"I just recently heard of the Feldenkrais and Anat Baniel methods and immediately felt drawn to explore them as a form of therapy for my son. He is five and diagnosed with Autism spectrum disorder and sensory integration disorder. He has had some traditional speech and physical therapy, as well as ongoing floortime, occupational and applied behavioral therapy since his diagnosis two and a half years ago. While he has made many gains during this time, he still struggled with being comfortable in his own body and feeling confident enough to consistently join with and attend to others. He was fairly ritualistic and very resistant to change. But what has concerned me the most is the impact of traditional methods on his self esteem and his desire to try new things. He started to wonder why everyone was trying to fix him and became very frustrated when he couldn't do what was being asked of him.

We have only had three sessions with Ed Mills and I saw immediate results. First of all my son felt very safe and relaxed. When we got home the afternoon of our first session, he got on his glider bike and took off without dragging his right foot as he usually did. I had to run to keep up. The next day instead of sitting cross legged and leaning on his favored left side, he sat with his feet under his bottom and knees out front, balanced down the mid line, and played a game with someone. I had never seen him sit that way before. He also started driving toy cars with the front facing forward and then purposefully turning them around to come back, something he had never paid attention to in the past. After the second session he started coming to the table with a toy and playing with it in one hand while he ate with the other. This was significant because he has struggled a bit with using his hand together and tended to use one at a time.

After the third session he suddenly began watching TV laying on his belly braced on his elbows, instead of the uncomfortable looking sprawl he usually favored. It is as if he is suddenly realizing he has choices and that his body can take many different positions. During this time we have also seen an explosion in his exploration of objects. He is much more attentive to the things around him and picks everything up, turning it every which way, studying it and stuffing things into, under and over other things. The other day I watched as he picked up his straw and instead of jamming into his cup, he very intently lifted as high above his cup as his arm could reach and dropped it from two feet above the glass right into it - bullseye! And the highlight of my weekend was watching my son walk through our crowded church lobby, and instead of staring at the ceiling lights and doing anything possible to avoid looking at the moving mass of people around him, he watched one person after another walk toward him and turned his head to watch each one as they went past.

I think the timing was right for us to find Ed and Irene. The emphasis on gently, slowly, and attentively moving the body is really awakening my son to a new level of experience and helping him pull together and build on past experiences. I also am learning how to slow down, look at what myself and my son are doing with fresh eyes, and be an encourager instead of a fixer. Anat's book, Kids Beyond Limits, is helping me understand the method and put things into practice at home. What I have seen so far has exceeded my expectations and I am excited by how much my son enjoys it and is generalizing and building on what he has learned with no prompting from me. I think this is a therapy that respects the individual child, understands the body-brain connection, and enhances a child's unique strengths. I recommend giving it a try.  Wendy