Feldenkrais Summit

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Turning Challenges into Possibilities
for the Special Needs Family

Feldenkrais® Awareness Summit

Sit in with over 30 experts who do incredible work on behalf of children and their families.

Discover the potent highway between the brain, body, emotions, health, and development.

In the past, we have only been able to have a couple of sessions devoted to children, this time the entire summit will be focused on giving extraordinary children the best environment for growth and development.

FREE ONLINE EVENT | November 5 – November 10, 2020

Join this Free Summit

What will YOU get by being a part of this online conference? 

  • 15 movement lessons that will help you move better and feel better.
  • Specific ways to explore with your child at home.
  • 9 essentials for moving beyond therapy and into learning.
  • Ways to decrease effort and stress for all.
  • Learn how focusing on ease and function can lead to better outcomes.
  • Vital self-care strategies for parents and caregivers.
  • How curiosity and play is the gateway for physical and emotional growth.
  • Gain new ideas for solving “behavior” problems at home and school.
  • Why deepening your own awareness will help your child develop.
  • Learn to quiet your nervous system, and then, your child’s.
  • Find the interplay between mindful movement, function, and health.
  • Discover key ways to help with issues such as cerebral palsy, stroke, autism, learning disabilities, oxygen deprivation, Down syndrome, and poor vision.

Through 26+ sessions
Learn from these Master Teachers

Daniel Siegel, Anat Baniel, Donna Ray, Elinor Silverstein, Arlyn Zones, Leora Gaster, Martha Herbert, Carolyn Palmer, Patricia Musolino

Michelle Turner, Brent Shaub, Lama Majaj, Carole Henderson, Mara Yale, Barbara Leverone, Carla Oswald Reed, Kirsten M. Brown, Carrie Steenbergen

Matty Wilkinson, Judith Dack, ShaDonn Stewart, and Audrey deChadenedes

PLUS

Teachers

Taro Iwamoto, GCFP

Astra Coyle, GCFP

Ralph Hadden BA, GCFP

Awareness Through MovemenT® Lessons each Day

To find out more about our teachers, click on their names.

These expertly taught Feldenkrais® lessons will contribute to your own wellbeing. 

By learning to regulate your own nervous system and moving with greater ease, 
you will find interactions with your child will improve, as will her movements.

These potent experiences will give your brain
and nervous system the food they crave.

By doing a lesson each day, you will experience positive changes
that will accumulate towards
your better living now.

 

Get Your Free Pass

As a SPECIAL BONUS for claiming your free ticket, YOU WILL RECEIVE…

Our exclusive:

2020 INSPIRATIONAL Guidebook

We all need encouragement on this journey of wholeness. Let these experienced teachers give you that extra boost when you need it. Take in a short snippet and let it infuse you with energy and direction.

 
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WHAT DID PEOPLE SAY ABOUT THE LAST SUMMIT

I feel gladly compelled to write to you to express how deeply I thank you for having created such an amazing event. As a human being I have felt more connected to the world than ever and I can sense how my inner intention to move in life has been clarified and enlivened. I sincerely think that you all have contributed to the collective healing and to the growth of our spirits in an enormous way.
Margarida Olivé
I have been soooo enthralled by this summit. Love the humanness at it’s best. There is a level of professionalism married to pure wonder of the human condition, all aimed at assisting people, who at times, have lost hope in traditional therapies, to find their footing again on the right side of health and the joy of mobility, with the help of dedicated practitioners.
Ray Baker

FEATURED Master Sessions

On Days 2 – 5, you will get 48-hour access to four powerful, transformational sessions with master practitioners in their fields and three Feldenkrais® Awareness Through Movement® lessons. Plus you can participate in a live panel discussion on that day’s session. 

Join Free Summit

DAY 1: Keynote

To find out more about our expert speakers, click on their names.

The Feldenkrais® Method – Creating pleasurable conditions for learning

After a few words about Dr. Feldenkrais and his Method, I will share with you some of the elegant principles and strategies we use in our work to create pleasurable learning conditions for your child. We are uniquely equipped to help each child develop their sensory image of self which in turn leads to new movement capacities and a better connection to the environment.

To illustrate the ideas I will show some short video clips from my work with children. Each child started with a different initial diagnosis. After we see the principles in action we can then begin the conversation of ways in which the parents can also create pleasurable learning conditions for their child.

Arlyn Zones

Feldenkrais Trainer
DAY 2

To find out more about our expert speakers, click on their names.

Dan Siegel

M.D., Ph.D.

