tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-46818818455024732372024-03-13T19:14:25.894-07:00גל בן אורGal Ben-Orhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16477287927090979703noreply@blogger.comBlogger22125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4681881845502473237.post-55047680016603394722012-02-08T19:45:00.000-08:002012-05-16T05:08:37.739-07:00<div dir="rtl" style="text-align: right;" trbidi="on">
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Alexander Technique for children and youth</div>
</div>Gal Ben-Orhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16477287927090979703noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4681881845502473237.post-2062464050497505252012-02-07T13:01:00.001-08:002012-03-08T03:37:50.954-08:00Maoz discovers simple human touch through the Alexander Technique<div dir="rtl" style="text-align: right;" trbidi="on"><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 2.85pt; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-aViCfI-DmC0iAmdHMjvwtmfV6WV6MvzAIPdcRPe2npDXdlfjPWyRsesIYizX5WbsfBALTkARXb-5CFx3wLA7KM0hqfcQv7FfBO4b9Z_wSABJNVb8OP-lsGjB44rIDgpbMR2uGNAbhUg/s1600/DIRECTIONS+FOR+LIFE+cover+n1+-+%D7%A2%D7%95%D7%AA%D7%A7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-aViCfI-DmC0iAmdHMjvwtmfV6WV6MvzAIPdcRPe2npDXdlfjPWyRsesIYizX5WbsfBALTkARXb-5CFx3wLA7KM0hqfcQv7FfBO4b9Z_wSABJNVb8OP-lsGjB44rIDgpbMR2uGNAbhUg/s320/DIRECTIONS+FOR+LIFE+cover+n1+-+%D7%A2%D7%95%D7%AA%D7%A7.jpg" width="215" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 2.85pt; text-align: left;">Maoz came to me at age five.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On asking his<strong> </strong><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=4681881845502473237&postID=2009884875558640572"><strong>mother</strong></a> what the problem was, she answered immediately, ‘The child doesn’t allow anyone to touch him, not the caregivers, not the nursery school teacher, not his friends in the nursery school, not his grandmother, even me, his mother – he won’t let me touch him.</div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 2.85pt; text-align: left;">Maoz’s birth had been normal, but one of his heels was twisted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the age of two weeks, his leg was put into a cast and he began to receive physical therapy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The treatments were painful, causing such crying that his mother decided to stop them and do the exercises herself at home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When she saw that she also caused pain and suffering to herself and her child, she stopped the treatments completely. </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 2.85pt; text-align: left;">This process lasted about a year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>During that time Maoz developed an opposition to every kind of physical contact.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When he was three he was treated by a psychologist for a year with no change for the better.</div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 2.85pt; text-align: left;">Later I sat quietly by myself gathering up my impressions as I had listened to the story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I listened to what was taking place within me and allowed some hidden internal system to organize itself for the meeting with Maoz.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I made no judgments or decisions about what to do but something inside me prepared for the meeting.</div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 2.85pt; text-align: left;">When Maoz and his mother arrived for his first meeting, I invited them to my workroom to choose a game for themselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They sat on the floor and began to play.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I finished up a meeting with another child and then went to a different room in order to give the boy and his mother time to accustom themselves to the surroundings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Through a small window between the rooms I could watch them without disturbing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maoz was clearly much slumped over and physically weak.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After several minutes, noticing that the boy felt more at ease, I asked him to come with his mother to play near the table.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As they were playing, I placed my hand on his back and began giving directions, that is to say, began to awaken his slumped back so it would lengthen upwards.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maoz received my work with a surprising naturalness and cooperated at once with the change taking place within his back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His mother was stunned.</div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 2.85pt; text-align: left;">At the second meeting I also invited Maoz and his mother to choose a game.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Again I gave them time to get organized but I remained in the room.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When they felt comfortable, I joined them quietly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I became a background to Maoz’s movements, supporting him with my hands in all that he did.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This subtle support is possible because of our knowledge that the relation between neck, head and back dictates the quality of the movement in the entire body.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I directed the correct relations in his body and aroused the same inner movement in his back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was done without words and without direct intervention in his game.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the end of the meeting, when I left the room, Maoz jumped happily onto his mother and played with her with a gaiety that, his mother said, she had never before seen.</div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 2.85pt; text-align: left;">At the third meeting Maoz’s mother read a story and Maoz listened while I worked with him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After several minutes I felt that he was tiring.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the two previous meetings he had not agreed that I work on him on my worktable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I suspected this was from lack of trust and fear of painful treatment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I suggested that he only lie on the carpet on the floor and rest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘I won’t touch you,’ I assured him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His mother suggested that she lie beside him and continue to read to him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They arranged themselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then I, having asked for and received Maoz’s permission, approached them and directed him gently.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After a few minutes I suggested that they could get up but Maoz wanted to continue lying there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An atmosphere of tranquility and intimacy between mother and son spread in the room, seeming to me a miracle that was occurring for the first time in their lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Later, the mother confirmed this feeling of mine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>During the three meetings, I had not explained anything nor directed Maoz with words. </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 2.85pt; text-align: left;">At the fourth meeting Maoz’s mother told me that, following the previous meeting, a need to understand had risen up in Maoz so strongly that he had burst into tears and demanded explanations from his mother.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I decided to begin with a short conversation and explained simply the system of directions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I told him that if we could wake up this system and direct it within him it would strengthen him and enable him to develop as a strong, healthy, happy boy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My explanation created a wholeness in Maoz, uniting his experience of free movement and strength with his intellectual understanding.</div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 2.85pt; text-align: left;">Succeeding meetings established firmly the pleasant atmosphere.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We felt that we had brought about a relationship of trust and agreement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In parallel with the lessons, almost unbelievable changes were also seen in Maoz outside the walls of the room.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After the barriers of fear, suspicion and distrust which Maoz had developed toward those around him melted away, he began to hug and kiss his mother spontaneously.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Relations with his friends in the nursery school changed; he started to let them come close to him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We continued to work together for about a year during which Maoz learned to use himself and his body in a new way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He learned to direct his movements consciously in accordance with the new understanding the <strong><a href="http://galbenorat.blogspot.com/2012_01_01_archive.html">Alexander Technique</a></strong> brought him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And he discovered the pleasure of movement—the natural, flowing movement of healthy children, happy in body and spirit. He ran, he jumped, he turned somersaults and he played.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He discovered the simple pleasure of touch with his parents, his friends and the people surrounding him. </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 2.85pt; text-align: left;">I believe that when such experiences come to a child, there is no need for further training or exercises of any kind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The experiences themselves are a source of strength, giving the child the ability to grow strong and develop.</div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 2.85pt; text-align: left;">And the mother?</div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 2.85pt; text-align: left;">After years when she was unable to express her love for her child naturally and simply with a hug and a caress, after years of loneliness behind walls of fear, suspicion<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and guilt, the walls fell and the connection between herself and her son was renewed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their love was able to express itself more completely, deeply and directly than ever before, and she was profoundly content.</div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial;">Explanation</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 2.85pt; text-align: left;">The children that come to an <strong><a href="http://galbenorat.blogspot.com/2012_01_01_archive.html">Alexander Technique</a></strong> teacher often have physical disabilities, emotional sufferings or both. </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 2.85pt; text-align: left;">A child may have physical disabilities not only because he was born so, but also as the result of operations after birth or of painful treatments, intended to make his life better.</div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 2.85pt; text-align: left;">Any child who received such treatments, may then be emotionally hurt<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>because the basic trust that a child gives to the adults surrounding him has been damaged and, with this, his trust in himself and his own abilities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Often such a child suffers additionally from the criticism of other children and of adults who do not accept him as he is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The child is apt to feel, that adults, despite all the best of desires and intentions, come to him with demands he cannot endure and force him to submit to pain.</div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 2.85pt; text-align: left;">And sometimes the various care-givers do not tell a child that his medical treatment will be painful but attempt to confuse him with games.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a result even an innocent game can be associated with the danger of pain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then every attempt of an adult to play with him arouses suspicion and fears.</div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 2.85pt; text-align: left;">With these words I am not intending to criticize the entire field of medical treatments and operations, but only to point out incidences that I know personally.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maoz was one of them.</div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 2.85pt; text-align: left;">But what happened at that instant when I put my hands on Maoz? Why did he allow me to touch him?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why was he able to surrender his defense mechanisms and open himself?</div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 2.85pt; text-align: left;">I believe that Maoz felt I approached him from within my own inner activity which began long before we met and continued as I worked with him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This activity was the development and activation of my own directions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The touch of my hand was not the important matter; the importance was the direction of movement that I imparted to him, my own inner movement which invited him to participate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The sensitivity<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>that my inner work awake in me made it possible for me to know exactly how much support Maoz needed in order for the same work to take place in him; the very same directions appeared, but these were his own directions, not mine. </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 2.85pt; text-align: left;">My work springs from consciousness of my inner freedom and therefore of Maoz’s freedom, a freedom which makes it possible for him to choose whether or not to participate in the direction which I offer him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He felt my readiness to accept all his antagonism and every refusal without my ever negating or judging him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And so he chose to participate.