Anat Baniel method of Feldenkrais in India

Okay, this is what I have been up to these days. Nisarga’s development still seems behind schedule and the attitude of his pediatrician is wait and see. That seems fine, since he isn’t ill or unhappy, but I was getting concerned about his lack of movements.

A lot of research online led me to discover the Feldenkrais method and then the Anat baniel method for children.What I liked was the attitude of sensitivity to the child’s comfort and the focus on creating learning experiences rather than training or therapy. I was eager to have this for Nisarga, but there aren’t any practitioners in India. Not to be stopped, I have turned my considerable aptitude for learning toward this and learned through reading and teaching materials purchased online.

I tried to understand the principles and used the abundant videos on YouTube to see example after example of them in action and started applying these learnings to assist Nisarga. It started showing results almost immediately. I felt encouraged and worked further, helping Nisarga to roll over and gain neck control.

Then, I became complacent, till I realized that he is now 8 months old and still not sitting or crawling, and have been working with him gain for the last few days. Again, I am encouraged to see that within four days he learned to hold his back straighter, sits with very little support, uses two hands to play with toys and as of today, has started crawling – all of which he was not able till four days ago.

What began as a disappointment over lack of access to practitioners is leading to me becoming a practitioner!I am not a certified practitioner, but I would be happy to work with other children who need help with motor development. I am not promising any competence and of course, if, unlike me, you can fly abroad and get those experts to work with your child, its best. But if that is not possible for you, I dare say that this may be worth a shot. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t harm for sure. But if it does… the changes in Nisarga in the last four days are miraculous.

Of course, in an ideal world, I will be able to afford to fly abroad to learn when Nisarga is older. Or, there may be other practitioners who begin working in Mumbai…