The power of showing up: How parental presence shapes who our children become and how their brains get wired

This talk will provide an overview of the science of attachment through the lens of the interdisciplinary field of interpersonal neurobiology. By exploring how relationships shape the developing mind by molding the networks of the brain involved in regulation of emotion, bodily processes, and mindsight, we will discuss how parents’ and teachers’ mental presence—their open, receptive awareness—can offer the “Four S’s of attachment” as children experience being safe, seen, soothed and then secure. This security of attachment is the best predictor of a child’s development of resilience, insight, empathy, and mindsight as the foundations of social and emotional intelligence.

Donna Ray

LMFT, Feldenkrais® Trainer

Atypical learning: You and your child’s needs

Clarify learning the Feldenkrais® way. Knowing your child and family dynamics will help you create optimal learning. Understanding your child’s brain processing provides you with effective educational options.

Healthy learning including gentle handling, kind messages, safe spaces to move and play. Interaction sometimes referred to as co-regulation, and movement exploration develops problem-solving skills and intelligence. Awareness and calm nervous systems create information flow, a necessity for learning. Safe secure spaces allow all children to blossom.

Michelle M. Turner

Vision + your child

The first step to your child’s development is their vision. A child with special needs usually has challenges with vision and movement. You may not think your child has vision needs, but if your child is delayed in their milestone development, more than likely they have a visual concern. Michelle Turner, creator of Movement Lesson, discusses what you need to know to do a basic evaluation of your child’s vision needs.

Leora Gaster

MBS Master Trainer and Program Director, BSC Stanford, CA, Master Trainer, NLP Trainer, Martial Arts Black Belt Kodokan, Japan

YOU CAN DO IT: Simple, practical interventions to improve your child and make your life easier

We have distilled and combined exponentially effective techniques, which are practical to apply and include benefits for the entire caregiving system. This thoughtful combination is designed to be sustainable long-term.

Our work is about learning and connecting with one’s own resources. The higher potential is there, our job is to provide an environment within which the system can learn the associated intention with execution, thereby expanding ability.

Panel Discussion

Join host 
CYNTHIA ALLEN and these parent/practitioner experts

Renee Thomas

Authorized ATM® Teacher

Ivana Gadient

ABMNM

DAY 3

To find out more about our expert speakers, click on their names.

Anat Baniel

Breakthroughs for children on the autism spectrum with NeuroMovement®

1 in 54 children have Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). In12 years, ASD increased 289.5%.  While ASD is understood as a brain disorder, interventions frequently treat it as a behavioral issue. Anat Baniel Method® NeuroMovement® approaches the brain as an information system. When a child has ASD, their brain is challenged with generating information – the fuel for learning. We replace drilling and copious repetitions that might inadvertently limit the child’s progress with helping their brain do its job better and heal. When that occurs, we see spontaneous behavioral, motor, cognitive, and social transformations, i.e. healthy growth and learning.    

Martha HeRbert

M.D., Pediatric Neurologist and Author

Child neurologist encounters somatic education

ABM-NeuroMovement® has helped me become a “recovering neurologist” by offering a profoundly systematic approach to brain challenges, based on interconnection and potential, rather than on reductionist disease treatments. This approach aligns with other functional systems approaches, such as functional medicine, but goes beyond metabolism, microbiome, and immune system to generating transformation by talking to the brain through movement; its earliest and foundational, but greatly underappreciated, learning modality. This is an important expansion of the developmental whole body-brain approach, and has implications across neurology, rehabilitation, education, creativity, and how we raise our children. It is also rich with potential neuroscientific discoveries.

Lama Majaj

MA, AThR, R-CASE

A liminal space: An embodied arts therapy presence with children with autism

Parents can be empowered to use the arts to connect with their children with special needs and help them express themselves in non-verbal ways. Tailoring their choices and environmental conditions to make it necessary for them to use more variations of movement, creativity, imagination, and play are ways parents can assist their children to self-regulate. In this talk, Lama will share how embodied approaches in arts therapies can help build bridges between what is possible and unique when working with parents and caregivers of children on the spectrum.

Kirsten M. Brown

OTR/L

The road map to a child’s social engagement and communication

Sensory regulation, sharing attention, and engagement are the foundational skills needed for a child to further develop social communication skills. Learn about the roadmap that a pediatric occupational and speech therapist teaches a family to follow to help their young autistic child further develop his social engagement and functional communication skills.

Carrie Steenbergen

M.S., CCC-SLP

Panel Discussion

Join host 
CYNTHIA ALLEN and these practitioner experts

Sheryl Field

GCFP

Kim Hsieh

GCFP

DAY 4

To find out more about our expert speakers, click on their names.