</div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"></div></div>Gal Ben-Orhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16477287927090979703noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4681881845502473237.post-16677969725613255222012-02-01T05:25:00.000-08:002012-02-06T21:15:42.630-08:00Directions for life -an e-book version in English<div dir="rtl" style="text-align: right;" trbidi="on"><div align="left"><u><span dir="LTR" style="font-size: 14pt;">Dear reader<o:p></o:p></span></u></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span dir="LTR" style="font-size: 14pt;">First, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Gal Ben-Or, I am 48 years old and I have been working as an Alexander teacher for the last 25 years. (For more details please look "the author").<o:p></o:p></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span dir="LTR" style="font-size: 14pt;">Though the<b> Alexander technique</b> is a well known and respected technique in the field of alternative medicine for more than 100 years, not enough has been, unfortunately, done in the field of educating and treating young children.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span dir="LTR" style="font-size: 14pt;">In my practice, and through many years of experience, I have developed a unique approach to working with children. This approach allows a simple implication of the Alexander principles in the lives of children suffering from many different disabilities (such as Hypotonya , <strong>learning difficulties</strong>, <strong>attention deficit</strong> , many orthopedic problems like <strong>neck pain</strong>, <strong>back pain</strong> ,<strong>scoliosis</strong>, <strong>tendon inflammation</strong> , <strong>stuttering</strong> and breathing problems and more).I have applied my work in the field of education as well, allowing healthy<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>children to benefit from the <strong>Alexander principles</strong><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>in the preventive sphere and so giving them conscience tools to deal with many of the modern life challenges.</span><span lang="HE" style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span dir="LTR" style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In my book, <b><u>"Directions for life" </u></b>already self- published in Hebrew in Israel, and now <b><u>available as an E-Book here on this Blog</u></b>, I am describing many case studies showing the different possibilities of the hidden potential of the Alexander technique as well as the principles themselves and my unique approach. It is written in a simple language and is intended for the wide public and especially for parents as well as for professionals in the fields of <strong>education</strong> and medicine and <strong>Alexander teachers</strong>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><u><span dir="LTR" style="font-size: 14pt;">About the author<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></u></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span dir="LTR" style="font-size: 14pt;">Gal Ben-Or- Born in 1963. He is married and the father of three children.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span dir="LTR" style="font-size: 14pt;">He graduated from the School for Teachers of the Alexander Technique directed by Shmuel Nelkin in Jerusalem.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span dir="LTR" style="font-size: 14pt;">He was certified as a teacher of the Alexander Technique in 1987.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span dir="LTR" style="font-size: 14pt;">As a senior teacher of the Alexander Technique, he has developed a unique approach to teaching children, adolescents and parents, according to the principles of the Alexander Technique.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span dir="LTR" style="font-size: 14pt;">1998-2002 – founder and director of the Mishal Association, established in April 1998 by the parents of children who had been helped by the Alexander Technique <o:p></o:p></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span dir="LTR" style="font-size: 14pt;">2001-2006 – member of the team of professional care-givers at a boarding school for youth at risk.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span dir="LTR" style="font-size: 14pt;">He has taught the Alexander Technique at the ’Y’dida’ home for adults with light to medium retardations, at the ‘Hatana’ Special Education school in Jerusalem, at ‘Alyn’ hospital , in the Jerusalem Municipal kindergarten ‘Hasataf' and<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>at the ‘Kesem’ school.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span dir="LTR" style="font-size: 14pt;">2004-2006 –Chairman, Association of Teachers of the Alexander Technique, Israel<o:p></o:p></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span dir="LTR" style="font-size: 14pt;">2008 –Chairman, Council of Alternative Health Professions, in Israel.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span dir="LTR" style="font-size: 14pt;">2011- Published his book "Directions for life" in Israel <o:p></o:p></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><b><u><span dir="LTR" style="font-size: 14pt;">Present:</span></u></b><b><span dir="LTR" style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></b><span dir="LTR" style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>director of a course certifying teachers of the Alexander Technique. Riding instructor at ‘Nataf’ Farm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maintains private clinics in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, working with adults and children. Gives lectures and workshops on the Alexander Technique and his work. <b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"></div></div>Gal Ben-Orhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16477287927090979703noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4681881845502473237.post-75320400321280209852012-02-01T00:05:00.000-08:002012-02-01T03:53:43.017-08:00The perfect girl<div dir="rtl" style="text-align: right;" trbidi="on"><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The perfect girl </span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There was a faint knock on the door of my workroom. Opening the door, I found a young woman standing before me. Behind her on the stairs leading down to my room stood a young girl, leaning on crutches. She stood there, just organizing herself to descend the stairs, her hair dark and smooth, her eyes dark and large behind glasses, and a smile. I could continue a long while, describing that smile, but it is enough to say that it was a smile reserved for young noble girls whenever they are caught for an instant unprepared, as if at that instant their slightly awkward, down-to-earth nature is revealed .</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I smiled back at her without saying a word. At that same moment it was clear to both of us that she was the center of matters and that the connection between us would be direct, simple, and open. No intervention of the mother would be needed as is normal when young children come to me for the first time. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Haddass handed her crutches to her mother, and, leaning on the banister, jumped down the stairs on one leg. At the bottom, she took back the crutches<i> </i>and<i> </i>proceeded on her own steam to my workroom. If I had had a thought of helping her, it vanished immediately when I saw how she managed. Despite the slight awkwardness of using crutches, she held firmly to her nobility and I had no intention of taking that from her. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Haddass was seven years old. She had suffered for the last year from recurrent inflammations of the Achilles tendon of her right ankle. The remission between her first and second attacks had been four months long, but subsequently the time between attacks had shortened and their severity increased. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In my workroom Haddass sat down heavily on the chair in the center of the room. She asked if she should take off her shoes so that I could examine her. She had had, undoubtedly, much experience with examinations. I checked the leg superficially, asked a few questions about the pain and its position, but noted to myself that it was not by focusing on the ‘problem’ that I would find the solution.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I stopped the conversation by suggesting to Haddass, ‘Come. Let’s leave the leg for a while . Here are some games on the table. Which one would you like to play?’ She accepted the idea happily and chose a game in which the players had to build a tower of plastic clowns. One clown is the base and the others are placed on it, one above the other. Not only is the game interesting and amusing, it also reveals several traits of the child’s character, for example, his daring and readiness to take risks, and tests his hand and eye coordination. Before we began, I explained to Haddass that, while she was playing, I would direct her with my hands, if she did not object to this. She agreed with ease and naturalness. Her mother had told me that she had no special problems in her studies. She loved activity and sport and often played outside.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The main purpose of my directing was to guide Haddass’s movements so that they would flow without unnecessary tension and effort. I also examined the quality of her movements. I received the impression of a strong and stable back. She sat beside me, upright, smiling and happy. She played excellently, controlled the clowns easily, and interacted with me freely. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Nevertheless she had severe tendonitis. I judged that something in the way she used herself was causing the inflammations but as this stage I was groping in the dark. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After the game, I asked Haddass to lie down on my worktable. She jumped to the table about two meters away and lay down on her back. I stood behind her head and gently placed my hands under her head, near the joint between head and neck. Within a few seconds, a subtle, quiet movement began, invisible to the eye but extending down to her heels and the tips of her toes. I understood that I had grasped the thread leading to the solution of Haddass’s problem. She, herself, because of her strong desire to excel and the effort she invested in being perfect, had caused the interior flow, the movement of life in her body, to stop. Her muscles had hardened in the effort to be ‘o.k.’, to be ‘right’, to be a ‘good girl.’ </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After a minute or two during which Haddass rested, I started working on her right leg. As I did this, I began explaining what I was doing. Immediately her nose crinkled up in the attempt to understand my words and to show me that she was listening. I told her simply, ‘There’s no need to work so hard to understand. You can just lay there, rest and do nothing. You don’t have to understand; you don’t have to react. And there’s no need at all to remember what I say. Actually, it’s better for you simply to rest.’ She smiled in relief and, as I worked, life began once more to flow through her body. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After a few minutes I took her off the bed and told her not to try to do alone what she had learned with me. It would even be better to forget everything and to continue as normal—certainly, there was no homework.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All this time her mother sat and watched. Not once had she intervened. She simply sat and watched, permitting the impressions to reach her consciousness. Now I was free to speak also with her. Haddass found a puzzle and occupied herself. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I explained to the mother the way I worked, explained the principles of the Alexander technique and answered her many questions. We parted and agreed that, if she decided to continue treatment, she should call and arrange an appointment.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><br />
</div></div>Gal Ben-Orhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16477287927090979703noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4681881845502473237.post-58216555452878960842012-01-28T08:16:00.000-08:002012-01-28T08:16:00.090-08:00Response to Gal Ben-Or's Hagit and Maor by psychiatrist and a psychoanalyst Sarah Kandel Katzenelson, MD<div dir="rtl" style="text-align: right;" trbidi="on"><div align="left"> </div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">It is with pleasure I respond, as a psychiatrist and a psychoanalyst in training to the two lovely case studies Gal has brought us. Gal's helping profession is in movement, the body itself, where the primary unconscious processes are the dominant ones.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I did my first bout of Alexander Technique when 16, not a child but not an adult yet, and since then have worked with the Technique as a student for various but long periods of time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I still carry in my mind the comment from an observer about how fast my basic posture changed during that first series, although (or perhaps because?) then I never understood anything about the Technique.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As an adult my unconscious processes are both more protected from conscious intervention, and more deeply ingrained – after a new “letting go” my unconscious holding of the body snaps back quickly into “the correct place”. I am convinced my conscious use of direction, while helpful, does not compensate for the greater accessibility of childhood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These cases bring us a large measure of hope in helping children like Maor and Hagit, and illustrate some common basic principles of the helping professions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div align="left"> </div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div align="left"> </div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Among Gal's explanation of his use of the Technique are precise descriptions of the absolutely necessary and basic elements of psychic help. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He writes: <i>I must stress that I do not work with the intention to achieve direct results, but with a clear view of the conditions which make it possible to reach results, a view that is centered on processes and not on results.</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This basic principle is keeping the principles in mind, or in a psychic sense -keeping the primary direction in mind. It is all too easy to lose it under the details of living and working.