I strongly encourage our readers to check out the newly published book “Move Into Life”, authored by a highly distinguished therapist (and personal friend) Anat Baniel. Anat was originally trained by Moshe Feldenkrais, who developed a novel empirical perspective about physical/cognitive/perceptual rehabilitation that is broadly consistent with the principles of brain plasticity neuroscience. She has very significantly elaborated those practices, and has gradually encorporated a richer scientific perspective into them. Anat summarizes this deeper understanding in this important book — which is full of good information and advice, both for the therapist, and the patient. At the core of her approach is the understanding that awareness, cognition and movement are really inseparable, and that the establishment or recovery of ability in any one of these domains requires the integrated engagement of the impaired individuals and their brain in all of these dimensions of recovery. Put another way, isolated weakness or loss in ‘movement’ or ‘awareness’ or related ‘cognition’ is a human IMpossibilty. Movement is inextricably controlled on the basis of ‘feedback’ from our bodies and brains, and movement control is guided very directly by the cognitive resources that guide all of our behaviors. They are weaker or stronger, enabled or disabled TOGETHER. Neurological processes that control the flow of cognition and thought are not really different from those that control the flow of movement — and in fact are complexly, inextricably inter-twined!
Anat Baniel provides many examples of these relationships, then provides the therapist or patient with a set of principles that can guide them toward more rapid and complete and more holistic recovery. I think that most readers of this book shall value it as an important source of new insight and understanding. If you would like to hear a little more about it, in Anat Baniel’s own words, check out the video!
