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Anat Baniel Method Professional Training

Functional Synthesis Elements Segment 1 Trainer Version

For Training Participant’s Personal Use Only. No Duplication or Distribution in Any Form Allowed to Any Party Under Any Circumstances ©Copyright 2014 Anat Baniel Method sm [1] ABMPT_(7)_Seg_1_FS_ver 7.0.docx


Functional Synthesis (FS) Elements

Segment 1

The Center of the Body




For all FS please make sure to remember:

As you approach your student, the thought: “I wonder, I wonder how the student will respond and what they will feel like, I wonder what will emerge as I gently move and observe my

student. ”

Functional Synthesis Elements Segment 1

FS 1 ELEMENTS: SIDE-‐LYING, TOUCHING/CONNECTING UNDER THE SPINE WHILE STUDENT TURNS TO LOOK TOWARD TABLE -‐ TWISTING (2013) ............................................................................................................................................. 3

FS 2 ELEMENTS: ON BACK, ROLLING THE HEAD ............................................................................................................. 8

FS 3 PART 1 ELEMENTS: ON SIDE, SIDE BENDING: HANDS ON RIBS AND TROCHANTER, RIBS AND ILIAC CREST; LIFTING LEG AND HEAD TOGETHER ......................................................................................................................................... 11

FS 3 PART 1 ELEMENT: ON SKELETON AND HAND PLACEMENT ................................................................................................... 15

FS 4 PART 1 ELEMENTS: ON BACK, LIFTING THE LEG FS ............................................................................................... 17

FS 4 PART 2 ELEMENTS: ON BACK, LIFTING LEG, PRESSING ON THE RIBS ..................................................................... 19

FS 5 ELEMENTS: BRINGING TOGETHER FS ELEMENTS FROM SEG 1: ON THE SIDE: COMPILATION OF FS ELEMENTS 1 -‐ 3 .................................................................................................................................................................................. 21

FS 6 COMPILATION OF FS ELEMENTS: ON BACK, ROLLING THE HEAD, SUPPORTING UNDER SHOULDER, LIFTING LEG, PRESSING DOWN ON THE SIDES OF THE STERNUM, RIBS AND MOVING THE STERNUM TO THE SIDE .......................... 23

Volunteers who Edited and Transcribed: Deb Loest Deppe, Sharon Tomsky, Claire Conley




For all FS please make sure to remember as you approach your student to always keep at the

forefront of your mind “I wonder, I wonder what the student will feel like, how they will respond, I wonder what will emerge as I gently move and observe my student.”

FS 1 Elements: Side-lying, Touching/Connecting under the Spine while Student Turns to Look toward Table - Twisting (2013)

NOTE: UP is always towards the students head (even if they are lying down), DOWN is always toward the students feet, LEFT is always to the students left, and RIGHT is always to the students right. These directions are not oriented to the environment, they are always oriented in relation to the student in whatever position the student is in. Move gently and slowly.

A. Observe Student without Judgment:

1 Student stands. Practitioner stands behind. Place hand on students back. Slide your hand down slowly, feeling students back contour and spine. Go slow so student feels their own spine by the way you do this.

• Feel muscles along the sides

• Notice if the spine goes a little left or right or curves left or right. 2 Look at student, get a general sense and feeling of the student on the table.

Look at their shoulder height, contours of their chest. What are the shapes of the ribs? Just observe.

• The connections and relationship between our parts form over time (and form contours).

Notice the way their legs are lying on the table. The direction the toes and feet are pointed. Look at one foot and the other; notice the shape and size, are they a different or the same? Are the arches the same or different?

B. Student lays on Side. ‘Connecting OR Supporting the Spine’: 1 Ask student to roll to lie clearly on their side (their choice/ preference as to which side they

lay on/roll to).

Anat Baniel Method Professional Training Functional Synthesis Elements Segment 1 FS 1


• Observe them as they roll; how they move to roll toward their side of their choice. • Place pads under their head so that the head is (in general) in line with their spine so they feel

comfortable, safe, and are available for change. Their comfort trumps your idea of how high/low their head is.

Ask student to put their top arm on the table in front of them to lean on their hand.

2 Sit behind the students back. • Lean your arm on your leg, to be comfortable and to minimize your own muscular effort.

Feel their back again, as you did when student was standing, to locate their spine. Then gently locate and feel with your finger pads, the ‘table side’ vertebrae of the spine.

