What Medical Doctors and
Other Healthcare Professional Are
Saying About the Anat Baniel Method
Dr. Daniel Graupe, University of Illinois, Chicago
Philip Sankar MD
Pediatric Neurologist
Christopher Ryan, M.D., Denver, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Dr. Cheryl Cooper, M.D., O.D.
Neil Sharp, M.D., M.A., M.B.,Ch.B.
Abigail Natenshon, MA, LCSW, GCFP
Lawrence Epstein, Ph.D.
Dr. Daniel Graupe, University of Illinois, Chicago
I feel that Anat Baniel's work deserves to have the greatest possible audience, both in the rehabilitation medicine community and beyond.
I am Professor of Bioengineering and Adjunct Professor of Neurology and Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Illinois, Chicago. I am the inventor of the Parastep FES (functional electrical stimulation) system for ambulation by thoracic-level complete paraplegic. This system is the only one to have received FDA approval (1994). It was further approved in 2003 by Medicare/Medicaid (and subsequently by most U.S. medical insurers) for reimbursement of both equipment cost and training. The Parastep, which is a noninvasive system, allows complete paraplegic (injuries anywhere between T-1 and T-12) to walk on the average 450 meters (1500) feet per walk, when fully trained. I am also Associate Editor of Neurological Research and was Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering. I serve as member of the executive committee of the International Society of Bioelectromagnetism. I authored several graduate-level textbooks, including one on Neural Networks and one on Functional Electrical Stimulation. I am therefore no novice to the field of rehabilitation medicine. Furthermore, I attended several training and teaching sessions organized by Anat Baniel and spent many hours discussing her work with her and others. For years I pressed her to bring it out to the public by writing a book.
I have observed Anat’s work with severely challenged individuals over a period of more than two decades, and have witnessed transformations that are simply stunning. Over the years, Anat explained to me the premises of her work, and I have become a life-long enthusiast.
I feel strongly that it is high time that this important work will be available to the public at large. My hope is Anat's book will also help to make Feldenkrais' approach and its extensions over the last two decades by Ms. Baniel and by practitioners she has trained a part of academic teaching, training and research programs in rehabilitation medicine departments and in physical therapy departments in universities in the U.S.A. and abroad, and the sooner, the better.
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Philip Sankar MD
Pediatric Neurologist
A REMARKABLE CHANGE
I am a pediatric neurologist who has been in practice for the past 9 years. I was introduced to the Anat Baniel Method in 2006 when my son started seeing Cheryl Eichner, an Anat Baniel Method practitioner, to help him move. He had movement problems from infancy which were not changing despite standard physical and occupational therapy. Cheryl encouraged my wife and I to attend Anat’s “Children with Special Needs” Workshop to better understand the method and how it is helping our son. I became intrigued by the potential of this method to bring quick and impressive improvement to children with special needs. Soon after I joined Anat’s professional training program to learn more.
With Anat’s encouragement, even though I am in the early stages of her training, I decided to try some of what I was learning in my own pediatric neurology practice. This is the story of one of my experiences with the Anat Baniel Method:
Scott is a 14 year old adolescent male who plays football and baseball in his freshman year of high school. Over a period of some weeks, during his football practice and games, he was hit a number of times on his neck, shoulders and upper back. These recurring traumas resulted with Scott suddenly losing normal feeling in his right arm (he is right handed). At the same time he was experiencing sharp pain that radiated from his right shoulder down his right arm and was temporarily unable to raise that arm. Although he never had a concussion, he was diagnosed with a common traumatic injury seen in professional football players and had begun to receive physical therapy. He then developed chronic and frequent headaches which would occur when he was trying to concentrate in class or read from a book. He was referred to my clinic for help with his persistent headaches and because he was still unable to raise his right arm the way he could before the injuries. Concurrently he was being followed by a podiatrist because of having flat feet that caused discomfort while playing.
My typical treatment plan for headaches involves the use of daily medications, which normally takes 4 to 6 weeks to see change in the pattern of the headaches. It was Scott’s first appointment with me. Because he was also suffering limitation in the movement of his right arm, and even though I’m still at the early stages of my ABM training, I decided to try some of what I have learned in that training.
