Special Needs
Children

“My son’s neurologist can’t believe how much progress he has made since working with Lara. He is doing so much more, including walking. His eye contact is greatly improved and he now crawls up steps by himself.”
-Elaine, mother of 4-year-old diagnosed with developmental delay

Maximize Your Child’s Potential

If you are entrusted with the responsibility and care of kids with special needs in your life, you no doubt want to do all you can to help this child gain as much function and independence as possible. Most probably, you have tried conventional treatments with some success. Yet you’re aware that there is more that can be done to help your child maximize his fullest potential.

Doctor Validated Programs for Disabled Children

Your instincts are right on. Yes, there is another MD-validated, scientifically based approach that can make all the difference in the development of special needs kids. The Anat Baniel Method for Children enhances the recovery of function well beyond the current norm of traditional treatments.

Parents have reported the following positive changes in their children:

• Improved ability to crawl, walk, run, jump, reach
• More stability in sitting, standing, walking
• Improved speech
• Better sleep and greater comfort during waking hours
• Greater problem solving skills
• Increased alertness, focus and awareness of surroundings

“Since starting to work with Lara, his teachers notice a big improvement in his stance, posture and walking. He doesn’t hunch over out of habit anymore. He tells me, “People can see how tall I am now, not fake tall. I am happy that my back feels good.”
-Robyn, mother of 10-year-old with scoliosis

Muscular, Skeletal Improvement

How is this possible? First, it’s important to understand that the brain controls the degree and quality of movement. As such, spasticity and limitations in the musculature and skeleton are a manifestation of the workings of the brain. With the Anat Baniel Method, movement and gentle, skilled touch are used to communicate with the brain in ways that allow it to decipher how to organize movement effectively. The results can seem miraculous: immediate muscular, skeletal and even mental and emotional improvement.

“My son has developed a deep sense of trust with Lara and when she works with him he will explore the space around him with ease, as he learns new ways to move. I have seen improvements in visions, speech, fine and gross motor skills since Lara began working with him.”
-Jennifer, mother of 5-year-old with cerebral palsy and visual impairment

Milestones

All movements are accomplished within the child’s ability and comfort levels, which creates a sense of trust and allows the child to feel aware and in control. As a result, the child becomes an active, intelligent, happy learner-just like healthy children- because the Anat Baniel Method teaches him how to do tasks on his own. Every milestone that the child accomplishes towards independence generates a great variety of small and large movements from which further milestones can be carved.

Doing Tasks Independently

As the brain learns how to do new movements, the child continues to improve. Before long, he is initiating drinking from a cup, moving from lying to sitting on his own or sitting without support and playing- initiating tasks on his own and becoming self-reliant.

Specific Guided Process

Here’s an example to illustrate why the Anat Baniel Method is so effective: Let’s say you’re learning to stand on your head. If several people lifted you off your feet, turned you upside down and put you on your head, would you know how to do a headstand on your own? No. You wouldn’t know what part of your head to put on the floor, how to shift your weight onto your head without hurting your neck, how to lift your legs or even where to put your legs in the air. When a child is placed in sitting without going through the process of figuring it out by feelings, sensations and how to move into sitting, he cannot come to sitting on his own. Anat Baniel Method’s guided process provides the opportunity to experience all of these components. His brain learns how to put the components together so he can sit on his own.

Infants to Teenagers Benefit from the Anat Baniel Method for Kids with Special Needs

Early intervention (as young as five days old) can yield very rapid results, but teenagers who’ve had many years of conventional treatments for Cerebral Palsy, Autism Spectrum Disorder, developmental delays, Brachial Plexus injury, genetic disorders, ADD, feeding disorders, scoliosis and brain injury before discovering the Anat Baniel Method can also experience great success.

Lara Working with Children

Your child is in excellent, caring hands with Lara Gillease. Due to pain from scoliosis since childhood, Lara has a deep empathy for anyone with limited movement. She has studied movement all of her life and is grateful for her own recovery from pain due to the Anat Baniel Method. Lara began studying with Anat Baniel in 1995, has completed the Children’s Mastery Program and continues to study with her. Through Lara’s private practice, she has created profound changes in the lives of many special needs children. She has four-year certifications in Anat Baniel Method and Feldenkrais. Lara is a graduate of Brennan Healing Science and is also certified in craniosacral and Pilates. She earned her bachelor of science degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

To read more about Lara and her personal story, go to About

“When my daughter was a new baby Lara was extremely helpful in teaching me how to pick her up, hold her, roll her over, etc. in ways that wouldn’t be stressful on her spine. She worked with her whenever we could get to Asheville and kept a close eye on her progress. She assisted her beautifully in her discovery process through the journey of learning to roll over, to crawl, and later movement discoveries as well. After working with Lara, she would always come home with a new comfort in her body and new movement discoveries.

“I remember before one visit as a toddler, my daughter was tripping over everything. After the visit she had a new stability and sense of balance in her legs. After our most recent visit for several sessions with Lara, we returned home and she and I had a wonderful spontaneous dance session in our living room. I saw a great deal more pure joy and freedom in her than I had seen her express before. Of course it doesn’t hurt that sessions with Lara are so much fun and that Lara is one of my daughter’s ‘favorite people ever’.”
-Amy, mother of 4-year-old

Available for Out-of-Town Families

Lara’s Integrative Movement is located in the beautiful mountains of Western North Carolina in Asheville. Out-of-town families with special needs children can take advantage of the Anat Baniel Method as easily as those that live nearby. Your child participates in the movement lesson two times a day for several days in a row. After going home, your child uses what has been learned as well as continuing the learning process and integrating it into daily activities. During that initial series of lessons, a program specific to the needs of your child for when to have the next series of lessons is recommended.

Visit the Anat Baniel Method YouTube channel to watch videos of how the method works
www.youtube.com/user/abmethod