• First notice the tonus of the muscles along the vertebrae. • Starting anywhere on the spine. Use gentle pressure. Feel the tonus of the muscles. • Slide your hand downward. • Notice where the tonus is squishier and then where it feels tight, ropey, firm or less squishy.



3 Using 2-3 fingers, support the vertebrae (spinous processes) somewhere along the side of their spine where their spine ‘stands out’ (it will be different for each student), where you clearly feel their vertebra(e).

• Use the finger pads of 2 or 3 fingers to support under the side (not the tip end) of the spinous process of 2 or 3 vertebrae using your finger pads.

• Move your fingers to support the vertebrae in a new place and notice the muscle tonus again.

• When lying down there is no reason for the back muscles to work.

4 Support under the spinous process, and either put a little pressure under the bone, wait for a moment. Do this up and down the spine. And then put a little pressure under the bone and wait a moment, then lift a little up to take over the weight to give a little gentle support of the spine. Hold, and wait. You are taking over the weight of the vertebra, a little bit. Continue to support the spinal process like this from C7 to their waist.

• Adjust your fingers (2 or 3 fingers) to make the fingertips to line up, to be the same length. • Your palm is down. • Hold thru breathing, • Release your fingers slowly. • Lean your arm on your leg, to minimize your own muscular effort. • Notice if there is movement or not in the shoulder.



• Notice if there is a change in their breathing or not. If too light you wont feel their breath, if lifting too hard or much you may halt their breathing.

• Listen to yourself, your breath. Soften in your jaw. Let go of your hip joints. Can you picture your spine. How can your own spine be moving.

• Some spines curve inward, outward, and some have scoliosis.

C. Feel movement in spine when Student looks down toward shoulder and then down and behind

1 Ask student to slowly lift their head a little and look toward the shoulder on the table, then bring their head back to where they started. Ask them to notice if they feel any movement in the spine, where you are touching, right as they start to do this. If they feel movement, return to staring, if they don’t feel movement, return to starting place. You want them to notice if there is movement where your fingers are, in those vertebrae. If they don’t feel a movement, have them come back to where they started. Move your fingers to a new place and repeat. Continue to move your fingers to other vertebrae to support under their spine as they lift their head and turn. Go back to where you and student felt movement, support those vertebrae as student turns to look. Then go back to the ones that were not participating/moving/rotating and see if they do now. Work your way vertebra by vertebra up and down the spine each time asking them to lift and turn their head.

Continue having them lift their head, look toward the table and notice if they feel movement in the vertebrae your fingers are under. Do this up and down the spine, and see where your student can more easily feel the movement.

• Notice what you, as the practitioner feels; notice changes – in the breathing. • Mechanically, when it works well, with the minutest movement of the head, there is movement

reflected in the spine, twisting, rotational movement in the vertebrae, as well as movement in the pelvis, and all the way down the leg, to the foot.

• As the student starts to feel themselves more clearly, and knows more clearly how they are moving, the whole quality of the movement transforms.

D. Observe Student on Back to Compare notice differences from Start of Lesson: 1 Student rolls to their back. Observe again.



• Feel, observe any differences in how the student is lying.

• Both the Practitioner and student: Notice any differences.

2 Have student come up to sitting and to feel how they are sitting.

• Observe any differences that you see as the practitioner.




FS 2 Elements: On Back, Rolling the Head

A. Observe Student Lying on Back: 1 Student lies on their back. Teacher sits above student’s head.

• Look at how student is lying on the table.

2 Look at the shoulders, where they are in space in relation to the head, chest, etc. • One shoulder may be laying differently than the other.

B. Roll Head:

1 Place your right flat palm on the student’s forehead. Make full contact, without pressing too hard, and roll the head a little to the left and back to their middle (to their starting place). Roll their head to the left with your right hand and to the right with your left hand. In other words you roll their head in the direction your fingertips are pointing. Roll only as far as it rolls with ease, without any resistance and back to their neutral – where their head was when you started. How little is a little? Repeat.

• If student is not organized to roll the head lightly, do not override it. Don’t roll their head past when it is no longer ‘easy’.

• Do not lean on their head. • How to hold your hand:

1. bring yourself to have your arm over the head, place fairly flat hand on the forehead. 2. If too light, would just be rubbing on the skin. Your thumbs and fingers are together. 3. If your touch is too heavy – you actually interfere with student’s movement. 4. Curve your hand just enough to fit the shape of student’s head. 5. The initial bone to bone contact with your hand and the students head are the pads of your

palm (the palm side of your hand knuckles).