Patricia L. Musolino

M.D., Ph.D.

Development after Pediatric Stroke: Empowering families to drive their rehab journey

Dr. Musolino will review types of stroke in children and how injury to the developing brain can affect different abilities/neurological functions. She will also discuss the impact on development and how we can, with this understanding, support learning of new skills and improve quality of life.

Mara Yale

Ph.D., GCFP

11 years parenting a pediatric stroke survivor

After my younger daughter had a stroke, diagnosed two days after birth, I faced shock then grief. I was able to bring my scientific and Feldenkrais® training to this parenting journey. At age eleven, she is bilingual and biliterate in English and Spanish, plays soccer and ice hockey goalie, enjoys math, science, and robotics. In this talk, I share vignettes from our journey to educate and inspire other parents. Optimal outcomes for children with early brain injuries come from persistent parents who fight, at every age and stage, to ensure their children’s needs are being met.

Elinor B. Silverstein

GCFP

The vagal tone connection to oxygen deprivation and seizures

The day I happened to have my hand on the belly of a sweet little boy with CP and severe seizures, I felt something right beneath my finger tips. It rippled and ran like live electrical wires teeming with electricity. I heard Mom call out to her son and felt her blow on his face to stop the onset of a grand mal seizure. Oxygen deprivation can wreak havoc on the vagus nerve, and I simply applied this method, in this way, and the seizure stopped. I taught it to Mom and she learned life long tools to help her son. But, there’s more!

Matty Wilkinson

MA, GCFP

Reframing challenges at school and home

A young child survived a stroke, but must learn to navigate his preschool classroom. He speaks loudly, stands too close, and senses himself and his environment differently from his peers. He wants to connect, but feels like an outsider looking in. Can his teachers help him learn without making him feel wrong? Using examples of real children, Matty will present a framework for creating ideal conditions for learning. Teachers and parents can replace correction with rich experiences, amplify the child’s ability to sense himself and his environment, and reframe mistakes as empowering and potent learning opportunities.

Panel Discussion

Join host 
CYNTHIA ALLEN and this practitioner/parent  team

Lisa Walker

GCFP

Gabrielle White Stuart

mother of Izzy

DAY 5

To find out more about our expert speakers, click on their names.

Judith Dack

Certified Feldenkrais® Practitioner, Certified Anat Baniel Method NeuroMovement® Practitioner, Certified Pilates Instructor

Turning the challenges of Down syndrome into possibilities

We all want what is best for our children. The quest to unlock a child’s potential is a complex journey for a parent of a child with Down Syndrome. Judith Dack will share how she partners with parents and children to achieve better function than has been predicted. Judith will speak about igniting children’s curiosity, facilitating greater self-awareness of their bodies, and their relationship to their environment. Judith will share strategies that help children with Down Syndrome to more effectively learn to crawl, walk, talk, and cultivate their dreams for a remarkable future.

Barbara Leverone

M.A, Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner® and Child'Space Trainer

Empowering parents: Three pillars of support for you and your child

Discover the enormous potential in daily interactions using three fundamental pathways: informed proprioceptive touch, supportive hands-on movement patterns, and strength-based relationships. Touch promotes biological and emotional regulation and provides proprioceptive input for the emerging sense of self. With knowledge of the building blocks underlying function, caregivers can offer simple movement explorations that support the child’s developmental process. Grounded in a strength-based perspective, the family can gain confidence in their role in maximizing their child’s potential. This session will explore these concepts and offer practical steps to encourage development in gross and fine motor skills, early language and cognition, and social-emotional growth.

ShaDonn Stewart

Intervention Specialist

The Intervention Specialist as a resource

This conversation discusses the typical role of an intervention specialist. It goes on to discuss how the Intervention Specialist can be a resource to parents and families both within as well as outside of the school building.

Carolyn F. Palmer

Ph.D., Developmental Psychologist, Feldenkrais® and Child’Space Practitioner

The power of a somatic approach to learning and your child

The body is always part of learning. The body is a constant source of information about self and environment, and the body regulates encounters. This session delves into key components of somatic learning science. Parents and mentors can work with a child’s multiple sensory and action systems to join with and expand the child’s abilities. A child who feels their whole self affirmed and capable is ready to learn from new encounters. Somatic work (such as Feldenkrais®, Child’Space, and ABM Neuromovement®) supports learning by empowering the whole person to sense themselves, and feel how to explore and discover new abilities.