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The second basic principle underlying the help is <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>a firm trust of the therapist in<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>a inherent drive toward health and maturation - in Alexander Technique it would appear to be “the primary control or direction” whose free expression is lost as part of the reaction to the external world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The third principle<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>is the acceptance and the interest in the child as he is, not in his problem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“ <i>The trust must enable the child to feel that he will <u>continue</u> to be o.k. in the eyes of the adult who is working with him, that is to say, that he will <u>continue</u> to be loved and accepted as he was before he agreed to write in the new way, even should he fail” (My emphasis) </i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Implicated in this sentence is the understanding that the child must feel loved and accepted as he is, and not feel that in the eyes of the adult working with him, he is a problem to be fixed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When a patient or child feels this, he can trust that the basic intentions of the helper are for his personal good, and not for the good of a principle or person other than himself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is stated again in the story of Maor, a heart wrenching story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The situation of children exposed to medical care from very early on is well known to pediatricians.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The “White Coat Phobia”, was sufficiently common for pediatricians to have stopped wearing white coats as a matter as course. Maor took the phobia one step more, becoming phobic to all touch thereby cutting himself off from the holding he needed to grow happily.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div align="left"> </div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div align="left"> </div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Having said “holding” I will continue and say that Gal's case work brings very clearly to mind Winnicott's work, most especially the concept of the <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>non- impinging environment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this environment the child is free to develop in line with his inner potential without reacting overly to the environment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Gal<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>tells us how gently, with no hurrying at all, attentive to the mother's and child's pace,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“when they seemed comfortable”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>he started his work. This waiting for the time to intervene when it is appropriate for the child is crucial – this is the non-impinging intervention (fourth principle).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This way the child can accept the touch of the other as something that need not be defended against automatically but may be perceived neutrally, and may perhaps accepted, perhaps not, allowing the child freedom. Thus Maor could accept Gal's touch, and give himself the experience that not all touch is painful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div align="left"> </div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">With hopes that all of us experience touch without pain, I thank Gal Ben-Or and Paul Cook<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>for inviting me to contribute to this fascinating exploration of clinical work. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div align="left"> </div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sarah Kandel Katzenelson, MD<o:p></o:p></span></div><div align="left"> </div></div>Gal Ben-Orhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16477287927090979703noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4681881845502473237.post-79548003147944685212012-01-16T11:30:00.000-08:002012-02-16T11:33:14.948-08:00On The Alexander Technique<div dir="rtl" style="text-align: right;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> </div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center; text-indent: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 200%;">On the Alexander Technique<o:p></o:p></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 26.95pt 12pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 0cm;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘The Alexander Technique is the study of how I use myself, my body.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is not a form of exercise or healing. … I am both the instrument and the one who uses it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am an instrument that can develop and rehabilitate itself but can also harm and destroy itself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If so, I am responsible for myself.… Alexander discovered that within the totality that is myself there are things that come first and things that come later and that everything begins with the head.’ </div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 45.1pt 12pt 99.25pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 0cm;">So wrote Shmuel Nelkin, my teacher, among the first of the teachers of the Alexander Technique in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region></st1:place>. (1996, 9) </div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 12pt; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;">Frederick Matthias Alexander (1955-1869), discoverer of the Alexander Technique, was born in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Australia</st1:country-region></st1:place> where he became a Shakespearian actor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the course of time he developed hoarseness while speaking and could no longer appear on the stage. He used a variety of techniques to cure himself but to no effect: the hoarseness returned as soon as he started to speak before an audience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Alexander felt that his own behavior was the source of the problem so he began to do research into the special way he spoke while acting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The central question he asked himself was, ‘What do I do that causes me to be hoarse?’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After years of research, of experiments, of mistakes and of new beginnings Alexander discovered several ‘laws of action’ governing the body and proved that that if he activated his body according to these laws, his situation improved: the hoarseness disappeared, his body functioned more efficiently, even his spirits became pleasanter, and a new quality animated his life.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></b><span style="layout-grid-mode: line;">The Alexander Technique is an educational method whose principal aim is to improve the way a person uses himself. </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="layout-grid-mode: line;">It teaches one to make more correct use of his body and himself and, thereby, to improve his daily functioning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All of us are exposed in the course of a day to pressures and requirements</span>. <span style="layout-grid-mode: line;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span>Gr<span style="layout-grid-mode: line;">eat tensions accumulate within us; the body is worn down and functional problems appear, such as, back and joint pains, headaches, and breathing difficulties and more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Alexander Technique teaches us how to consciously manage ourselves in order to prevent the harm we do to ourselves.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;">For children the technique helps them learn correct movement and better habits for a healthy life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The technique includes also an aspect of rehabilitation and reeducation – children as well as adults suffer from bad coordination, orthopedic problems, attention deficit, hyperactivity, breathing problems, stuttering and more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Technique also aids pregnant women and women after birth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because the Technique provides the foundation for a healthy life of improved quality, there may be an overlap between Alexander education and medication or medical treatments.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This overlap causes the treatment aspect of the Alexander technique.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;">On the basis of experience which has accumulated during more than 100 years, it has been proven without doubt that the Alexander Technique improves health, posture and the workings of our internal systems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It helps to dissolve unnecessary tensions, to lessen aggression, increase learning ability and attention, and to improve the quality of life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All of these help to increase self-confidence as well as the readiness and ability to set challenges for oneself and to stand up to them.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> </div></div>Gal Ben-Orhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16477287927090979703noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4681881845502473237.post-57942853771617316652011-09-21T10:55:00.000-07:002011-09-21T10:55:54.895-07:00The Alexander technique as a shared language within a family<div dir="rtl" style="text-align: right;" trbidi="on"> <br />
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;"><strong>Yitzhak’s story<o:p></o:p></strong></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;">Several days before Yom Kippur my cell phone rang.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On the other side of the line I heard the voice of Naomi, Yitzhak’s mother.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After an exchange of greetings she asked that we meet in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city></st1:place> – she, her husband, me and my wife.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I agreed with pleasure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;">Yitzhak had been drafted into the army and was already finishing up boot camp.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Naomi and Baruch had always had a special manner of thanking me for the work I had done with their son.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They touched my heart and the more the acquaintanceship grew, the more I appreciated them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This feeling of gratitude and appreciation was mutual.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had taught me about determination.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had taught me about that very characteristic which I spoke so often about, even preached about, and which they themselves lived with gentleness and modesty – a characteristic I call the ‘role of parents’ as a condition that enables work with children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their trust in the Alexander process, their determination to persist for years, the gratitude which they expressed by small gestures of attention and Naomi’s active participation in Alexander lessons – all these turned Yitzhak's story into a success proving that positive changes in the life of a child are possible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;">We met on Friday.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-pagination: lines-together; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: left;">‘Yitzhak wants to speak with you,’ said Naomi immediately after we sat down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Baruch dialed Yitzhak’s number on his cell phone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I spoke with him for several minutes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He sounded quiet and self-confident, in control of his situation and coping courageously with the difficulties of the army.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-pagination: lines-together; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: left;">I thought about the fact that the story of my work with Yitzhak contained both the central themes that I am trying to describe here in my book and also the principles of <strong>Alexander technique</strong> according to which I work with children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yitzhak’s story contains an aspect of rehabilitation – both physical and emotional – and it contains an educational aspect as I understand the term ‘education.’ </div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-pagination: lines-together; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: left;">It talks about acquiring the tools of consciousness and understanding, about the student’s free decision to use them for his personal good and about a dialogue with the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His story contains the active intervention of parents, and it contains great mutual affection between teacher and pupil.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-pagination: lines-together; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span>‘When did I begin to work with Yitzhak?’ I asked Naomi, as soon as I had ended the phone conversation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She smiled. ‘Seven years ago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t you remember?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The school counselor referred us to you.’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I remembered.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It all began with a telephone conversation. Naomi had phoned me and told me about her son, age eleven.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-pagination: lines-together; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: left;">Yitzhak had been born with a <strong>club foot</strong>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the course of several years he had four operations to straighten the foot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The operations succeeded; the foot straightened almost completely.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The doctors believed that one more operation was needed but Naomi decided to try an alternative treatment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The difficulty, she emphasized in her phone call, was Yitzhak’s severe limp.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although the operations had succeeded, Yitzhak’s walking had not improved, his limp was even worse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We made an appointment.