Cutting-edge Treatment for Cerebral Palsy, Brain Damaged Infants and the Brain Injured Child

• Are you a parent, grandparent, or caretaker of a brain damage infant, brain injured child or a child diagnosed with cerebral palsy?
• Have you tried conventional cerebral palsy treatment and would like to see greater improvement in your child’s functioning?
• Has your brain injured child reached a plateau in therapy?
• Are you wondering whether there is more that you could be doing for him or her? 
• Has your child been given a bleak prognosis?
• Where you told to keep your hopes down, to be realistic and accept what you should not expect for your brain damaged infant or brain injured child?
• Are you open to a new cerebral palsy treatment approach that has proven to transform the lives of many children suffering from cerebral palsy and brain damage?

You can read about these dramatic results as published in the January, 2003 issue of Cerbral Palsy Magazine, A new approach to helping children with Cerebral Palsy and other brain related disorders .

 “Something great happened yesterday. My son walked out of the screened porch, down the stairs, over the brick path and across the bumpy lawn to help me plant tomatoes. This was no small feat. Twelve years ago doctors had told me that Phillip may never walk or talk.”
Judith Moen, mother of Philip diagnosed with CP
Click for the whole story

The Anat Baniel Method for Children (ABM) is scientifically based. The practitioner of this method uses gentle, innovative techniques to help the brain of the brain injured child form new neural connections and patterns that take the child beyond their current limitations. While it is a process, the changes begin happening right away and are often quite dramatic.  For more information, click to read our article: Working with the Whole Body or view our free video of work with 3 different children. 

 “As much as I pour over medical science and research, and as much time as I spend acid testing Anat’s statements in my naturally skeptical mind, I have yet to find logical fault or lack of scientific foundation…. Anat Baniel’s Method is effective where other treatments have not been, and it is at times almost miraculously effective where medical science has either given up, or where, out of desperation, painful and often counterproductive measures have sadly become the standard of care.” 
Dr. Christopher Ryan, M.D.,
Denver Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Read Dr. Ryans Entire Letter 

CONTENTS OF THIS PAGE:

Nathan's Story
How Does the Anat Baniel Method Work?
Steps to Take For Concerned Parents
What Does Success with the special needs child Look Like?
How We Work With Your Child to Overcome Developmental Disorders and Challenges

Nathan’s story

Nathan was seven years old when I saw him for his first lesson. He had been getting a variety of treatments for cerebral palsy, mostly physical therapy, since he was one year old.  In therapy, from the beginning, the different therapists have tried to get Nathan to crawl, sit, and now stand and walk. There was some success, Nathan was able to sit upright in his wheel chair and had some use of his arms. He was also able to speak, except when he talked his whole body twitched uncontrollably, especially his arms and his head. He was unable to get in or out of his wheel chair by himself and was not able to get himself into the standing position either. When placed in front of a walker, he would grab on to it, his whole body tightening trying not to fall down. However, what was most striking for me about Nathan was how angry and unhappy he was and how confused his thinking was. He had little awareness of what he was feeling or what he was doing. It was as if, for Nathan, everything was coming at him from the outside and he had no way of sorting out and making sense of what was happening to him.

I put Nathan lying on his stomach on my work table (a lot like a massage table) and began moving his back very gently and slowly. Nathan was talking non stop expressing random incoherent ideas. I than began to gently move his right arm connecting it to the movements in his back. After about 10 minutes all of the sudden Nathan became very quite – he began listening to his own body and what he was feeling as I was moving him. For the first time in a very long time Nathan’s brain was perceiving differences and getting the information it needed in order to begin forming new patterns.

I saw Nathan for 3-4 lessons a week for a while.  After the first 3 weeks his mother found him one night in the bathroom standing in front of the toilet. He got there all by himself.  His teachers in school commented on how much better he was doing. He was moved from remedial classes in reading and in math to regular classes. His arms and body stopped twitching when he was talking. When he spoke, it was obvious that he was actually thinking. After that first time, Nathan was able to come to standing by himself and take a few steps holding on to the table and was able to get in and out of his wheel chair on his own. Nathan was no longer angry; instead he became a happy boy enthusiastic about his life.

How Does the Anat Baniel Method for Children Work with Cerebral Palsy, brain damage infant and the brain injured child?

The miraculous process of development we see any healthy child go through is a result of a complex process of differentiation in the brain that allows it to form new connections and new patterns. All the experiences the child has of her own initial random movements and her kinesthetic experiences coupled with all that is done with her by those caring for her, is used by the brain as information with which it develops and grows. While the baby and young child is completely dependent on his or her caretakers for their survival and well being, those caretakers have very little to do with the actual process of growth and development of the child. That process is done by the child, within the child, on the child’s own timing.  

When a child suffers from brain damage, this spontaneous process of differentiation and formation of new patterns in the brain is interfered with. Most therapy approaches attempt to make the child do what it should be doing according to his or her age and expected developmental stage. However, forcing movement on a spastic arm, stretching a short tight muscle, or placing a child that cannot sit in the sitting position with the hopes that somehow he or she will get strong enough to do it, normally produces little of the desired outcomes and often upsets the child and leaves her/him feeling bad and wrong about themselves. 
( For More Information, Read: On the use of Ankle-Foot Orthotics with the Child with Cerebral Palsy)

That happens because the brain of the cerebral palsy and brain damage infant and child is unable to transform the stimulation into information that it can use  to create new patterns and solutions. You can read more about this as published in the January, 2007 issue of Massage and BodyWork Magazine, New Possibilities: A revolutionary approach to helping children with special needs.