Panel Discussion

Join host 
CYNTHIA ALLEN and these parent/practitioner experts

Allyson Sipple

MS PT, GCFP, BFL

Jennifer Miller

GCFP

DAY 6

To find out more about our expert speakers, click on their names.

Carla Oswald Reed

Pediatric Physical Therapist, Lifetime Certified Practitioner of the Feldenkrais Method®, Certified Practitioner & Former Trainer of the Anat Baniel Method Neuro® Movement®

Making every movement count™ with Cerebral Palsy

Teaching parents how to integrate the principles of the Feldenkrais Method® and ABMNM® into their ordinary, daily activities to provide the most optimal conditions for their child’s learning, facilitate their child’s best posture, and promote healthy hip joint development including:

  • picking up, carrying, holding, playing, and diapering
  • choosing, designing, &/or adapting activity &/or wheelchairs
  • using gravity as an ally in promoting movement variations and in assisting children &/or adults with safe and minimally effortful transfers
  • teaching how to use the Upsee upright mobility device dynamically, in many different positions, instead of, or in addition to, using standers

Audrey deChadenedes

Parent and Advocate

A parent’s path – What I learned raising a special needs child

Audrey will share her 32 years of experience as the parent of a young woman with severe multiple disabilities. She’ll talk about her path through denial, grief, and fear to become a strong, effective advocate for her child. She will provide insight on working with professionals – teachers, doctors, and therapists – and she’ll speak about the benefits both she and her daughter received from Feldenkrais lessons. Audrey will particularly emphasize the need for self-care that can be difficult, but so crucial, for parents of special needs children to incorporate into their lives.

Brent Shaub

Feldenkrais Practitioner and Hard of Hearing Individual

Unheard, unseen: MicroMovement [Feldenkrais®|ATM®] accessibility strategies

Overcoming the challenges of teaching online Awareness Through Movement® lessons to those who lip-read involves more than just adding captions. The learner’s opportunity to immerse in their sensory experience is substantially reduced when reading a screen continuously. However, restructuring to minimize use of the eyes, and the neck faces a balance, of what to include. Explore solutions of how to communicate the imperceptible, inaudible, richly tactile Feldenkrais Method® through an innovative multi-sensory format.

Carole Henderson

Your 5 point plan for life after lockdown

Carole will lead you through, step-by-step, a practical strategy for emotional well being in challenging times.

Panel Discussion

Join host 
CYNTHIA ALLEN and this expert mother/son team

Andrea Bowers

GCFP, ABMP

Donald Ryker

Artist

Host

Cynthia Allen launched the first Feldenkrais® Awareness Summit in 2018. She is the creator of the online Your Learning Body program, published researcher on the effects of the Bones for Life® approach in the elderly and co-creator of Integral Human Gait™ theory. She is a Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner and Senior Trainer in Movement Intelligence with a private practice in Cincinnati, Ohio, at Future Life Now, LLC.

Click Here to Register for the FREE Summit
Unlimited Digital Access for only $257 $97

Taro Iwamoto

Taro Iwamoto is a Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner® in Seattle WA, where he lives with his wife and 4-year-old son. He is a 2018 graduate of the Seattle Eastside Feldenkrais® Professional Training program. With a background in athletic training, physical therapy, and martial arts, he guides people to move through the world physically and emotionally with a sense of ease, comfort, and freedom.

Astra Coyle

Astra Coyle, Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner®, is a Teacher, Speaker, and Community Organizer, dedicated to liberation. She challenges us to rethink the way we go about transforming our personal lives, communities, and institutions. Astra views the development of individual agency as the critical step in reducing the exploitative effects of culture and developing resilient communities and institutions.

She has created many popular online classes and workshops focused on using the body as the catalyst for long-lasting personal change. Her Tedx talk, Your Body Can Change Your Mind, is one she authored to help people utilize the tools they have in their possession to transform their lives.

Astra lives in the mountains in Western North Carolina, with her husband and sons.

Ralph Hadden

Ralph Hadden BA, CFP is a Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner® and member of the Australian Feldenkrais Guild® Inc. He has over forty years’ experience in movement and body therapies as a practitioner, teacher, and trainer of teachers. He has been teaching Feldenkrais® since 1988 and is accredited as an Assistant Trainer.

He practices Feldenkrais® in Melbourne, Australia, and has taught nationally and internationally. He was editor of “Feldenkrais® Australia”, the journal of the Australian Feldenkrais Guild® Inc., from 2012 to 2018.

In his spare time, he enjoys dance, kayaking, cryptic crosswords, and has published a book of poems, “Knife in my Heart”.

