Move From the Fixing Paradigm to the Nine Essentials
I recently came back from Esalen Institute, where I was teaching a workshop for parents, professionals, and caregivers of children with special needs. It was incredible and challenging.
The challenge is how to facilitate the paradigm shift from the traditional “fixing” and trying to make children do what they cannot…to the Anat Baniel Method and the Nine Essentials. To clarify, following is an excerpt from my book Kids Beyond Limits:
From Fixing to Connecting
The Nine Essentials move us quickly beyond the limitations of the fixing paradigm, helping any brain do its job better, and providing the underlying process from which all skills and learning emerge….The Nine Essentials are tools for you to feel, see, notice, and create; more important, they will increase your own capacity to connect with and work with your child, whatever his special needs may be….The purpose of connecting with your child through the Nine Essentials isn’t just about being more compassionate. Nor is it about doing for your child what he cannot do himself. On the contrary, it is about providing your child with the greatest opportunity to develop real skills and a strong sense of self, to feel good about himself and to have the ability to continue to learn and grow, with a genuine sense of accomplishment and pride.
For the first time in this workshop, we did short exercises in small groups so that the participants could experiment with applying the Nine Essentials in real life situations. It was magnificent to see how this approach helped to make the quantum shift for everyone.
As always, I am in deep admiration of the parents—their love, commitment, and willingness to change for their children was inspiring.
And, of course, doing all this work in the beautiful environment of Esalen put the whole experience over the top. Here is what some of the participants had to say about the workshop:
The transformational experience for me was letting go of the goal—looking completely at the movement of the child and going with it, and expanding from there with intention, but not with intention of outcome. —Ann Irving
It was inspirational. Anat was able to articulate for me a lot of the fundamental principles which I intuitively already believe and apply in my own life. I have a deeper level of hope for all of the possibilities for our daughter and our family, and also for our “ordinary” daughter who does not have challenges. —Arthur Doyle
I invite you to join us on social media and share your experiences with the Nine Essentials!
