ABMNM Intensives

The ABMNM is an off-shoot of the Feldenkrais method. Anat Baniel was one of the star students of Moshe Feldenkrais. In his final years she worked very closely with him, both as a trainer and a practitioner.

Moshe realised the potential in Anat and started directing more and more of his clients (especially children with special needs) towards Anat. The first special needs child that Anat worked with, Elizabeth was originally Moshe’s client. Anat started getting almost miraculous outcomes with children and her practice grew and flourished. Instead of just focusing on her practice, Anat started wondering about what it was that she was doing differently because of which she kept getting consistent outcomes that almost bordered on the miraculous with the children. This led her to evolve her own method, the Anat Baniel Method NeuroMovement or ABMNM for children. She outlined the Nine Essentials as a way of being with the children, as a way of life. She devised a training program to train people in ABMNM. Today, there are ABMNM practitioners all over the world. Arti Deo is the first and only practitioner in India to have completed all the advanced levels of training.

ABMNM is a very gentle approach that helps create new networks in the brain. This method is organic in nature. It does not try to superimpose learning on the brain. It facilitates the brain to form new connections, thus increasing the pace of learning and growth. The entire approach of ABMNM is to move from “Fixing to Connecting”. The Special Needs child is not a mechanical toy to be fixed. We have to remember that if he could, he would and that if she could, she would. So instead of trying to force the child to do the things that he / she cannot do, we invite the child’s brain to form new connections by increasing one’s own bodily awareness.

This method involves the practitioner giving a one-on-one lesson to the child. Typically, we start with an intensive of twenty lessons spread over two weeks, and then follow up with intensives of ten or twenty lessons at regular intervals.