Arlyn Zones

Arlyn Zones (MA Theatre Arts) graduated from Dr. Feldenkrais last training program in 1983 and later helped to train students in more than 100 Feldenkrais Professional Training Programs worldwide.
As a young practitioner, she was invited to bring the Feldenkrais Method® into a special school for children with learning differences. She has taught workshops for pediatric therapists as well as Feldenkrais® practitioners on the application of the Method to the work with children and infants. She has also maintained an ongoing private practice working with infants, children and adults for the past several decades.

Dan Siegel

Dr. Siegel is a clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine and the founding co-director of the Mindful Awareness Research Center at UCLA. He is also the Executive Director of the Mindsight Institute which focuses on the development of mindsight, teaches insight, empathy, and integration in individuals, families and communities.

Dr. Siegel has published extensively for both professional and lay audiences. His five New York Times bestsellers are: Aware: The Science and Practice of Presence, Mind: A Journey to the Heart of Being Human, Brainstorm: The Power and Purpose of the Teenage Brain, and two books with Tina Payne Bryson, Ph.D.: The Whole-Brain Child, and No-Drama Discipline. His other books include The Developing Mind, The Pocket Guide to Interpersonal Neurobiology, Mindsight, The Mindful Brain, and The Mindful Therapist. He has also written The Yes Brain and The Power of Showing Up with Tina Payne Bryson, Ph.D. Dr. Siegel also serves as the Founding Editor for the Norton Professional Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology which currently contains over seventy textbooks.

Donna Ray

Donna Ray, International Trainer of The Feldenkrais Method, Psychotherapist and Interpersonal Neurobiology presenter, imparts her knowledge with vitality and insight.

As Educational Director of Feldenkrais Institute Vienna and Director of Feldenkrais Southern CA, she uses 40 years of experience to improve the lives of others. 

Atypical children and their family’s special needs have always been in Donna’s practice;  recovery from accidents, illness, anxiety, depression, trauma, and neurological difficulties as well.

Her unique background in communication, hypnotherapy, and expressive arts is woven into her practice and training’s.  She loves seeing people transform their lives and practice healthy ways of living. 

Michelle M. Turner

Michelle M. Turner, founder of Movement Lesson™, creator of Cognitive Vision: Functional Visual Evaluation, and is a top export in movement and milestone development. Ms. Turner is the author of You Can’t Get to Mars Without Me, 21 new rules of gravity, The Newborn Movement Assessment™. Turner has presented at the International Movement Conference, University of Oxford, Harvard University, School of Medicine, and Neuroscience 2017, Washington D.C.

Leora Gaster

Leora Gaster, MBS Master Trainer and Program Director, BSC Stanford, CA, Feldenkrais® Master Trainer MBS Master Trainer, NLP Trainer, Martial Arts Black Belt Kodokan, Japan

Renee Thomas

Renee Thomas, like many others, stumbled upon the Feldenkrais Method® in desperation. She could see that all the “traditional therapies” for Cerebral Palsy just were not enough to meet her 2-year-old son’s desire to move and move well. Feldenkrais® became not only the modality that gave her son the most freedom to move and learn, but also helped her with her own limitations around body image, anxiety, and depression. Currently, in her third year of training, she is starting her Feldenkrais® practice in the Sarasota, FL area. “Making the world a better place, one BODY at a time”

Ivana Gadient

I live on the island of Maui where I have raised my three daughters. We chose the lifestyle of homeschooling which afforded ownership and value of learning. My youngest arrived 3 months early, intubated for 53 days, and left with complex cerebral palsy. I found ABM® NM when Jewel was 12 and after Anat worked on her, she said, ‘Thank you God.” This is why I went into the training, the work has helped Jewel’s health tremendously and it has saved my body. I am committed to building community, sharing our story, and supporting special needs families.

Anat Baniel

Anat Baniel, founder of Anat Baniel Method® NeuroMovement® is the best-selling author of Move Into Life, and highly acclaimed Kids Beyond Limits. Trained as a clinical psychologist and dancer, she was a long-time student, then colleague of Dr. Feldenkrais. NeuroMovement® evolved through her unrelenting search for understanding her breakthrough outcomes with clients, in terms of brain change. Anat’s world-renowned work with children with special needs, such as Autism, Cerebral Palsy, genetic disorders, ADHD, and other developmental disabilities, is at the forefront of the brain plasticity field and is applauded by parents, health professionals and prominent neuroscientists. Anat trains practitioners worldwide.