Immediately after I began working with Scott he noticed a change in his posture on his left side and felt as if his left foot had an arch for the first time in his life. He came back for his next appointment one week later and informed me that his headaches had resolved - disappeared - within 2 days after our first meeting. He also told me that his concentration and his ability to read are back.
Scott has requested to continue to see me for these mini ABM lessons – an unusual request for a teenager to go see the doctor. Since then he has commented on improved accuracy with his aim (pitching in baseball); improved stability and assurance with his balance as if there were arches in his feet. His podiatrist feels that he finally was able to fit Scott with the correct arch support after months of trials.
When asked why they continue to return, the family’s response is: “he is a teenager and when he does not want to do something, he will let me know. Instead he reminds me of the upcoming appointments”.
Scott states that “I feel more balanced and enjoy the feeling in my body after the session, my headaches are gone and I like being a better pitcher”.
I have never had this rapid a response from standard headache therapy.
As for my son, he has begun to move like other babies. He recently discovered the joy of pulling himself to standing. He is 2 1/2 years old and has been getting the Anat Baniel Method lessons for the past 6 months.
I myself have experienced back pain from an injury 20 years ago. I also had knee surgery after I ruptured of most of the ligaments in my knee. Since entering the training program, I have become more balanced and assured in my standing and walking with no back pain in 3 months.
Philip Sankar MD
Pediatric Neurologist
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Christopher Ryan, M.D., Denver, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
My undergraduate degree from Yale University is in philosophy, and I have always believed I had good training in, and a natural aptitude for, critical thinking. A Medical Degree from Creighton University gave me a solid foundation in medical science and general medical practice. During my residency in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at University of California at Davis, I was taught stretching as a means to improve range of motion and strengthening exercises to remedy weakness and loss of stamina. With some considerable modification and fine-tuning learned in course of my day-to-day practice, I was able to make some of these techniques useful for my patients. Other techniques I have found out to be counter productive, like progressive resistance exercises that create greater limitations in some patients. I had been taught that some diagnoses—particularly central nervous system injury and malformation—simply carried poor prognoses, regardless of attempts at treatment. With some exceptions, given my medical training, I had found this to be generally true in practice.
I am Board Certified in both PM&R and Holistic Medicine. My private practice of holistically-oriented Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation in Denver, Colorado has for 16 years concentrated on rehabilitation of complex musculoskeletal and neurologic conditions, as well as coordination of multidisciplinary pain management. These are very difficult patients, often with problems which many other physicians had considered intractable. I cannot afford to be swept downstream by the current of the latest medical fad. Still, the patients I treated frequently responded remarkably well to Feldenkrais work, and my desire to learn more about this little-known treatment approach was how I came to study with Anat Baniel.
Moshe Feldenkrais' conceptualization of the functioning of the human body often flies in the face of orthodox medical teaching. Anat's brilliant and bold Method of teaching and employing Feldenkrais' system led me almost immediately to the realization that much of what I had taken for granted as the foundation of rehabilitation medical science was neither scientific nor even logical. My foundation was not simply shaken: it was pulverized. Yet even while her early exposés caused me to experience profound conceptual vertigo, the more powerful message by far is Anat's answer to the question of what should replace the old foundation. It has always been obvious that it is crucial to her to provide the details of this new foundation, literally a new paradigm, from which to understand human movement, human learning, and ultimately human destiny.
As much as I pore 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. I am not swayed by New Age psycho-babble, and neither are my long-suffering patients. Above and beyond any conceptual fascination I may have with Anat Baniel's Method, the most important thing is that it is effective. It 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. It helps adults, and it has helped many children whose parents have been told that there is no hope. The families with previously incurable children are stunning testimonial to the real world utility of this Method
Anat Baniel is not a household name—yet. The obvious truth from my medical perspective is that she should be known; even more importantly, her Method should be known. It is of vital importance to all of us, not only because it effectively and painlessly treats a myriad of conditions, but because it can help us reach our greatest potential as humans.
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Dr. Cheryl Cooper, M.D., O.D.
I attended the Chicago Medical School and graduated as a medical doctor. I did my Ophthalmology residency at the University of Illinois. I have been in group private practice for the past 18 years and am a member of the Board of Trustees of Rosalind Franklin University of Health Sciences
My third child, Dougy, was born with a genetic disorder which caused him to have many developmental delays including delayed speech, delayed motor development, ADHD, sensory integration disorders, and a host of learning disabilities both verbal and non verbal. He was not diagnosed until age four. He was in traditional therapy for two years with limited results.
