Experience the Power of Neuroplasticity to Improve your Health
Each client is unique, their history, the way their body moves, their emotions, their experiences. My primary role is to find where I can be most helpful and work from there. No session is the same. The outcomes will be different too, as the brain is continuously changing.
This method is a practice, a process, and a system for self-improvement. It is based on decades of research in physics, neuroscience, biomechanics, learning theory and human development. It is a form of “somatic education,” which means it uses movement and real-time awareness of your own body sensations to guide you toward the positive changes you seek.
Tanya Shklanka BA, MA
Tanya Shklanka offers Private Lessons and Group Transformation Movement Lessons in the Anat Baniel Method® Neuromovement®, an evidence-based, neuroplasticity approach to healing chronic pain, injury,
brain, and body trauma for adults and children.
Build new neural pathways through gentle, practitioner-led movement, and painlessly re-wire the brain to
move beyond limitations, improve cognition, athleticism, and experience overall higher performance.
After becoming a certified Anat Baniel Method® NeuroMovement® (ABMNM®) practitioner, practicing brain-based therapy in Vancouver since 2017, has been extremely rewarding. Working with children with disabilities, vitality, and aging, and high performers has transformed not only the lives of these wonderful people, but in return-mine as well.
Movement is Life. Movement is the language of the brain. Move often and bring attention to what you feel as you move. Your brain will form billions of new connections, creating new possibilities and transformation.
Fast, you can only do what you already know. Slow gets your brain’s attention and stimulates the formation of rich neural networks. Slow way down to learn and master new skills and overcome limitations.
Variation is at the heart of learning. Call it play, mistakes, or exploration. Introduce variation into what you do, and your brain will create new possibilities in your movements, feelings, thoughts, and action.
This is a holistic approach to human functioning and health. Create new connections and improve physical, cognitive, emotional & inter-relational performance.
Functional Synthesis® or FS® lessons. The practitioner using gentle, innovative and pain-free movements skillfully customizes the sessions to the individual needs and requirements of the client. The sessions are applicable for all ages, abilities and conditions and last from 35 – 45 minutes per session.
These mat-based group lessons focus on helping with brain function, leading to transformational outcomes in the areas of increased flexibility, strength, pain relief, acquisition of new skills and improvement of existing ones, cognitive improvement and clarity, vitality and well-being.
Classes from the comfort of your own space. These recorded lessons offer choices for those new to the method and those who are familiar with this type of learning.
When trying to help people overcome challenges, the thing that matters most is that the brain is awakened to its highest potential for learning. When it is and the brain is provided with information it can use, changes begin happening right away. I have yet to work with someone who does not change within a session. With degenerative diseases, this method can be helpful in alleviating symptoms and creating a better quality of life. If you are still unsure if this is right for you or your loved one, please reach out to me.
Brain change takes time and each person is unique and there is no definitive answer. The older we get, in general, the more grooved in our habits and ways of moving/being become. For adults, I may suggest an intensive or a few sessions over one week to jumpstart learning and then weekly sessions to continue. With kids, intensive sessions work well, particularly during off-school times combined with regular visits during the school year. How this will look is a conversation we will have together after the first session.
Children develop through the process of change. “little” changes over time build into big changes like rolling over, walking etc. For example, random movements of a baby are needed to develop the coordination of the sensory-motor system. The brain does not develop in a linear way, however when a change happens for example with movement, over time it will develop into other changes such as emotional regulation or cognitive change. I will help guide parents to become astute at identifying these “little” changes. Norman Doidge, MD, author of The Brain That Changes Itself says that this method, “shows ways to access the child’s own brain plasticity and yields far greater results, so that the children can spontaneously grow from within.”
Please be well rested, fed and not fighting a virus. While this is a gentle method it can be tiring as it is a workout for the brain. Wear clothes that allow freedom of movement. For young children, I suggest bringing along a small snack, particularly if doing an intensive.
After a session avoid stress for at least an hour to allow the brain to have time to process. While the processing will continue through the night and onwards, immediately after a session is a good time to take it easy. A short walk, some quiet time, find opportunities to notice what has changed! Each session will have a different outcome and use the opportunity to notice. The more you can notice, the more easily the brain will adopt the new outcome. With children avoid taking them immediately to school or daycare or a class, allow them time to process without asking questions like “what do you feel” or “how was it”? IF they offer to share, that’s fine. They may feel more calm or more emotional. They may feel tired or like their brain is “soupy”. Each session will feel different afterwards, so allow it to unfold.
The nine essentials that Anat Baniel developed can be used anywhere. Her books/blogs can help bring these into your or your child’s everyday life. For adults and older children, online movement lessons can be helpful as well and are a fantastic way to complement your in-person sessions. To sign up, get in touch with me!
We don’t have specific research done at this time. We are in the process of completing some research for ABM NeuroMovement. However, there is a very large body of neuroplasticy and brain science research that supports our observations and techniques as well as the Feldenkrais method. This is what Dr Micheal Merzenich Professor Emeritus UCSF, “Father” of brain plasticity science, Winner of the 2016 Kavli Prize in Neuroscience, and Author of Soft-Wired has to say, “Anat Baniel has developed powerful, practical strategies for improving your abilities and building a better, stronger brain supported by the neuroscience of brain plasticity.”
The cost for a private 45 minute session in my office is $130 including GST. Please contact me directly for travel rates.