Martha Hebert

Martha Reed Herbert, Ph.D., MD, is a pediatric neurologist, neuroscientist, systems thinker and writer who founded the collaborative multidisciplinary TRANSCEND Research Program at Harvard Medical School to take a whole-body-brain approach to challenged brain development. She presently focuses on 1) The “Gifted Clinicians, Transformative Treatments, Sensitive Measures” Project of the Higher Synthesis Foundation, 2) Being principal investigator and scientific director of the Documenting Hope project combining science with film documentation, and 3) Synergizing methods of upgrading body-brain health. She has authored The Autism Revolution: Whole Body Strategies for Making Life All It Can Be as well as many scientific papers.

Lama Majaj

Lama Majaj is an Art Psychotherapist with seventeen years of experience in education, healthcare, and humanitarian settings. She is the Regional Director for Middle East representing The International Association of Creative Arts Somatic Education (IACASE) and the Principal Art Psychotherapist at Extra•Ordinary People. She was an invited Psychosocial Support consultant to implement trauma-informed care in Kurdish-Iraq, Cambodia and Dominica. Lama’s practice integrates humanistic psychotherapy with body work, movement, and the expressive arts to support individuals with Autism. She is a Dynamic Embodiment™ and BodyMind Dancing™ candidate, founded by Dr. Martha Eddy and a part-time lecturer at the MA Art Therapy Program at LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore.

Kirsten M. Brown

Kirsten has been a Pediatric Occupational Therapist for 30 years. She has worked with children and their families in a variety of settings including inpatient and outpatient hospital settings, public preschools, home based early intervention, and tele-intervention. Kirsten completed her certification in The PLAY Project in 2010 and she is now a PLAY Project Supervisor and Master Trainer. She has co-presented with Dr. Solomon, the developer of The PLAY Project, and she has helped train professionals in the US and around the world.

Carrie Steenbergen

Carrie Steenbergen, M.S. CCC-SLP, is a speech language pathologist and owner of a Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky based private practice, TherapyWorks Cincinnati, LLC. Carrie is also the founder of I Can Do Apps, LLC which develops applications that foster speech and language development and are used by speech language pathologists to assist with the implementation of therapy. She holds certification and membership through the American Speech Language Hearing Association (ASHA). She is licensed in the state of Ohio and Kentucky. Carrie is a primary level evaluator with the state of Kentucky providing evaluations to determine eligibility for early intervention services. Her caseload consists primarily of early intervention through elementary aged children. Carrie enjoys working with children on the autism spectrum and treating children with feeding based disorders and motor speech disorders.

Kim Hsieh

Kim Hsieh is a Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner® and mom of two bright and quirky kids (now 9 & 13). Their births were the inspiration for a journey that continues to this day, to understand how to “best” enhance the well-being of asynchronously developing children and the parents and caregivers who love them. She completed her professional training with Mary Spire in 2019 and can be found dreaming up ideas for introducing Feldenkrais® to 2E kids and their families (over Zoom!). She deeply appreciates that the Method® emphasizes connection, creative exploration, and learning how to learn, and it has profoundly shifted the way she parents and homeschools her boys.

Patricia L. Musolino

Dr. Patricia Musolino is a critical care and vascular neurologist with expertise in white matter disorders and cerebrovascular biology. She is assistant professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School and the co-director of the pediatric stroke and cerebrovascular service at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Musolino’s laboratory focuses on leveraging insights from neuroimaging and gene-editing tools to understand how genes alter the development of cerebrovascular function in order to develop therapies that can improve the quality of life of patients with cerebrovascular disorders like stroke and leukodystophies.

Mara Yale

Mara helps children and adults facing neurological difficulties and pain. In her twenties, she used Feldenkrais® to ease sports-induced chronic shoulder pain. After completing professional Feldenkrais® training, her younger daughter had a stroke at birth. Mara fostered her daughter’s remarkable recovery. She brings scientific inquiry and collaboration to her work based on prior careers in geophysics and software engineering. Mara is a Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner®, trained in Hand-in-Hand Parenting, and training in Somatic Experiencing, holds a Ph.D. in geophysics and played Division I ice hockey. She lives near Boston with her two daughters.

Elinor B Silverstein

Elinor Silverstein, an internationally recognized Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner®, holds degrees in both Biology and Zoology. She integrates the sciences of nutrition and inner-biology into her teaching of the Gut-Brain Connection. Elinor has over 35 years of experience using the Feldenkrais Method® to assist children and adults with their healing process as they deal with serious nervous system disorders. She teaches her Gut-Brain program for the general public, as well as for medical professionals and Feldenkrais Practitioners® throughout the world while maintaining a private practice in Orange County, California.