With the ABM the focus is very different. Rather than try to fix the problem directly by focusing on the limitations, the focus is shifted to where the solutions actually lie – with the brain. The ABM focuses on helping the brain of the brain injured child do its job better. It helps the brain right itself and regain its ability to powerfully and consistently create new neural patterns that bring about successful solutions. We apply gentle techniques that directly communicate with the nervous system of the child through, primarily, movement, enhanced awareness and non-verbal kinesthetic experiences.

With the ABM, the brain of the child with cerebral palsy or any other brain injury regains its ability to function in a healthy way. That is when the brain damaged child can begin doing what healthy children do.  We have countless examples of success with our work.  To read more of these stories, the words of parents, please click here.

It is very important to understand that it is only when we create the conditions for the child’s brain to function in a healthy, high quality way that the child can overcome limitations in ways that can be astounding and inspiring. Watch Anat Baniel working with 3 children on a free streaming video. ]

 Steps to Take For Concerned Parents 

If you have been told by your child’s physician that your child has a developmental disorder, or if your parental instincts are telling you something is not quite right (often parents know “something is not quite right” long before a medical diagnosis is given), it is important that your child gets help as soon as possible. Early intervention can make a big difference.

Here are some steps you can take to explore whether the ABM is something you want for your child:

• Watch 2 free videos: 7 minute PBS DVD on a “global brain damaged child” that now is fully functioning; a 3 children DVD with Anat’s voice over explaining her work.
• Read what medical doctors and therapists are saying about the ABM
• Read  parents’ stories about their child and the ABM.
• Read related articles by Anat Baniel
• Get answers to frequently asked questions
• Read about the Anat Baniel Method
• Contact the Anat Baniel Center to schedule an appointment: scheduling@anatbanielmethod.com;
  415-472-6622
• Find an Anat Baniel Method Practitioner in your area.

What Does Success with the special needs child Look Like?

• The child shows some progress / change within the first few ABM lessons or therapy sessions. Otherwise it means that the child is not learning.
• The child should feel safe, comfortable and happy in their sessions. Crying and resistance should be the exception. True learning is a pleasurable and satisfying experience. Acquiring a better organization of movement, thinking and feeling is an empowering and wonderful experience for the child.
• On-going learning, improvement and maturation. In any growth process, there will be fluctuations in the rate of change. However, over a period of any few weeks, certainly months, as the child is receiving therapy, or ABM lessons, there should be clear learning, change and improvement.
•  At home the child begins to spontaneously do on their own, without encouragement, what she/he was doing in the session. It may take a few sessions for that to happen with any newly acquired skill. If not, most likely the child is not learning and needs to be placed where they will be learning and improving.
• In between sessions, you should be able to see some additional spontaneous improvements beyond what was accomplished in the ABM lessons or therapy sessions.

How We Work With Your Child to Overcome Devolpmental Disorders and Challenges

If your child cannot sit up by himself, or if he cannot stand on all fours, crawl or stand up on his own, we will not try to force him into these positions, or place him in contraptions that will “hold” him in a position, unless we believe he will never be able to do it on his own. If your child is unable to read despite hours of coaching we will at first ask that she stops trying to read. If he perseveres we will not try to force him to stop. Instead we will engage the child in a process that provides his or her brain with the conditions and information it needs in order to begin learning. Through that process your child’s brain will form new neural patterns that were missing due to their illness or injury. Once enough of these missing elements are in place, your child will spontaneously begin doing what he or she couldn’t do before.

 In the beginning we like to work with your child in a concentrated manner. That gives your child the opportunity to benefit from the ABM as fully as possible, and for you to be able to assess the usefulness of the method for your child. Initially we like to give the lessons in clusters of between 5-10 lessons in one week. The frequency of the clusters is every two – eight weeks, depending on your child’s situation. Occasionally a child might get two lessons in one day, in the morning and afternoon. Ms Baniel has discovered that in this concentrated process children can very quickly transform into effective learners and experience important changes in their ability to move, perceive, understand, initiate, think, relate to their surroundings, and make sense of what is happening to them.

Within 3-5 lessons it is usually clear whether the child is benefiting from the lessons. If both the parents and the Anat Baniel Method for Children practitioner feel it is worthwhile to continue, than a lesson plan for the child is created. The first session is scheduled for one hour. Consecutive sessions are scheduled for 45 minutes.

As your child progresses, we adjust your child’s program. Usually the frequency and number of lessons go down. You will be asked to temporarily stop other treatment modalities unless they are medically required. We will also ask that you do not place the child in positions that he/she cannot get into or out of on their own. Very often we request halting the use of orthotics, standers etc, at least initially.

We have a team of ABM practitioners that can work with your child. When you bring your child to the Anat Baniel Center you can choose to work with any of the teachers, or we can help place you with a teacher. When Anat Baniel works with a child often times she gives the child some of the lessons in the lesson-cluster and one of her team teachers gives the rest of the lessons in that cluster.  If you bring your child to Anat from out of town, she will try to help you find a local practitioner for your child to work with in between visits to her center.

To discuss your child's situation, or to make an appointment,
please Contact Us.
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“Traditional therapies are all about the limitations of the child; Anat’s work is all about the possibilities.” - Trish Karlinski, mother of Isabelle, a 5 y/o with CP