About the Anat Baniel Method

The ANAT BANIEL METHOD℠ (ABM) helps people of all ages overcome pain and limitation and achieve lifetime fitness and vitality – physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. The method accesses the remarkable capacity of the human brain to form new connections and new patterns, and reach levels of performance never achieved before.

Derived from the groundbreaking method developed by Dr. Feldenkrais, the Anat Baniel Method is based on cutting-edge scientific theory and on the understanding of how our brain learns and transforms our body, our mind, and our spirit. Tens of thousands of people seeking an alternative and complementary approach to medicine, fitness training, physical therapy programs, and ways to help children with special needs have used the ABM with great success.

History of the Anat Baniel Method

Evolution is inherent to every scientific discipline and as a scientist, Dr. Feldenkrais understood that his method needed to evolve in order for it to stay vibrant, valid, and useful. His intention was for his work to develop as increased scientific knowledge and accumulated teaching experience brought more insight, greater understanding, and the formation of new techniques.

Anat Baniel, in 11 years of apprenticeship and close cooperation with Dr. Feldenkrais, followed by 24 years of continued practice, teaching, study, and discovery combined with her experience as a clinical psychologist and dancer, has been steadily evolving and refining the Feldenkrais Method to the present Anat Baniel Method. The method and theory that Dr. Feldenkrais developed was and still is an immense breakthrough in human knowledge. Yet, he rarely explained his underlying theories and preferred to demonstrate them through his actual work with clients and students.

Anat Baniel spent thousands of hours being trained by Dr. Feldenkrais, observing him work with clients and groups, and later working directly with him and teaching side by side. Later, in her own practice, Anat continuously worked to master and further evolve the techniques, as well as to understand and develop the theoretical basis for explaining the remarkable outcomes she observed.

The Anat Baniel Method is Based Upon NeuroMovement

NeuroMovement® is a holistic approach to human functioning and action, based in the understanding that the brain organizes all movement. Movement includes not only the movement in space of the skeleton and muscles, but also the movement of thinking, emotion, and feelings. With NeuroMovement, the person is seen as integrated, highly complex system, where movement is the language of the brain and the mechanism through which we live, survive and thrive.

The Anat Baniel Method is a NeuroMovement, holistic approach that utilizes movement in all its forms to help upgrade the functioning of the brain that in turn can organize thinking, feeling, emotion and action better.

Read more about NeuroMovement and the Anat Baniel Method.

The Science of Brain Plasticity

Brain plasticity is the ability of the brain and nervous system to change structurally and functionally in response to experience. Plasticity occurs on the level of cellular changes and changes involved in cortical remapping. The most widely recognized forms of plasticity are learning, memory, and recovery from brain damage. During most of the 20th century, the general consensus among neuroscientists, as well as popular belief, was that the brain structures become fixed and cannot change past early childhood.

However, decades of research done by thousands of neuroscientists has shown that the brain can change itself. The brains of infants and children are extremely changeable needing to form all the brain patterns associated with voluntary action. Their brains are constantly expanding and mapping new territory. The science of brain plasticity shows how, under the right conditions, the adult brain can also restructure itself in remarkable ways. Even the birth of new brain cells can occur in adults, as well as children!

With the Anat Baniel Method, we understand that the underlying process leading to growth and improvement of brain functioning, and with it the improvement in skills and well-being, is the continued process of differentiation, refinement, and increased complexity in the brain. With this method we don’t just try to change behavior, but we help upgrade the functioning of the brain itself to become a more skilled brain.

With a better, stronger brain, positive changes occur in all aspects that otherwise may not be possible, both for adults and for children. Read more about brain plasticity and the Anat Baniel Method.

See the transformational results of the Anat Baniel Method. View ABM videos here.