 

Matty Wilkinson

Matty is a Feldenkrais® and Anat Baniel Method® for Children practitioner in private practice in Boston and online. He is fascinated by the developmental process and believes in the innate potential of each individual to learn. In 2001 Matty began teaching preschool, studying child development, and joined a Feldenkrais® training. He earned a MA in Child Development from Tufts University in 2009. As a neurodevelopmental consultant, Matty coaches parents and educators to create optimal conditions for children’s learning, applying his expertise as an early childhood educator, sensorimotor practitioner, and father.

Lisa Walker

Lisa Walker, Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner®, offers private sessions, classes & retreats, and advanced continuing education for Feldenkrais® practitioners. Lisa has offices in MN and travels to NYC to work with babies and children living with neuromuscular and developmental challenges. Through her 20+ years of experience, she sees clients of all ages and abilities. Lisa has extensive experience leading groups, including at Mayo Clinic, and various locations in the U.S. and Canada.

Gabrielle White Stuart

Mother of one six-year-old feisty and sweet Isabel Grace, whose cerebral palsy affects all of her limbs and her voice. I advocate to keep me sane while I navigate a system that works against my daughter’s needs and desire for independence. Many services and supports add to our burden and seek mostly to serve their own program guidelines and mandates. Izzy and I work with a diverse team of 20+ supports, Feldenkrais® being one of the most profound. We live in Ontario now, my home province, after seven years of living in Iowa where we met Lisa.

Judith Dack

Judith Dack is the founder and director of Uptown Studio in Toronto, an internationally-recognized practice focused on children with special needs and their families. She is a lifetime certified Feldenkrais Practitioner®, Anat Baniel Method® NeuroMovement® practitioner, Certified Pilates instructor, and currently a ChildSpace training participant. Judith is an international speaker and presenter on neuroplasticity and NeuroMovement®. She is the creator of ‘Parents as the Agents of Change’ workshops for parents, professionals, and fellow practitioners and is a highly sought-after mentor in her field. Judith is a former dancer and the parent of a daughter with a childhood onset disability.

Barbara Leverone

Barbara discovered the Feldenkrais Method® in 1978, seeking to address injuries she incurred as a professional dancer. She taught Movement for Actors for Florida State University for ten years and, in 1994, received her Feldenkrais® certification. She became a Child’Space Practitioner in 2009, a Trainer in 2013, and is currently teaching and training in the United States, Argentina, and Japan. She earned a Masters Degree in Mental Health Counseling, with advanced training in Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health. Barbara has worked with families and caregivers of typically developing babies, children with developmental delays, and those with special needs.

ShaDonn Stewart

I have lived in Cincinnati for the past 23 years with my two sons, coming from Atlanta, Georgia. I have been an Intervention Specialist for the past two years in a public school in a large urban district. I service children with a range of disabilities that are fully included in the general education curriculum. Currently, I teach future special educators at Xavier University. Recently I was a finalist nominated for the Hawkins teacher of the year award.

Carolyn F. Palmer

Carolyn Palmer, Ph.D., is a Developmental Psychologist at Vassar College, and a Feldenkrais Method® and Child’Space® movement teacher. Carolyn conducts research on lifespan action development, embodied learning and teaching practices, and contemplative practices. She offers workshops, classes, and private sessions on using movement to enhance learning, function, parenting, and teaching. 

Allyson Sipple

Allyson studied psychology undergrad and later trained as a physical therapist. She began working with teens and adults with neurological challenges and in that path discovered Feldenkrais®. She quickly knew that it was her way, yet it was many years later in 2008 that she completed the Feldenkrais Guild® training & became a practitioner (GCFP). She later followed up with Movement Intelligence® work becoming a Bones for Life® teacher (BFL). Having a love of learning and to support herself & her clients, she studies Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), Somatic Intelligence, and stays connected with neuroscience study groups.

Allyson has a special interest in working with women, especially moms of special needs children & adults. Her desire is to bring curiosity, compassion, and playfulness to her work with clients, and to facilitate new possibilities in movement & life. Allyson is a mother of two grown sons and a daughter with Down syndrome. She rejuvenates herself most every day caring for her plants and taking in the beauty of the natural world. She also enjoys hiking, swimming, and singing.