• The brunt of the work is in your lower back. Bring yourself over the student and sit using your lower back. Use your back and pelvis to roll their head not your arm.

• Place your other hand on your own leg too. • As you roll their head slowly, often when there is a connection made, the student takes a deep

breath. Not this (notice how Anat holds her shoulders):

But this (using your lower back):

• Your elbow is off to the side, hanging. You want the ability to shift weight. There is a freedom in your own body.

• Notice the trajectory of the rolling of the head on the table, i.e. curve, straight line, and the difference in the line the head draws on the table when the head is rolled toward the left as compared to when the head is rolled to the right.

• Feel, how far is the head ready to roll at this moment? How far down the neck or spine does the movement go, when you roll the head? Is there any idea in the students brain that the chest and spine might have something to do with rolling the head? Listen all the way down the spine. There is some twisting going all the way down the spine.

• Notice what you do with your own body. • If the student’s head does not, at this time, lie in the middle (when they are at their “neutral”), do not

put it there! You work with student exactly as they are. • NOTE: This is one way to roll the head. As the training progresses you will learn slightly different

hand positions.

2 Student rolls to lie on the side of their choice. Place top hand in front of chest standing. Practitioner supports under vertebrae.



Student lifts head and turns head toward table and behind. As in FS 1.

• Feel and notice what the spine does as you do this.

3 Student rolls back to their back. Roll their head. Is it different?




FS 3 Part 1 Elements: On Side, Side Bending: Hands on Ribs and Trochanter, Ribs and Iliac Crest; Lifting Leg and Head Together

A. Observe Student:

1 Student lies on back. 2 Sit above their head. 3 Roll student’s head to the right, and to the left. [As before]

B. On Side Lifting Head; Ribs and Trochanter:

1 Ask student to lie on one side (they choose which side), with hips and knees bent, one leg on top of the other.

2 Stand behind students pelvis. 3 Ask student to lift their head, and lower it, a couple of times.

4 Ask student to lift their top leg, and lower it.

5 Place the back of your soft fingers on the trochanter and iliac crest. Ask student to lift their leg again and go for a ride.



• Sink in until you feel boney contact.

6 Put the back of your soft fingers on the back of the ribs of the lower back, Ask student to lift

their leg again. Go for a ride noticing if ribs participate in the movement of lifting the leg.

7 Ask student to place top arm over their head and get a hold of their opposite temple. Now lift the head and the leg together, practitioner places hand on side ribs and notices if ribs participate now sliding down, squishing together as the leg and head are lifted. Practitioner goes for a ride.



• Variation: Press down gently, as student lifts the head.

8 Now practitioner places one hand on lower side ribs and their other hand on the iliac, ask student to lift head and leg again. Go for a ride.

• Does it feel any easier to lift the leg? • Ask student to feel the movement in the pelvis and the ribs. • Variation: Ask student to exhale as student lifts leg and head.

9 Have student lift the leg, and head by themselves, and feel if that is different now.



• Variation: You can have your student lift only their head, and then as they put their head and arm down, they begin to lift their top leg and seesaw back and forth like that.

• When they put their hand on their head – ask them to use their side ribs, lower back – a functional use of using this part of yourself

C. Observe Changes while Student is on their Back 1 Have student roll to lie on their back again.

• Notice any differences in how they are lying.

2 Roll their head again as before. • Feel difference.

3 Ask student to roll to his side, and sit up at side of table. Feel what sitting is like now.




FS 3 Part 1 Element: On Skeleton and Hand Placement

1. Finding the greater trochanter: it is the tallest place at top of the thigh when person is lying on their side:

2. Location of hands on greater trochanter and ribs:

3. Movement of pelvis as leg is lifted.



4. Placement of back of soft hand on iliac crest – on the flat part behind the actual ridge.

:

5. Placement of back of soft hands on iliac crest (ileum) and ribs:




FS 4 Part 1 Elements: On Back, Lifting the Leg FS

1 Sit at students head, roll head, one way and the other way. 2 Go to sit at student’s feet. Sit directly below one foot.

Slide your left hand under the student’s right ankle from the outside. Just begin to look to lift the leg. Take over the weight of the leg. Only lift it to the extent that it lifts easily.

• Feel the weight of the leg.

• Student can feel the weight of the leg [initially may feel quite heavy].

3 Sit below, in line with, the 2nd leg. Slide your right hand under the left ankle, from the outside. Lift this leg, and feel the weight, and degree of ease of lifting.