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: left;">In my first meeting with Yitzhak, I found him to be friendly and pleasant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was easy to make a connection with him, and he enjoyed the attention I gave him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He limped badly, dragged his feet and rocked from side to side as he walked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His movements showed lack of <strong>coordination</strong> and weakness. </div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: left;">As my acquaintance with Yitzhak continued, I discovered that he had <strong>learning difficulties</strong>:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>arithmetic, reading and other subjects. In addition he suffered from attention disorder and was treated with<strong> Ritalin</strong>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The school was planning to move him to a special education framework but Naomi opposed this strongly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: left;">I recommended that Yitzhak receive two lessons a week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My work plan included strengthening his movement by improving the daily movements (getting up from a chair, sitting, walking) and also blending the Alexander Technique into those studies that were hard for him in school: arithmetic, reading and writing.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-pagination: lines-together; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: left;"><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"><span dir="RTL"></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span>In the first lesson it was already clear to me that Yitzhak not only enjoyed our shared work in the Technique, but he truly understood with a child’s intuition that our work would open to him a way to rehabilitate himself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was decisive in his desire to come to our meetings and to cooperate with me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was ready to try the new, to study and to develop.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-pagination: lines-together; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: left;">Positive changes began slowly, subtly, but as a clear and stable process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His walking rocked less; he nearly stopped dragging his feet; his balance improved and his back straightened.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The school also began to notice that Yitzhak was quieter, more focused, participated in lessons and began advance in his studies.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-pagination: lines-together; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: left;">Yitzhak’s intensive work continued for two years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Afterwards we continued to meet once a week and later from time to time with lessening frequency.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His limp nearly disappeared; he stopped the <strong>Ritalin</strong>.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-pagination: lines-together; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: left;">In parallel to Yitzhak’s lessons, his mother received one lesson a week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She participated fully in the process, interested in the Technique both for her son and herself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The understanding she acquired created optimal conditions for working with Yitzhak and aided his rehabilitation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Work in the <strong>Alexander Technique</strong> creates a subtle awareness of the body and a new language between a man and his body, between a man and himself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When this language is shared by members of the family, a synergy of strength develops, creating conditions which strengthen the entire family. </div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-pagination: lines-together; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: left;">It was Friday morning and we were still sitting together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The conversation was lively;<span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"><span dir="RTL"></span> </span>the atmosphere, warm and friendly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Without it being mentioned, there was a feeling of summarizing, the end of an era.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I understood that my role as care-giver and educator had ended.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I released a deep breath of happiness mixed with a light sadness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I felt proud, and a little worried, but I was full of confidence that Yitzhak and his family were on the right road.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-pagination: lines-together; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: left; text-indent: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The idea guiding work with families <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-pagination: lines-together; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: left;">In parallel to my individual work with children, I relate to them also as part of a wide circle of family including, most importantly, their parents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not only is it the child who is disappointed of himself because he cannot meet the expectations adults have hung on him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many parents who speak with me also feel disappointed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Often they, too, have been hurt; their trust has been hurt, the trust they had in care givers, in the possibilities for their child and in their own ability to help him.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-pagination: lines-together; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: left;">I look at them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They look at me and at their child.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-pagination: lines-together; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: left; text-indent: 0cm;">What are they thinking about?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-pagination: lines-together; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: left; text-indent: 0cm;">What are they feeling?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-pagination: lines-together; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: left; text-indent: 0cm;">I try to get to know them, to have an impression of them, to feel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What are they saying?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What does their body language say?</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-pagination: lines-together; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: left; text-indent: 0cm;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I say to them in my way:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘Observe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ask.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t work from blind faith, but don’t refuse without understanding as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Take part in the process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m not hiding anything.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have no tricks, no magic, no professional secrets or short cuts.’</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-pagination: lines-together; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: left;">I invite them to join the process of trial and error, repair and renewal, freedom and direction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I explain my method of work to them and the principles behind my work, and I guide them in that area which Alexander called ‘The use of the child by himself.’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I explain to them the new terms of the<strong> Alexander Technique:</strong><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>direction, primary control, sensory appreciation, giving directions, and such, and I demonstrate on their child and on themselves what I mean by these terms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this way I give them my message of shared work and cooperation, cooperation between them and their child, between them and me.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-pagination: lines-together; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: left;">My work offers changes.<b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b>It teaches children to do what they want to do in a new way, and later they are asked to live this change also outside the work room.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The children have, of course, personal responsibility for themselves and for the change that comes to them from the work, but at the same time they are a part of a wider system of family and society.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From this comes the great importance I give to the condition that the child’s close environment, and in particular his family, understand the processes that are affecting him, in both theory and practice, and know how to contain these processes so as to support the child.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is important that the parents, or at least one of them, receive practical lessons in the Technique.<b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b>Without their own practical experience it is impossible to truly understand their child’s experience</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-pagination: lines-together; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: left;">The basic, immediate and natural wish of every parent is to help their child, especially whenever there is any problem, such as back pains, difficulties in writing or a curved spine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, occasionally parents are unaware of the importance of the way in which they help.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-pagination: lines-together; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: left;">The great contribution that they can make to help their child lies first of all in the work that they do on themselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Only when they do this work seriously and honestly have they the possibility of establishing a supporting dialogue between themselves and their child. </div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-pagination: lines-together; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: left;">Parents have an enormous influence on their child from the day of its birth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are the example their child copies, and from them he learns the most basic, primary matters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Among these basic matters is the way their child uses himself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For example:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>a father’s particular style of walk can be clearly seen in the walk of his son or daughter; a mother’s special tilt of her head can be recognized in her son or daughter. </div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-pagination: lines-together; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: left;">Sometimes parents forget or they don’t properly appreciate the power of personal example, one of the most significant powers in education.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A father who smokes has vast difficulties persuading his son not to do as father does.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A mother who suffers from lower back pain should not wonder if her daughter develops similar pain.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-pagination: lines-together; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: left;">So, parents are the model to copy and from a very young age children integrate their parents’ habits, for good or for bad.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Therefore, when a parent asks me, ‘What can I do to help my child?’ I suggest<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";"> </span>that he begin to create consciously a change for the good in his own use of himself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When the parent improves consciously his use of himself, he changes his unconscious, harmful influence on his child to a conscious, positive and beneficial influence without any direct effort from the child.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-pagination: lines-together; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: left;">Occasionally I run up against parents who believe that if they only sit and observe the lessons without taking lessons themselves, they will understand what I am talking about.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Parents who observe a lesson and have no training themselves will see a child who sits straight and comfortably in a chair and plays.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Usually at the end of the lesson they say to their child: ‘From today, you’ll begin to sit straight, just as Gal showed you.’ for that is what they think they have seen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course, they say this because of their lack of understanding, because of their desire to help, certainly not from any desire to harm, but such words may accomplish exactly the opposite of their desire.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They may create unnecessary tension in their child, who cannot yet control by himself his new use.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They may also create unnecessary tension between the parents and their child, for the child feels that he does not live up to his parents’ expectations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This tension can arouse the child’s opposition to the Technique and to what is happening in our meetings. </div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-pagination: lines-together; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: left;">I never ask a child to ‘sit straight’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A wall or a floor is meant to be straight, but a back has naturally a kind of S shape, and is not meant to be ‘straight’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A back is meant to be in a constant subtle movement of lengthening and widening.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The child’s upright sitting is the active result of his improving use.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My advice to the parents of a child who studies the Alexander Technique is, first, there is no homework and, second, no need to tell the child, ‘Sit straight’ or to give any other order.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If parents follow this advice, they will save themselves a frustrating struggle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Helping their child is actually a total impossibility for the child doesn’t yet know how to do what they are telling him to do.