We met Anat for the first time in 1995 just before Dougy's third birthday. At the time he had no attention span. I rarely saw him calm while he was awake. He spoke a few mono syllable words and did so in a robotic fashion. He walked hunched over as if he was a stroke victim. His back was extremely weak and he couldn't lift his head when lying on his stomach.
While in Chicago, Anat agreed to give Dougy his first lesson as a demonstration in her workshop. It was the first time that I witnessed Dougy lie quietly. He lay quietly without moving for over 45 minutes paying close attention to what Anat was doing with him. I was stunned. Soon after, we went out to California on our first week-long visit during which Dougy was able to say a multiple-syllable word fluidly, construct a rudimentary sentence, his attention span increased substantially, and his gait improved remarkably.
For over nine years, I have been leaving my other two children, my husband, and my practice six to seven times a year to bring Dougy out to California to continue working with Anat. Over these years, Dougy's progress has been steady, often bordering on the miraculous. His coordination is now like that of an average normal child his age. He never stops talking, and has a wonderful sense of humor. He is able to think and reason, read and write. Dougy is going to be Bar Mitzvahed in November and he already knows his Torah portion—he is doing unbelievably well.
Anat's greatest gift to me is that she gave me back my son.
As an ophthalmologist, I have seen in Anat's practice children with severe strabismus whose eyes are now straight without surgery, something I would never have believed possible. I also received lessons from Anat when I had an injury to my hip and back. After a couple of months of suffering, in three sessions with Anat, my pain was gone.
The theory underlying Anat's work is scientifically based, as well as it is a new paradigm. As a medical doctor, I am trained to observe and make sense out of what I see. What Anat does makes complete sense. How she does it is inspiring and often ingenious. I hope to see her knowledge benefit as many people, children and adults, as possible.
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Neil Sharp, M.D., M.A., M.B.,Ch.B.,
I qualified as a doctor of medicine in 1990 having studied at Cambridge University and Edinburgh Medical School. Whilst at Cambridge, I also gained a Masters degree in the History of Art. I have always hoped to find a use for the medical training that I received and special needs education has for a long time been an area in which I wished to be involved.
I became aware of the work of Dr Feldenkrais 18 months ago. As a singer, I was having a vocal crisis. Through a friend I learned of the extraordinary work of Feldenkrais and was driven to experience it first hand. I decided to search the world to get as close to the source of this work as possible and after many months I decided to apply for the training provided by Anat Baniel and I began her professional training even though it involves my having to travel to the U.S.A. at my own expense four times a year.
From my first contact with Anat, I realized that she is a truly extraordinary person. I had seen DVD's of her work with children with special needs; the results of which are, in comparison with anything I have encountered in the “conventional” medical field, nothing short of miraculous. My training taught me always to approach such things from a point of skepticism but since starting the training that standpoint has been continually and utterly overwhelmed. I came thinking that perhaps the DVD's were isolated examples or even that they had be falsified! The presence of so many parents on the training of children whose lives Anat has altered inconceivably for the better in itself is testament to the power and success of her work as a practitioner. But could this skill be taught?
Since beginning the training, I have had the privilege not only of watching her give lessons in her practice but have been able to observe the work of one of her recent trainees, Kinga Czegeni, who is the director of the Avalon Academy. Kinga is also an extremely talented exponent of this work and my contact with her has helped to convince me that Ms. Baniel is able to pass on her skills very effectively.
Anat has dedicated and continues to dedicate her life to learning; learning how to learn, learning how to teach people how to learn, and disseminating that knowledge so that it can have its widest possible beneficial effects. Her energy, enthusiasm and her ability to operate on so many levels of this process are quite awe inspiring and are fired by over 30 years experience of the capacity of the human brain to learn.
Anat Baniel can see potential in a disabled child that no parent would dare hope for and no medical practitioner I have yet experienced would counsel, for she has learned over these years that any learning in a child with however much brain damage is evidence for the potential for more learning and the possibility for a better life.