• When the center of the body is not participating in the lifting of the leg, the leg feels very heavy.

4 Go back to sit above head, and repeat rolling of the head. First to one direction, then the other.

• And feel if the rolling of the head has changed at all, just from the little that you did.



B. Observe how student has changed. 1 Have student roll to side, and sit up at side of table. 2 Have student stand, and walk. Feel self; any changes.



For Training Participant’s Personal Use Only. No Duplication or Distribution in Any Form Allowed to Any Party Under Any Circumstances

©Copyright 2014 Anat Baniel Method sm [19] ABMPT_(7)_Seg_1_FS_ver 7.0.docx

FS 4 Part 2 Elements: On Back, Lifting Leg, Pressing on the Ribs

Student lies on their back. Put a cushion or roller under their knees, as needed. 1. Sit at their feet, and look at how they are lying.

• Observe, are their toes pointing up? outward,? or inward?

• Look at the spread of the legs relative to the midline. Is one leg further away from the midline than the other leg?

• Now look at the person’s head. Is it in the middle, or tilted, or turned one way or another?

2. Now, align yourself to sit more in front of one leg, and slide your outside hand under their ankle, & gently but firmly hold around their ankle; then lift the leg, only lifting as far as leg lifts easily, and lower it back down.

3. Then sit in front of the other leg, slide your hand under the ankle, and lift that leg. Lift it slowly, and then lower it back down. Feel the relative lightness or heaviness of each leg.

• When the leg feels heavier, or more resistance, stop & bring it back down (do not keep lifting higher when it feels heavier or harder to lift the leg).

4. Go back to the first leg, and see if it is the same as the 1st time you lifted it, or a little different.

5. Now, position yourself in line with the other leg, and lift that one again, and put it down, slowly.

6. Now go to sit above their head. Ask permission to touch their sternum & gently put your fingers on the center of the sternum, and then slide your fingers sideways to the edge of the sternum. Place 2 or 3 fingertips on either side of students sternum, one hand on one side and your other hand on the other at the same level rib. Delicately and gradually press a little down (towards the feet, and a little down/in towards the table), and then gradually stop pressing.

• This area can be quite tender, where the ribs articulate into the sternum.

• Start near the top of the sternum on rib 3, 4 or 5, and slowly move down to rib 6, 7, etc, one set of ribs at a time.

• Start coordinating the pressure with the breathing: pressing down on the exhale. If they are breathing fast, you can do it on every other breath.

• Be patient, do not press hard. If you do not feel much, or any, movement at the beginning, do not press harder! Do not rush it; it takes the time it takes, and gradually the person comes to life.

• Only press as long as there is movement.

7. Go back to the feet, and again lift one leg, then the other. • Feel, if the legs now lift easier, do they feel lighter?


For Training Participant’s Personal Use Only. No Duplication or Distribution in Any Form Allowed to Any Party Under Any Circumstances

©Copyright 2014 Anat Baniel Method sm [20] ABMPT_(7)_Seg_1_FS_ver 7.0.docx

i. If yes, this is because the brain now knows to engage the center of the body in the action of lifting the legs and they “become lighter” to lift.

• A lesson occurs when somebody learns something.




FS 5 Elements: Bringing Together FS Elements from Seg 1: On the Side: Compilation of FS Elements 1 - 3

A. Observation

1 Look at student lying on back.

• How pelvis lies

• How face is oriented

• How feet are turned

• How shoulders lie

2 Roll student’s head.

• To R with teacher’s L hand

• To L with teacher’s R hand

3 Lift each of student’s legs with teacher’s outside hand.

4 Lift under each shoulder.

B. Have student lie on preferred side.

1 Look to support under. Support, hold and slowly release. Repeat moving up and down different vertebrae of spine.

2 Make contact with floor side of student’s spine and maintain contact as student lifts head slightly to turn and look towards floor.

3 Have student move arm over top of head to hold floor side of head near temple with hand.

4 Teacher, rest back of fingers on student’s: Pelvis & trochanter. Ask student to lift leg. Go for a ride.

5 With hands now on pelvis & side of ribs while student lifts head with arm, go for a ride.

6 Ask student to lift top arm/hand to ceiling. Ask student to feel if the spine/back where you are supporting participates in the movement (rounding).

• Support under spine, ask student to move head a small amount in the direction of their knee.

• Ask student to direct knee in the direction of their head.

• Ask student to bring head and knee toward each other (not touching – small amount).


