you really offering free help?


I answered:

I am really offering free lessons until finishing the third segment of
my mastery training in late June
(even then, I’ll probably do one or two free first lessons for these children)
see anatbanielmethod.com
for more on the training

Do I think i can help?
yes.

How: it's a long story,
the short version is:

We came into the world as blobs
and the main job
of the brain
was
and is: learning to move
and think
in a coherent way

And Feldenkrais
more than any other system
in the world
tapes into the deep job
of the brain
the job
of learning via awareness
and movement
and intention
and connection

when done right
and we are learning the best via Anat Baniel
anyone, from Michael Jordan,
to a girl I worked on in new York
with half her brain removed,
can improve

If you can notice
and love the little improvements
you and your son can build and build
to place none of us can know

i have a phone number
996-1437
and work out of my house
which is near the Sonoma Valley Library.

Lessons are about a half an hour
you are welcome to be there,
or to go to the library
or Sonoma market while
they are taking place.

They will seem strange to you
because no "fixing" goes
on
as will happen with almost anyone else he sees,

I am looking for a learner
not at a person
with anything "wrong" with them

(I did like some of what they did in Son Rise,
the book
but that's not my expertise,
it's just along the same lines of thinking
that everyone
has huge capacities to learn
that can be tapped into)

ciao
and be of good cheer


chris

Our first lesson was like this. A fine young man came in. He didn’t especially want to look at me, or shake hands. Fine. I told him we’d have a great time because we’d be involved in learning and he got a sinking look. Apparently some other people had offered “learning” in the old style: let me shove something down your throat.

I said, No, this is real learning. You’ll see.

I asked him if he could turn his head without turning his shoulders. He tried and could.

Could he turn his shoulders and not his chest? People can, but he couldn’t. No right answers: just exploration.

I gently moved his knees back and forth ( he was sitting) and asked him what else was moving. This chest? His back? Yes. How did that get from legs to back? “This thing” as he motioned toward his pelvis. “Yes, the pelvis.”

I asked him if the ribs and the spine move together. Yes. How come? He wasn’t sure. I asked him to feel my spine and where the ribs came out from the spine. He did. And asked him to notice how if I moved my spine, the ribs had to move. He noticed.

Then I asked him if he’d like to discover some more about his ribs and spine. Yes. So I asked him to lie on his side and we began to explore his spine and ribs and if the spine moved, what else did? He got fascinated, and we were off and running, eventually opening the shoulder and leg on the up side to move with great fluidity and grace and understanding of their connection to the spine.

He had fun, he got up noticing a big difference one side to the other, and best of all, he got up liking himself more,, pleased to be such a good learner. And now, learning seemed like a fun thing, since it wasn’t about doing anything right, but was about discovering more about himself and how to be more comfortable and connected to himself.