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-pagination: lines-together; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: left;">Second, I suggest that they take some Alexander lessons, so that they acquire understanding, both theoretical and practical, of the Technique.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When parents want their child to become stronger, it is better that they first become stronger.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With their own process of inner strengthening, their child will also strengthen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The parents of a child with difficulties must take an active part in his change, as it is first of all their own inner change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Through the process of change that they undergo, they will themselves be an active part in the processes their child undergoes; they can become themselves a model and an inspiration for him to copy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span dir="RTL" lang="HE"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-pagination: lines-together; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: left;">These words are just as true regarding education and preparation for a healthy and balanced life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When a parent acquires basic knowledge related to the way he uses himself, he is able to guide and support his child exactly as he teaches him to speak<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";"> </span>properly or to eat with a knife and fork at the table.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><br clear="all" style="mso-special-character: line-break; page-break-before: always;" /> </span></div></div>Gal Ben-Orhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16477287927090979703noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4681881845502473237.post-49327766433377832052011-09-05T11:26:00.000-07:002011-09-05T11:26:06.773-07:00טכניקת אלכסנדר כעזר להתמודדות עם עקמת<div dir="rtl" style="text-align: right;" trbidi="on"><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN4d0W780gACCf2BovHvyroBsiZLcilaQUt-NfPY6HS8OF_ZIfdoOpVXXKtpncBGA76x7LguxvR6TPfgVmvdEww9k-skhWh0IQus3PFV2btvu7b0aAPnYIosUtw_UgT0WFQFCFxgT-g-c/s1600/promo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN4d0W780gACCf2BovHvyroBsiZLcilaQUt-NfPY6HS8OF_ZIfdoOpVXXKtpncBGA76x7LguxvR6TPfgVmvdEww9k-skhWh0IQus3PFV2btvu7b0aAPnYIosUtw_UgT0WFQFCFxgT-g-c/s320/promo.jpg" width="212" xaa="true" /></a></div><br />
סרטון קצר המתאר את סיפורה של וויולטה וכיצד טכניקת אלכסנדר יכולה לעזור להתמודד עם עקמת.<br />
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<a href="http://youtu.be/1FZXT7-2ias">http://youtu.be/1FZXT7-2ias</a></div>Gal Ben-Orhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16477287927090979703noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4681881845502473237.post-22242277630430531492011-07-15T09:22:00.000-07:002011-07-15T09:22:47.814-07:00Avshalom -teaching the Alexander technique to youth at risk<div dir="rtl" style="text-align: right;" trbidi="on"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQQ3e0ghVbKkPA6O_W1T0o-AngcPaXjf8wVrpZhGuV1VOy7wgjFLDmnlTwuGWnFHoGQeUtACB6Xto__zBxGlyJWiyZCak7CztmJmsL_sV_Z1FNBtfEoe0j5YoNCcT_y_sElPNO6DQoIHs/s1600/promo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" m$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQQ3e0ghVbKkPA6O_W1T0o-AngcPaXjf8wVrpZhGuV1VOy7wgjFLDmnlTwuGWnFHoGQeUtACB6Xto__zBxGlyJWiyZCak7CztmJmsL_sV_Z1FNBtfEoe0j5YoNCcT_y_sElPNO6DQoIHs/s320/promo.jpg" width="212" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;">When Avshalom was seven, his father died of disease.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His mother describes Avshalom as sensitive, easily offended , in need of constant attention, stubborn and very energetic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From the time he was born she remembers him as mischievous and difficult to control. He was a demanding baby who slept very little.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In her own words <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘He did everything quickly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the sixth month he already wanted out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His head was down and he moved constantly in my belly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was born at the beginning of the ninth month.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He walked early and at ten months was running.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Everything too fast.’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When his father became sick, the difficulties that Avshalom’s active, troublemaking temperament caused became even greater.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His mother found it very difficult to enforce limits and to restrain him. </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: left;">In kindergarten Avshalom was placed on <strong>Ritalin</strong> in an effort to calm his stormy temperament.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He suffered from moderate asthma and as a small child walked on his toes because of short tendons.</div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: left;">Avshalom entered the boarding school at age 14.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was large, awkward and moved heavily.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In his entrance diagnosis he was said to be intelligent but with an extremely <strong>low self-image</strong>, feeling that he didn't fit in and that he was an object of ridicule to all around him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This feeling expressed itself in an inability to control his emotions and a hostile and angry attitude towards the environment, creating a tendency to isolation and inauthentic relationships with others as well as weakening his inner ego strength.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His difficulty in coping with the outside world and the pressures of daily life brought him to such a point that he reacted to his environment with threatening aggression.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;">These findings indicated that Avshalom was a youth at risk with a potential for behaviors that endangered himself and those around him and that he was in need of intensive attention, of being both embraced and strengthened by the various environments he participated in – his family, the dormitories and the school.</div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;">As a result of this diagnosis an art therapist worked with him for two years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At a certain stage he also required a small dosage of psychiatric medication to calm his reactions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His outbursts of anger and violence were difficult for the school staff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The other pupils feared him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When the art teacher recommended that I be added to his treatment plan it was the last resort before sending him to a psychiatric institution.</div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;">I met Avshalom at the beginning of October, 2003.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The official reason he was sent to me was for back pains; he was very bent over and continually more so.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In addition to the back pains, the art therapist thought I might serve as a father figure.</div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;">When I first met him, I felt as if I were standing opposite Goliath (The one from the Bible).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Avshalom was a gigantic young man, almost terrifying.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He broadcast aggression towards the word – 'Just try and touch me.'<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But along with that, there was a mixture of strength and weakness, anger and willingness, coarseness and delicacy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a mixture of psychological and physical 'materials' that had not yet found the proper balance.</div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: left;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In our first meetings Avshalom expressed deep feelings of inferiority and accused the boarding school of basic injustice as regards supplying his needs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He claimed that the environment didn't behave as if it respected him and didn't appreciate his efforts to help, to contribute and to be OK.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The other students continually put him down and he wasn't sure he could control himself and his feelings toward them even to the point that he was afraid of what he might do. </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;">During our meetings he received my complete attention.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I expressed appreciation for his efforts even more than for the results of the efforts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I related to him with respect and he returned the same to me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this way a balance was kept between being directed and being independent and personally responsible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He received clear messages that I was not giving up on him and most importantly that I was not afraid of him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was impressed neither by his strength nor by his 'stories' of not being able to control himself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I stressed clearly his rational and logical ability, based on his own reasoning, and his personal responsibility for his actions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These messages were given in words during our conversations together and in experiences during our Alexander work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Avshalom revealed during these meetings was a charming fellow, sweet and gentle despite his physical dimensions and his appearance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In time a relation of trust was built between us which allowed a progress toward change and growth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial;">Examples of Alexander technique work with Avshalom</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;">I will present here two examples of Alexander work with Avshalom focusing on their unique influence on him. </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;">Avshalom sits down heavily in his chair. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I ask him to get up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He gathers up his strength, bends his back forward as he shortens his spine and stands up with an effort that explodes upward.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I ask him to sit down again and he again sits heavily in the chair.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A dialogue begins between us in which I ask and he answers. </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;">‘Come, let's discover how we sit and if it's not possible to improve something.’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Avshalom agrees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I describe to him the movements he habitually and unconsciously makes and explain the anatomical damage that he can suffer from this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After he understands, I suggest that there is an alternative way to sit, one that prevents the damage to his health, and ask him if he is willing to try it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When he agrees I explain the new process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In order to support him as he tries the new technique, I place my hands gently on his back, give him a direction which lengthens his back and then ask him to stand up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He immediately tries to stand according to the habitual and trusted process which he knows, with which he feels safe and which he controls.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>'Wait a second,' I ask, simultaneously signaling also with my hands.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He stops and I direct his attention to the fact that he has again bent his back. 'Come, let your back lengthen.' I ask and once more signal with my hands the desired direction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After his back lengthens he rises from the chair more correctly.</div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: left;">This example shows how consciousness of the body is created and how the ability to control external movements results from this consciousness – as in standing and sitting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It shows further the inner movement, the back lengthening as a background to external movements. In this way a dialogue is created – a dialogue of direction and accompanying the pupil, supporting his change. </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;">The second example is working with Avshalom to organize his body.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I ask Avshalom to lie on his back and to let me organize his body so that there will be more quiet within it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I begin in the area of the head and slowly pass from one body part to another – shoulders, arms, legs. </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;">I ask Avshalom not to help – I will do all the work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is to listen to what happens in his body and to let go of the various tensions that have accumulated there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In these conditions I enable him to release himself from within, to release the systems of defense/aggression which he has adopted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this process he learns to be calm, to relax, to listen to his body and to himself.</div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;">The psychological and physical processes (involved in table work) are not passive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rather they are a special, subtle variety of activity, which we almost never use in our daily life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For this work involves an active agreement to allow oneself to be guided.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To a certain degree it can be said that Avshalom is experiencing a process of losing control of his habits but at a deeper level, since he has willingly and consciously agreed to the work, we can say that this is a process of attaining a new control.</div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;">When I ask Avshalom to let me do the work, I create a situation in which he is not asked 'to succeed.'<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He has, therefore, no fear of 'failing.'