Jennifer Miller

Jennifer is passionate about helping children and adults discover movement possibilities previously unavailable to them. She believes in the power of neuroplasticity and that the most effective learning happens when you consider the relationship between the mind and body. She was drawn to the work in 2012 after searching for an alternative therapy to help her son, who was born with Cerebral Palsy. Jennifer Miller became a Guild Certified Feldenkrais® in Oct. 2015 and is currently training to become a Movement Lesson Practitioner® by September 2020. Jennifer Miller is a Guild Certified Feldenkrais® Practitioner and a Certified Movement Lesson Practitioner. 

Carla Oswald Reed

Carla Oswald Reed has been a Pediatric Physical Therapist since 1969. Her practice has been transformed by training with:

  • Berta & Karel Bobath in NeuroDevelopmental Treatment® (NDT) of Cerebral Palsy
  • Moshe Feldenkrais in the Feldenkrais Method®
  • Magda Gerber of Resources for Infant Educarers®
  • the Anat Baniel Method NeuroMovement® (ABMNM)
  • Chava Shelav Silberbush’s ChildSpace Method

Carla is a mother of 4 and grandmother of 7. She is a published author and presenter on the Feldenkrais Method® and ABMNM®. She creates and presents Making Every Movement Count™ workshops for parents and professionals who work with children and mentoring programs for fellow Feldenkrais® and ABMNM® Practitioners.

Audrey deChadenedes

Audrey was a florist, with a shop in Santa Fe, NM when her daughter was born, and Valerie spent her early years among flowers. After they moved to San Francisco when Valerie was 8, Audrey began working for the non-profit Support for Families of Children with Disabilities, where she stayed for nearly 20 years. During that time she became active working with the legislature to increase funding for the disability service system in California. She also studied Feldenkrais® for two years. Now semi-retired, Audrey facilitates support groups for SFCD and continues to be active as an advocate for disability rights.

Brent Shaub

Brent Shaub was born with a profound high-frequency hearing loss (‘sh’, ‘ss’, ‘th’, ‘f’ all inaudible). He survived a life-threatening car accident while earning a four-year degree in computer science. Fracturing his pelvis, a few ribs and neck led to pain and difficulty post-graduation sitting programming software. Struggling to find comfort, he’s spent twenty years focused on health, starting with Himalayan Hatha Yoga, self-massage, mindfulness meditation, and sustainable peace thanks to Feldenkrais®. As his hearing has declined, the same audio recordings which provided great benefit in years prior have become incomprehensible. Over the past three Summits, he’s attempted novel ways to communicate Feldenkrais® visually. His latest project is recreating his favorite audio series, Moving Out of Pain, into a video.

Carole Henderson

Carole is the Founder and Managing Director of Grief UK, has trained over 500 people from more than 30 countries to be Grief Recovery Specialists, and helped thousands more people with her workshops and seminars move beyond, death, divorce, and other losses as well as build emotional resilience.

Andrea Bowers

I have loved having a career helping people, especially families of children with special needs. My goal has been on how to be most of service. I have highly trained to be useful with my hands-on practice, focused on how all areas of life can be positive for special needs children, and researched cutting-edge information around conditions that might be limiters in childrens’ lives. People have said I am very good at conveying information clearly and I think that is so important for parents who are suddenly immersed in the disability world. My experience with my son and his life has given me a context for information and I have a broad view of the benefits of many resources and opportunities which I hope to share with families to help them down this road. I am excited to co-participate in this event with my son Donald Ryker.

College major: Bio/Nursing
Mom – 37 yrs
Feldenkrais Practitioner® – 24 yrs
ABM® Training Assistant/videographer – 7 years
Private practice 90% children with special needs – 24 years

Donald Ryker

Hello. I am an artist, a brother, a son, an uncle, a service dog owner, and a friend. Since COVID I have not had as much time to paint as I would like and my social life is very limited, but I have kept busy visiting family, and working on my art business @ www.donaldryker.com, painting, advertising, setting up Instagram and planning for the future. My artwork is on display in Arizona at the Xanadu Gallery in Pinetop, and I hope to open my own gallery in the next few years.

My goal is to create art that brings joy to people and shows them what a man in a wheelchair can do. I believe in disabled people being a part of the community and having all the resources and rights that everyone has. That should just be normal, not unusual.

I grew up thinking anything was possible, I just had to figure out how and have the right support. I was mainstreamed starting in first grade and went all the way through receiving my art degree alongside my peers. That experience was essential to me living independently as an adult. My disability could be called severe, but it is what I know and I don’t feel restricted. I like the life I have, if only we weren’t in quarantine!

I am looking forward to sharing my experiences with people in this seminar who are interested. My mom, Andrea Bowers, will be helping me to communicate with you, acting as my translator. I welcome any questions about growing up, my life now, or my art.