Suffice it to say that the effects of working with Anat on my life personally are manifold. I am mentally and physically freer. The effects of this work are still somewhat new to me and I have every expectation that there is much more to come. In short, she has helped me to see a much bigger picture and I am very excited to be a part of the work that she is furthering. I hope to have a long association with this remarkable woman and, through my medical background, facilitate her own journey in every way that I am able.
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Abigail Natenshon, MA, LCSW, GCFP
I am a psychotherapist specializing in the treatment of eating disorders, and have been in this practice for 35 years. I am the founder and director of Eating Disorder Specialists of Illinois and am author of the book When Your Child Has an Eating Disorder. Because of Anat's work with my child, I have also become a Guild Certified Feldenkrais Therapist, trained by Anat Baniel in the Anat Baniel Method based on the work of Moshe Feldenkrais, with a Masters certification in work with infants and children. I recently presented a paper at an international eating disorder conference regarding my work which integrates the Anat Baniel Method with more traditional methods of psychotherapy to facilitate eating disorder recovery.
Our daughter, Elizabeth, was born with cerebella hypoplasia, a diagnosis of a condition that would be expected to limit her brain development and her capacity to move, learn, mature and develop. At 4 months of age, her prognosis from the most prestigious pediatric neurologist in the city of Chicago was dire: the medical profession predicted that there was no recourse for this child but to become profoundly retarded, ultimately requiring institutionalization.
Though my husband and I gave birth to Elizabeth, Anat Baniel gave her life. Through her potent work, Baniel bypassed the damage in the brain to create new and healthy neural pathways, offering Elizabeth new opportunities to learn and to grow. As a testimony to Baniel's work, Elizabeth has grown up to become a beautiful, brilliant, independent and highly functioning adult. She is currently working towards her second Master's degree and is engaged to be married.
As a teacher, Anat Baniel is larger than life. A vibrant and inspirational personality with a remarkable wit and joie de vivre, she is unequalled as teacher-of her Method, as well as of life itself. A friend and apprentice of Moshe Feldenkrais, her mentor, Feldenkrais has said about Anat, “There is a direct line from God, through Anat, to children.”
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Lawrence Epstein, Ph.D.
I am a Training and Supervising Analyst at the William Alanson White Institute for Psychoanalysis in New York City and co-editor and contributor to Counter-transference: The Therapist's Contribution to the Therapeutic Situation. I have published papers on psychoanalytic supervision and on working with difficult treatment situations arising in both the one-to-one and group psychoanalytic settings. I practice both individual and group psychoanalysis and conduct training groups for therapists in private practice.
In the summer of 200l, I was visiting family in San Francisco. I also visited Anat Baniel, a friend whom I had not seen for several years. On this occasion, she introduced me to her method by giving me a lesson. While feeling relaxed after the lesson, a fuller appreciation of its benefits followed three days later.
I went to play golf at a course in the area of my vacation home in Eastern Long Island. I was told that, due to heavy rains, golf carts were not permitted on the course. This left me with the option of walking the nine holes that I had intended to play. I had given up on walking this hilly golf course about a year earlier because my arthritic problems made walking too painful. I was curious, however, to see what the effect of Anat's lesson, if any, might have on my walking the course. The effects proved to be nothing less than remarkable. Walking the course was not only pain free: it was positively pleasurable.
This experience encouraged me to continue with weekly lessons with an excellent practitioner who has been trained by Anat. I regularly walk the nine holes of my local golf course–most recently on four consecutive days. I am 79 years old. I still carry a diagnosis of “severe spinal stenosis.” The lessons keep me limber and enable me to keep fit by swimming or walking on the Nordic Track for 45-minute sessions, several times a week.
I have referred family members, friends, and patients in my psychotherapy practice to practitioners of the Anat Baniel Method. They have been similarly benefited.
Over the years, I have had many discussions with Anat regarding her theoretical understanding underlying her work. I'm very impressed with the thoroughness of her integration of neurology and human action. It is innovative and makes perfect sense.
I think Anat's book is going to be very important.
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To contact the Anat Baniel Center: administrator@anatbanielmethod.com Anat Baniel Method, 4330 Redwood Hwy. Suite 350, San Rafael, CA 94903,; 415-472-6622; 800-386-1441
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