<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are no expectations from him and no tasks laid on him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He can be free to experience himself here and now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When this process is initiated by an adult and takes place in the adult’s presence, it acquires legitimacy, thereby becoming even more meaningful and substantial.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When such experiences are repeated, they become an active force on the path to change and growth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial; line-height: 200%;">The foundations for change</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;">In one of our first meetings, after the connection between us had already been formed and we had met several times for Alexander work, Avshalom did not arrive for his lesson.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My experience at the youth village had already taught me that even when a pupil enjoyed his lessons this gave no assurance that he would arrive for the next lesson.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The position I had chosen on this matter was not to wait for pupils to arrive and not to confront them with challenges that they could not meet but to go and look for them, to show them that I was interested in meeting them, wanted them to come to lessons and was willing to absorb their opposition, their pulling away and their fear. </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 0cm;">I found Avshalom in the school auditorium, sitting in one of the upper rows.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I called him to come.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He refused.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I insisted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He defied me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Again I insisted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>'Come and talk.'</div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 0cm;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>'Don't want to! What are you going to do to me?'</div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 0cm;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>'I have no intention of doing anything to you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Come and talk. We arranged a meeting and we have to respect it,' I answered him.</div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;">He got up heavily and came down, stumbling on the steps.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He approached me threateningly, waving his arms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>'I don't want to come.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Leave me alone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t want to!'</div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 0cm;">'Calm down, Avshalom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have no intention of forcing you to do anything.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How about having a cup of coffee and a chat?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We don't have to meet again after today if you don't want to, but, after all, we did make an appointment for today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What do you think?'</div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;">When he saw that I wasn't afraid of him, didn't get excited at his refusal but continued to invite him and that for a cup of coffee, he stopped, calmed down, thought again and answered.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>'You know what? – OK.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For a cup of coffee I agree.' </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;">We left the auditorium, walked to my workroom, sat there for half an hour and chatted – mostly about coffee, its smell, its taste, and recommended ways to prepare it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Avshalom taught me why you can't toast 'To Life' with coffee – the color is wrong – black brings bad luck. </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;">During that chat something was created between us that enabled communication: as I had taught him, this time he also taught me, and I answered to his need.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I truly listened to him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A certain 'plan of work' with him was created; a chat over a cup of coffee became something significant, a ‘ritual’ after every lesson.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We parted pleasantly with the decision to continue meeting over a cup of coffee and the Alexander Technique. </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;">The idea of coffee appealed to him; it was incredible how the ‘ritual coffee’ created such a special relation between us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In some way my suggestion touched him far more than just the invitation for coffee and a chat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Without explaining it or analyzing it to myself I allowed the ritual to remain as long as Avshalom needed it. </div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial; line-height: 200%;">On indirect work</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><acronym>For a long period of time I had to go and collect Avshalom from his class for our Alexander meeting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He always apologized, saying that he had forgotten. Time after time, over and over again I would calm him down and tell him not to worry – if he forgot to come, I would come to collect him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I understood that my picking him up was a necessary condition to ensure the tie between us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had to prove to him time after time after time that I had not forgotten him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was no sense in asking from him what he could not do which meant in this case expecting him to come on his own initiative.</acronym></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><acronym>The Alexander work began immediately with the beginning of our shared walk from the school to my workroom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would give myself directions, slow down my steps a bit and wait to see his reaction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Avshalom, despite his normal awkwardness and heavy movements, was extremely sensitive to other people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In response to my actions his steps also slowed down; his voice became lower; he freed his shoulders and actually responded to my directions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With time this process became quicker and more exact.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He internalized the process of giving inner directions in order to create a change for the better in the way he walked. </acronym></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 0cm;"><acronym><b><span style="font-family: Arial; line-height: 200%;">Concerning responsibility</span></b></acronym></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><acronym>One day when I met Avshalom at the school he was disturbed and nervous.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I knew from my talks with his counselors that he was going through a difficult period.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His classmates had chosen him as their victim for teasing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He suffered both from this and also because when he attacked them in return he was scolded for being aggressive and violent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On the way to my work room we talked about these difficulties.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I questioned him about every detail – how did a certain fight begin; what happened during the fight; what did he think; what did he feel; how did it all end.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We continued to discuss it as we entered the workroom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></acronym></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><acronym>He sat down heavily on the chair and talked:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘When someone touches me on the shoulder, even just a friendly pat, I immediately get angry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My arm flies out by itself; I can’t control it and I want to tear that person to bits.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I simply have no control over my arms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m afraid of it; I’m so strong I could kill someone.’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I listened with full attention until he finished and then I said:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘Let’s make a little experiment – Do you agree?’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He nodded his agreement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘Raise your right arm, please.’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He raised it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘Now lower it.’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He lowered it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘Who raised and lowered your arm?’ I asked. ‘I did ‘he answered and I saw something happen inside him even as he said that word ‘I’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></acronym></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span dir="rtl"></span><span dir="rtl"><span dir="rtl"></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span dir="ltr"></span><acronym><span dir="ltr"></span>‘Do you understand that your arm, anyone’s arm, doesn’t move alone, by itself?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We move it.’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My words seemed to sink into him, to create a new consciousness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I waited a bit and continued, ‘Now, as for the boys who pick on you, who is stronger — you or them?’</acronym></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><acronym>‘Me, why I could break them into pieces,’ he told me in a threatening voice.</acronym></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><acronym>‘OK, but let’s try to see it a little bit differently.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If they say something to you – try to get you angry and you get angry, then they’ve gotten exactly what they wanted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Actually, they’re stronger than you are – they control your reactions.’</acronym></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><acronym>I saw that he considered my words seriously. </acronym></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><acronym><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘The next time they annoy you, try not to react, not to be weak and to give them the victory.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Moreover, the person who ‘is paying the price’ is actually you yourself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So leave it; don’t react.’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></acronym></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><acronym>He smiled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I saw that the idea pleased him. </acronym></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><acronym><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘Come, let’s do some Alexander.’ I said and began the lesson.</acronym></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><acronym>My words had been a direct touch on the connection between himself and his body.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He understood that his arms could never do what they wanted to do, but what he decided to do with them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In addition he had been certain that he was much stronger than the other boys but I showed him they were much stronger than he was when they managed to get from him the reaction they wanted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They controlled his movements and his reactions; therefore, they were much stronger.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And not only that but in the end, he was the one who was blamed for attacking. </acronym></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><acronym>All this seemed very logical to Avshalom and he adopted the new attitude completely.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After he left, I spoke with his counselor, told her briefly about our conversation and asked her to react firmly towards any boys who annoyed him, to give them no opening to twist matters in any way that pleased them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had no trouble persuading her; she agreed immediately and promised to keep a sharp watch.</acronym></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><acronym>I spoke also about the matter to the psychologist, the head of the treatment team.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She found it hard to believe that it had been so simple to explain to Avshalom how to control his reaction. </acronym></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 0cm;"><acronym><b><span style="font-family: Arial; line-height: 200%;">The physical/emotional process of transformation and growth</span></b></acronym></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><acronym>Avshalom experienced his body as large, awkward, strong, threatening, foreign and frightening.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He knew neither his body nor himself within it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He did not experience himself as a part of his body; instead, he felt that he was unable to control it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since he did not know his body, he also did not know what to expect from it.</acronym></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><acronym>He experienced at a very deep level and with great force a feeling of helplessness and lack of control.