NeuroMovement® Parent and Child with Special Needs Workshop Was Remarkable!
Five-Day Intensive Brings Amazing Transformations to Children and Adults
For the very first time, in response to requests by parents and caregivers, and following our vision at the Anat Baniel Method® (ABM) Center, we offered a 5-day workshop for parents, caregivers, and their children.
Parents and caregivers learned about the 9 Essentials of Anat Baniel Method NeuroMovement. (Please click on the photos to enlarge them.)
They had many opportunities, with their child in the room with them, to learn ways to apply these Essentials in their daily lives.
They also experienced NeuroMovement® firsthand so that they could gain a deep understanding of what their child is going through. The goal was to learn ways to help their child become the brilliant learner s/he was born to be.
There were 24 families who attended with children challenged by a variety of different conditions from cerebral palsy to autism. Their ages ranged from 6 months to 17 years old.
There were also 21 ABM NeuroMovement® Practitioners who provided individual ABM lessons for the families, as well teaching and providing support in the workshop.
The workshop was so amazing we wish we could have had 1,000 families there!
(Note: We will have this workshop available as streaming videos at a later date for anyone wanting to learn more about how to apply the 9 Essentials in daily life with their children.)
Every day for one hour, our Guest Coach Randy Roberts taught “Parenting as Leadership.” She worked with parents, providing them with powerful tools and distinctions to further promote their ability to help their child and bring NeuroMovement® and the 9 Essentials into their daily life.
Randy was beyond incredible and working with her was quite transformational for the parents.
Dr. Michael Merzenich was also at the workshop. He presented the role of brain plasticity and why Anat Baniel Method® NeuroMovement® works for children and adults.
Dr. Merzenich was so inspirational and the information he presented was very empowering for the parents and their decision to take this path.
Then, there was me….with 39 adults and 24 children in one room at the same time.
In the first two days I saw, for the parents, how challenging it could be to apply the 9 Essentials in the interactions with their child in the here and now.
In fact, when I originally thought of offering this workshop it was because I knew that parents could use guidance in applying these Essentials in a practical way in their children’s daily lives. However, I had no idea how truly challenging it could be.
And then the miracle happened.
By day three, parents became familiar with this new way of thinking and this new language. They started shifting how they interacted with and related to their children. (Learn more about From Fixing to Connecting.)
The children began changing at a really fast rate. It was fantastic to see how the kids began “owning” the room.
They began crawling and running around, and interacting with other adults and children. The room became one big, wonderful loving village with learning and transformation happening for everyone all the time.
Here is a small sample of the transformations that I observed in the children:
- A 5-year old girl with massive brain damage to one side of her brain who couldn’t see objects on the opposite side, began having visual perception on that side, and after 3 days actually wanted to participate and receive ABM lessons.
- A 9-year-old boy with cerebral palsy figured out how to transition to standing much more easily and shifted from being fearful to asking to be demonstrated on.
- A 6-month-old baby who received the diagnosis of “catastrophic brain damage” began using his hands for the first time. Within less than a day, he began grabbing objects with both hands and then transitioning them from hand to hand. He also figured out how to roll from his back to his belly, and most importantly—he became incredibly alert, curious, and happy.
- A 7-year-old boy on the autism spectrum initially couldn’t tolerate being in the big room with everyone else. So we had one of the teachers work with him and his mom in a separate room where they could watch and listen to what was going on in the big room via a TV. Every day he got calmer and was able to spend more time in the big room. On the last day he spent a whole hour with everyone else and was perfectly fine!
And the list goes on….
This workshop also gave the parents a greater understanding and access to the 9 Essentials so that they are now able to implement them more fully and see the results.
One of the big insights that many of the parents shared with me, and with the class, was that they came into the workshop hoping to fix and change their child.
And they were leaving, realizing that the biggest change happened for them personally (which of course impacted, and continues to impact, their child).
They also learned and now recognize that this NeuroMovement® approach is a process that they and their children will master more and more as they continue practicing the 9 Essentials.
We all truly grew together in this very intense five days, and it was a privilege to be a part of this amazing experience.
The other good news is that the entire five days was professionally videotaped. We hope to have it available as streaming videos in several months or so for anyone to watch and learn online. We will let you know when the final videos are ready.
View our calendar to find out about ABM NeuroMovement Workshops and other events that are happening online and around the US.
I invite you to share your experience with us on social media if you attended this workshop. And we’d love to hear how it is going…