FS Elements Segment 1


• Ask student to bring head and knee toward each other and then apart and behind.

C. Ask student to return to lying on back

1 Repeat rolling student’s head.

2 Lifting each leg to compare.

3 Lift under shoulders.




FS 6 Compilation of FS Elements: On Back, Rolling the Head, Supporting Under Shoulder, Lifting Leg, Pressing Down on the Sides of the Sternum, Ribs and

Moving the Sternum to the Side

A. Observe: Student’s Resting Position. 1 Student lies on back. Teacher: sit above student’s head. 2 Observe plump line. If you drew an imaginary line down from the nose, where would that

line land?

• Between the legs? Over one leg? Outside of one leg? This gives some ideas about how they are

organized to stand, as well as in lying.

3 Roll head as shown in previous FS demo.

4 Support under one shoulder blade with the fingertips of one hand:

Place your fingers under the ridge of the shoulder blade. Support until the pressure comes back and there is no movement.

r fingers under the ridge of the shoulder blade.




• Notice if there is movement toward the opposite hip and leg. Or is there resistance to movement

going to the opposite side or does it feel like dead weight? Or somewhere in between • How much space is there between the shoulder and the table, for example.

• Is one shoulder higher/lower than the other shoulder?

• You don’t have to have a symmetrical body to do a symmetrical movement.

5 Support under the other shoulder blade.

6 Go to sit below one of students legs. Slide your outside hand under one ankle. Begin lifting the leg as much as possible (that is easy, without overriding) in the direction that the student already has the leg organized to lie.

• As you lift the leg, look and see and feel how much movement there is in the pelvis, lower back,

sternum, and the spine. The brain actually goes through an apprenticeship process, and grows around its experiences.

• The ‘Ideal’ movement is when you do the movement with the minimal amount of effort possible.




7 Move to sit below, in line with the 2nd leg. Repeat with lifting the other leg. • Notice any differences you perceive when lifting this leg: e.g. difference in tonus of the muscles of the

leg, degree of heaviness/lightness, angle or direction of the leg, etc.

B. Waking up Sternum and ribs

1 Move to sit above the students head again. Ask student if it is ok if you touch their sternum. Touch with the fingertips of both hands on the sternum, mover your fingers to either edge where you feel the ribs (left hand fingers go left and right hand fingers go right) on borders/edges of the sternum, with both of your hands one on each side of sternum. You can coordinate the pressing with the students breathing.

• Put your fingertips of one hand just above and against the bones of one pair of ribs just to the side of

the sternum. Place the fingertips of your other hand on the other side in the same way on the same rib. Your fingers touch on the head ward side of one pair of ribs. Start sliding it where it can slide a little the easiest.

• Make clear contact with the bones. Very gently press a little down on the ribs toward the feet and a little toward the table/spine on an angle (because the ribs are on an angle) until you feel a little resistance and then very gently begin sliding the sternum to the easier side.

• There most likely will not be very much movement at the beginning. 1. Anat: I rely on the intelligence of my student to take in the information into the nervous

system, and as long as they stay in the process, changes will occur. Maybe there is a reason for it not to happen right away. We don’t know.

• Be careful, it can be very tender there! There can be swelling due to lack of movement. • If student starts turning the head, you can ask them not to turn the head, so they can differentiate the

movement in the sternum and the movement in the head. • For most people this is an area where they have very little awareness, so this can be powerful for

them. It is like coming home to themselves. C. Observe Differences

1 First support under students opposite shoulder as the leg the students head is organized over. Notice if the ribs/sternum translate that lift toward the side of the pelvis the students head is organized over.




2 Support under the other shoulder. Notice any differences in how the student responds to the support.

3 Roll students head as described before. • Roll head to left with your right hand; and to the right with your left hand.

• One of the things to pay attention to is how far down the spine you can feel the movement go. If you just look to feel that, one day you will feel it. Then you may not feel it, then you will again. Gradually you will be able to feel more things, and to be able to attend to more and more details at once.

4 Go to sit below the feet again.

Lift the left leg, from under the ankle, from the outside of the ankle. • You lift the leg that is on the same side as you were moving the sternum to.

• Feel if this leg moves freer, lighter, easier now.

5 Lift the other leg. • Usually the other leg will not have changed much.

6 Go back to sit above student’s head, and now repeat moving the sternum, this time to the right.

• Notice any differences.

7 Lift the right leg. • Different? Lighter, easier now?

8 At end roll head to the other side and repeat. Look at relationships.

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