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He radiated these feelings to all around him: classmates, the educational staff, the counselors and the caretakers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those close to him experienced similar feelings about Avshalom himself:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>big, strong, threatening, frightening, uncontrollable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this way the reaction of his surroundings strengthened and reinforced the truth of Avshalom’s own inner experience for it served as a guarantee that yes, definitely, what he felt was the truth. </acronym></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><acronym>The experience of the Alexander Technique allowed <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Avshalom to<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>feel the existence of his own body, the simple organic feeling of existence without any ‘additions’ of thought or criticism, without negativity, opposition<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>or emotions such as fear, confusion or rejection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This new experience, the organic feeling of existence, melts away feelings of separateness and strangeness such as Avshalom experienced in relation to his body and to himself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this experience comes the first wordless consciousness that my body belongs to me and I belong to my body.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With this feeling of belonging Avshalom ‘gained’ anew the ownership of his own body.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are born with this feeling of ownership but Avshalom had lost it somewhere in his past.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Continuing from this primary ownership, Avshalom might now develop a feeling of natural organic responsibility which is not the moral or educational control of ‘You’re OK.’ or ‘You’re not OK.’</acronym></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><acronym>Avshalom experienced, ‘I live in my body; my body belongs to me – I own my body and so I can control it.’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From this experience, the feeling of belonging to the life around us takes root and grows.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We feel a belonging to the people around us and with this a feeling of responsibility for life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Avshalom stopped feeling that he was separated from his environment as if he were a stranger, the odd man out, the one who didn’t belong, was not understood, could not be restrained and controlled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He learned to be responsible for his actions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This responsibility begins from small voluntary movements of the body – raising and lowering the arm, turning the head right and left and afterwards, rising from a chair and sitting. In the beginning rising and sitting was for Avshalom a large movement without awareness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Later it became a controlled conscious movement of rising and sitting down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He learned to decide to rise, then, to begin to rise, to stop, to be conscious of himself and to judge his position once again; then to correct as needed and to continue according to the mental/ emotional/ physical processes of his renewed decision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Eventually he learned to experience the possibilities of a new, conscious control even in the space of life outside the workroom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></acronym></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><acronym>Work with Avshalom opened my understanding to the idea that in sensory appreciation we have an additional key, an additional secret through which it is possible to create the very experience of constructive conscious control.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My role as an Alexander teacher and as a caregiver, as I saw it, was first of all, not to be frightened, not to ‘buy’ his story of fear and lack of self-control.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My task was to contain Avshalom’s experience, which was nearly overwhelming him</acronym>.<acronym> I had to contain all the complexity of his experience and not to ‘break down’ myself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had to create for him a basis of trust and security, to offer him new and practical possibilities to cope with difficult, repetitive conditions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had to wake up the processes of change and growth and to accompany these processes across all our time together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had also to share my work with the other professional caretakers in the village who were working with Avshalom so as to create a synergy in his treatment because the sum of all the treatments he received was greater than the work of each individual caregiver.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></acronym></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 0cm;"><acronym><b><span style="font-family: Arial;">Summary</span></b></acronym></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><acronym>In our meeting to summarize the results of our first year together, I asked Avshalom what he was taking with him from the technique.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His answer in his own words was:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘I understand that my back also has its own needs.’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></acronym></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><acronym>In these words he made it clear to me that he understood something essential about the Alexander Technique.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the staff meeting at the end of the year one of his caregivers mentioned that another boy in the group she took care of had attacked Avshalom and Avshalom didn’t do anything.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Avshalom still had confrontations, but his anger appeared far less frequently and he was able to control it. He was no longer defined as ‘aggressive’ and those around him were far less afraid of him.</acronym></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><acronym>As for his studies, when I began to work with Avshalom he spent 70% of his time on working with the grounds keeper.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the Hadassah exams he failed seriously and was kept an extra year in ninth grade.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After learning the Alexander Technique his grades improved and he left to study in a technical school.</acronym></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><acronym>At the end of our first year the psychiatrist told me during an evaluation meeting, that he was considering the possibility of stopping Avshalom’s tranquilizing medication.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was after the dosage had already been reduced to half.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Later on it was decided that Avshalom no longer needed medication.</acronym></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: left;">Avshalom’s change during the two years of our work together was amazing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He experienced a process of becoming gentle, exposing characteristics up to then kept well hidden by his aggressiveness – delicacy, listening, intelligence, responsibility and caring.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In my judgment it was on one side Avshalom’s openness to accept, and, on the other, his ability to let go and allow his inner self to appear that enabled the expression of these characteristics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The process was the result of, among other things, his work in the Alexander Technique.</div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 0cm;"><acronym><b><span style="font-family: Arial; line-height: 200%;">The beginning of a new road</span></b></acronym></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><acronym>One morning I arrived at the dormitories to take Avshalom with me to visit my home, only a few minutes drive away from the youth village.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had suggested the visit to him at our last meeting because during our entire conversation he had unexpectedly shown an intense interest in me, asking many questions about me and my family.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He had never before shown any interest in me as a person, being <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>occupied only with himself, his difficulties and his desires.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had answered all his questions openly and honestly </acronym></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;">When I reached the village it <acronym>was suspiciously silent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Usually in these morning hours the kids were on their way to school.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>During the last few months Avshalom had begun to meet me on his way to the school.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He would wave hello as if to let me now that he had remembered the meeting and walk to the workroom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Today I saw him nowhere.</acronym></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><acronym>In my mind I began to consider the possibilities for this ‘disappearance.’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps I had frightened him with my invitation to come and visit?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps he regretted his boldness and had taken a step backwards? </acronym></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><acronym>In the end I met one of the teachers and learned that all the pupils had been gathered to receive instructions concerning the yearly school trip which was to take place the next day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although I was not aware of it at that moment, I felt relief. </acronym></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><acronym>After the meeting Avshalom came to my workroom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a Monday and he looked a little confused since we usually met on Wednesdays.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On the road to my home he remembered that in the past we had met twice a week, including Mondays. I reminded him that that had been at the beginning of the previous year. </acronym></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span dir="rtl"></span><span dir="rtl" style="line-height: 200%;"><span dir="rtl"></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span dir="ltr"></span><acronym><span dir="ltr"></span>‘Wow! That was a while ago!’ he commented.</acronym></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><acronym>I nodded.</acronym></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><acronym>‘I work much better in your treatments,’ he added.</acronym></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><acronym>He completely surprised me with his open and honest relation to the fact that he was being treated as well as with the way he accepted his progress during the treatment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I nodded my head in agreement and said quietly, ‘Yes, I absolutely agree with you.’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then I added, ‘Can you explain a little to me of how you see the progress?’ His words came out slowly with a certain confusion, as if he were saying something deep and important but didn’t find the words.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘If once my back hurt, now it doesn’t… or my knee…today I know how to let go…I can…’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></acronym></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><acronym>‘Would you agree with me that you’ve learned to control your body?’ I asked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></acronym></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><acronym>‘Yes!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Exactly!’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His eyes glowed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘I’ve learned to control my body.’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And he repeated it a second time, as if to give extra validity to the words. </acronym></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><acronym>We continued our drive without speaking, watching the beautiful landscape that opened before us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this silence various memories rose up in me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I seemed to see the processes that Avshalom had gone through, the processes in which our connection and the Alexander work had been the central axis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Two years ago I had met a wild boy, violent, frustrated and bitter, isolated from the other pupils, a boy they and everyone else around him had feared.</acronym></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><acronym>I remembered that at the staff meeting the previous week one of the caregivers had related with wonder the story of a boy she was responsible for, a small boy in seventh grade who had attacked Avshalom twice and Avshalom had not even reacted to the challenge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I remembered that I had seen Avshalom several times in the afternoon sitting at the center with a group of friends, telling jokes and carrying on, looking as if he were one of them, part of the group.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I remembered a conversation with his classroom teacher who told me proudly about Avshalom’s astonishing progress in his studies in comparison to the previous year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I remembered also a conversation today with Avshalom’s counselor – she had told me that she was afraid that he would not behave properly during the school trip.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We discussed that reason for her worry and I realized that she and Avshalom were having an argument about a certain very small matter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The matter was explained; the teacher understood what Avshalom needed and it was possible to bridge their differences to the satisfaction of both.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I remembered the new art therapist who had taken the place of the one who had gone abroad.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After she had read the old reports and I talked to her about Avshalom before his change; she reacted with shock: ‘That can’t be true; it can’t be the same boy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t believe it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Where is this thing?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Where has he been?’ </acronym></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><acronym>Not only the Alexander Technique caused these changes in him, the entirety of the interventions by the treatment staff had made possible his transformation.</acronym></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><acronym>Yes, Avshalom and I had traveled a long way together and it was still not the end.</acronym></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"></div></div>Gal Ben-Orhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16477287927090979703noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4681881845502473237.post-24367942600394033712011-06-08T01:02:00.000-07:002011-06-15T11:13:58.551-07:00טכניקת אלכסנדר כעזר להתמודדות עם עקמת<div dir="rtl" style="text-align: right;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; 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</div><div class="a2" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE" style="font-family: "Guttman Haim"; font-size: large; mso-ansi-font-size: 44.0pt;">דרך הישר</span></div><div class="a7" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE" style="font-family: "Guttman Haim-Condensed"; font-size: 18pt; mso-ansi-font-size: 16.0pt;">שלושה עד ארבעה ילדים מכל מאה סובלים מעקמת, המתבטאת בסטייה של עמוד השדרה ובגב כפוף. למה חשוב לטפל בה כבר מגיל צעיר, איך עוצרים את ההידרדרות ומתי כדאי לשקול ניתוח?</span></div><div class="a" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="a4" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE" style="font-family: "Guttman Aharoni";">ד"ר דרור עובדיה</span></div><div class="a" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
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</div><div class="a" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE" style="font-family: "Guttman David"; mso-ansi-font-size: 10.0pt;">גב מוטה מעט, שכמות לא סימטריות וכפלי מותניים לא סימטריים מעידים על תופעה המכונה <strong>"עקמת"</strong> - סטייה הצידה של עמוד השדרה ביותר מעשר מעלות, המלווה בסיבוביות של החוליות.</span></div><div class="a" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE" style="font-family: "Guttman David"; mso-ansi-font-size: 10.0pt;">בגיל הילדות המחלה</span><span dir="ltr"></span><span dir="ltr" lang="HE"><span dir="ltr"></span><span style="font-family: Century;"> </span></span><span lang="HE" style="font-family: "Guttman David"; mso-ansi-font-size: 10.0pt;">היא על־פי רוב א־סימפטומטית, מה שאומר שלילד לא כואב ולא מפריע, והביטוי של התופעה הוא חיצוני בלבד. הבעיה היא שבהעדר טיפול עלולות להתפתח בהמשך בעיות שונות: מהפרעה בתפקוד נשימתי - בגלל עיוות בגודלו של בית החזה והקטנה בנפח שלו - ועד מחלת ריאות רסטרקטיבית הגורמת לירידה בתפקוד הנשימתי. לילד יש אמנם רזרבות נשימתיות גבוהות, אבל בבגרות העודפים האלה אוזלים, ואז צפות בעיות הנשימה. </span></div><div class="a" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE" style="font-family: "Guttman David"; mso-ansi-font-size: 10.0pt;">בעיה נפוצה נוספת הנגרמת בשל ה<strong>עקמת</strong> היא <strong>כאבי גב</strong> קשים, גם עקב שחיקת המפרקים הבין־חולייתיים בעקבות העומסים הלא שווים שלהם, וגם בשל ההיצרות של תעלת השדרה, שבה עובר חוט השדרה. ה<strong>עקמת</strong> נחלקת לשלוש קבוצות עיקריות: </span></div><div class="a" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="a6" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE" style="font-family: "Guttman Haim-Condensed"; font-size: 16pt; mso-ansi-font-size: 14.0pt;">עקמת מולדת </span></div><div class="a" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE" style="font-family: "Guttman David"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-font-size: 10.0pt;">עקמת המתפתחת בשלב הראשוני של ההיריון, בשבועות 2 עד 8, ובמהלכה יש היווצרות פגומה של עמוד השדרה מסיבה לא ידועה, ולכן עיוות מולד במבנה של חוליה אחת או כמה חוליות לאורך עמוד השדרה. שכיחותה של העקמת המולדת נדירה יחסית, והיא<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>מלווה בדרך־כלל במומים מולדים נוספים בלב, בכליות, בחוט שדרה או במערכת השלד. עקמת מהסוג הזה ניתן לזהות בסקירת מערכות במהלך ההיריון. מרבית הילדים הסובלים מעקמת כזאת יזדקקו לטיפול ניתוחי בשלב זה או אחר של חייהם.</span></div><div class="a" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="a6" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE" style="font-family: "Guttman Haim-Condensed"; font-size: 16pt; mso-ansi-font-size: 14.0pt;">עקמת משנית </span></div><div class="a" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE" style="font-family: "Guttman David"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-font-size: 10.0pt;">זוהי עקמת שנגרמת כתוצאת לוואי של מחלות אחרות, בעיקר נוירולוגיות, כמו שיתוק מוחין, ניוון עצב או שריר, או מחלות שקשורות ברקמת החיבור ותסמונות שונות כמו תסמונת דאון. </span></div><div class="a" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
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</div><div class="a6" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE" style="font-family: "Guttman Haim-Condensed"; font-size: 16pt; mso-ansi-font-size: 14.0pt;">עקמת אדיופטית </span></div><div class="a" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE" style="font-family: "Guttman David"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-font-size: 10.0pt;">זוהי העקמת השכיחה ביותר ומקורה אינו ידוע. מדובר בעקמת שמופיעה אצל ילד בריא, שאין אצלו פגם מבני בחוליות. במקרה כזה, מסיבות שאינן ברורות, עמוד השדרה צומח בצורה עקומה. הצמיחה העקומה באה לידי ביטוי בשלושה מישורים: המישור הפרונטלי, שמוביל לכך שהגוף מוטה הצידה; המישור הסגיטלי (צדדי), שגורם לכיפוף יתר או יישור יתר של הגב; והמישור האקסיאלי, שבו סיבוביות של החוליה גורמת להופעת גבנונית, בדרך־כלל באזור השכמות.</span></div><div class="a" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE" style="font-family: "Guttman David"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-font-size: 10.0pt;">לא ברור בצורה חד־משמעית מהם הגורמים שיוצרים או מעודדים התפתחות של עקמת אדיופטית. מחקרים עדכניים מצביעים על מספר גורמים שעלולים להשפיע על התפתחות עקמת, בהם גנטיקה, הורמונים (בעיקר אצל בנות), חולשה של מספר שרירים בצד אחד של הגב בהשוואה לצידו השני, וגמישות יתר וירידה בצפיפות העצם כבר בגיל ההתבגרות. עם זאת, עד היום לא ניתן להצביע על גורם אחד כסיבה להיווצרות העקמת. ומכאן מגיע גם שמה - עקמת אדיופטית. כלומר, מסיבה בלתי ידועה.</span></div><div class="a" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE" style="font-family: "Guttman David"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-font-size: 10.0pt;">3%־4% מהאוכלוסייה הכללית סובלים מעקמת אדיופטית, וגם אותה מקובל לחלק לשלוש קבוצות, על־פי הגיל שבו היא מופיעה: </span></div><div class="a" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span class="a1"><span lang="HE" style="font-family: "Guttman David"; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-ansi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: blue;">עקמת הינקות:</span></span></span><span lang="HE" style="font-family: "Guttman David"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-font-size: 10.0pt;"> כשהיא מתפתחת בשלב שמהלידה ועד גיל שלוש.</span></div><div class="a" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span class="a1"><span lang="HE" style="font-family: "Guttman David"; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-ansi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: blue;">עקמת הילדות:</span></span></span><span lang="HE" style="font-family: "Guttman David"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-font-size: 10.0pt;"> כשהיא מתפתחת בין גיל ארבע לתשע. 4־9 היא עקמת ילדות.</span></div><div class="a" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span class="a1"><span lang="HE" style="font-family: "Guttman David"; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-ansi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: blue;">עקמת מתבגרים: </span></span></span><span lang="HE" style="font-family: "Guttman David"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-font-size: 10.0pt;">כשהיא מתפתחת מגיל עשר ומעלה. זוהי גם העקמת השכיחה מבין השלוש.</span></div><div class="a" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
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</div><div class="a6" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE" style="font-family: "Guttman Haim-Condensed"; font-size: 16pt; mso-ansi-font-size: 14.0pt;">מוקדם יותר, מאוזן יותר</span></div><div class="a" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE" style="font-family: "Guttman David"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-font-size: 10.0pt;">הבשורה הטובה היא שרוב העקמות לא יחמירו באופן משמעותי, ולכן הטיפול הראשוני החשוב מתמצה במעקב כדי לוודא שהעקמת אינה מידרדרת. זה חשוב במיוחד כשמדובר בעקמת קטנה.</span></div><div class="a" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE" style="font-family: "Guttman David"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-font-size: 10.0pt;">כשעקמת מידרדרת ומראה סטייה הולכת וגדלה של עמוד השדרה, הטיפול המקובל הוא בחגורת גב קשיחה שהילד לובש על גופו במרבית שעות היממה ומטרתה למנוע את המשך ההידרדרות. יש הממליצים לשלב גם טיפולי פיזיותרפיה ותרגילי התעמלות שונים לשיפור היציבה, אם כי אין הוכחות מדעיות לכך שטיפולים אלה מצליחים לטפל באופן ישיר בעקמת עצמה. </span></div><div class="a" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE" style="font-family: "Guttman David"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-font-size: 10.0pt;">עם זאת, ככל שהעקמת מתחילה בגיל צעיר יותר, היא עלולה להיות קשה יותר ולדרוש בהמשך טיפול אגרסיבי יותר כמו ניתוח. בנוסף, אצל חלק קטן מהילדים חגורת הגב לא מסייעת בעצירת ההידרדרות, וההטיה גדלה לרמה משמעותית של מעל ל-50 מעלות. במקרים אלה אין מנוס אלא לעבור לטיפול ניתוחי שמטרתו לייצב ולתקן את העקמת ככל הניתן, ולהשיג איזון טוב של עמוד השדרה. מחקרים ארוכי טווח שנעשו על בעלי עקמת שנותחו, הראו שבתקופה של עד 20 שנה לאחר הניתוח המנותחים תפקדו היטב, וברמה המאפיינת את שאר האוכלוסייה. המנותחים אף דיווחו על פחות הפרעות בריאותיות ותפקודיות בהשוואה לחולים בדרגות עקמת דומות שלא נותחו.</span></div><div class="a" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE" style="font-family: "Guttman David"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-font-size: 10.0pt;">חשוב לזכור שככל שאיתור העקמת נעשה בשלב מוקדם יותר, סיכויי הצלחה של טיפול שמרני למניעת ההידרדרות - גבוהים יותר. </span></div><div class="a" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="a5" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE" style="font-family: "Guttman Aharoni";">ד"ר דרור עובדיה הוא אורתופד ילדים ואחראי על הטיפול במחלות עמוד שדרה בילדים בבית חולים דנה, תל־אביב</span></div><div class="a" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
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</div><div class="a3" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE" style="font-family: "Guttman Haim"; font-size: large; mso-ansi-font-size: 24.0pt;">אל תפנו גב</span></div><div class="a" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE" style="font-family: "Guttman David"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-font-size: 10.0pt;">כך תאתרו עקמת אצל ילדכם</span></div><div class="a" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="a0" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE" style="font-family: "Guttman David"; mso-ansi-font-size: 12.0pt;">בחנו את גוף הילד כשהוא לבוש בבגדים תחתונים בלבד:</span></div><div class="a0" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE" style="font-family: "Guttman David"; mso-ansi-font-size: 12.0pt;">1. האם גובה הכתפיים שווה?</span></div><div class="a0" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE" style="font-family: "Guttman David"; mso-ansi-font-size: 12.0pt;">2. האם כפלי המותניים שווים – כלומר אין צד "עמוק יותר" באזור המותן?</span></div><div class="a0" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE" style="font-family: "Guttman David"; mso-ansi-font-size: 12.0pt;">3. האם גובה השכמות שווה?</span></div><div class="a0" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE" style="font-family: "Guttman David"; mso-ansi-font-size: 12.0pt;">4. בקשו מהילד לעמוד כשגבו מופנה אליכם, ולהתכופף קדימה. במידה שיש לו עקמת - הדבר יבליט את ה"גבנונית" הנוצרת כאשר שני צדי הגב אינם בגובה זהה, בעיקר באזור השכמות (צד אחד גבוה מהשני). </span></div><div class="a" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
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</div><div class="a3" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE" style="font-family: "Guttman Haim"; font-size: large; mso-ansi-font-size: 24.0pt;">טכניקת אלכסנדר</span></div><div class="a" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE" style="font-family: "Guttman David"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-font-size: 10.0pt;">לאפשר לגב להתארך בדרך הטבעית-גל בן-אור</span></div><div class="a" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="a0" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE" style="font-family: "Guttman David"; mso-ansi-font-size: 12.0pt;">על־פי <strong>טכניקת אלכסנדר</strong> <u>אחד </u><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>הגורמים הנוספים לעקמת הם הרגלים שגויים ולא מודעים של תנועה, שעם השנים הופכים לקבועים. השיטה גורסת כי שינוי ההרגלים ולימוד עקרונות היסוד שבבסיס התנועה הזורמת והמאוזנת, תוך מודעות להרגלי תנועה־מחשבה לקויים – עשויה <u>למנוע,</u> למתן או להעלים את הכאבים הנגרמים בשל קיומה של העקמת <u>ובמקרים מסוימים אף למנוע את העקמת עצמה</u>. </span></div><div class="a0" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><u><span lang="HE" style="font-family: "Guttman David"; mso-ansi-font-size: 12.0pt;">המפגשים</span></u><span lang="HE" style="font-family: "Guttman David"; mso-ansi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> כוללים מידע מעשי ועקרונות שימוש נכונים יותר בגופנו באופן שמאפשר לזהות את ההרגלים המזיקים, וללמוד כיצד ניתן לשנות אותם כדי לשמור על זקיפות הקומה ועל היציבה הטובה. בלימוד <strong>טכניקת אלכסנדר</strong> חוזרים לתנועה המאוזנת והקלה, לשיווי המשקל התקין, לקואורדינציה המתאימה ולנשימה הרגועה. </span></div><div class="a0" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE" style="font-family: "Guttman David"; mso-ansi-font-size: 12.0pt;">טכניקת אלכסנדר נלמדת בשיעור פרטי ובהדרכה אישית. לימוד עקרונות השיטה מתקיים תוך כדי ביצוע התנועות היומיומיות הבסיסיות: קימה וישיבה על כיסא, עמידה, הליכה, התכופפות ושכיבה. הלמידה מתבצעת באמצעות הנחיה מילולית של המורה ובמגע יד עדין ומכוון. התלמיד משתתף פעיל בשיעור ולומד לחזור לתנועה הטבעית והנכונה של גופו.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Guttman David;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Guttman David;"> (פורסם בעיתון קופ"ח לאומית</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Guttman David;"> לרפואה משולבת) </span></div><div class="a0" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
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</div></div>Gal Ben-Orhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16477287927090979703noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4681881845502473237.post-69002676748941631312011-05-29T08:32:00.000-07:002011-05-29T08:32:11.418-07:00נועם מתמודד עם הגמגום בעזרת טכניקת אלכסנדר<div dir="rtl" style="text-align: right;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVThYJeaC9EhyphenhyphenA4J2V_DeAMLhK7aWC4RXeHCQlc2AFasE7yVGGqTO4O4VbdHGcAAyk1AhIGH4X_qNX20A8UXgxZ-1Z8TNex6tMrF1gQex-qVm1ct832YeHA8X2z9NfuIEi5NAHzJQt4h8/s1600/%25E2%2580%258F%25E2%2580%258F%25D7%25A2%25D7%2595%25D7%25AA%25D7%25A7+%25D7%25A9%25D7%259C+promo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVThYJeaC9EhyphenhyphenA4J2V_DeAMLhK7aWC4RXeHCQlc2AFasE7yVGGqTO4O4VbdHGcAAyk1AhIGH4X_qNX20A8UXgxZ-1Z8TNex6tMrF1gQex-qVm1ct832YeHA8X2z9NfuIEi5NAHzJQt4h8/s1600/%25E2%2580%258F%25E2%2580%258F%25D7%25A2%25D7%2595%25D7%25AA%25D7%25A7+%25D7%25A9%25D7%259C+promo.jpg" t8="true" /></a></div><span lang="HE" style="font-size: 16pt;"></span> <div class="2" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE">נועם נולד כילד רגיל, אך בגיל שנתיים וחצי הוא עדיין לא דיבר. הוריו התייעצו עם קלינאית תקשורת שהמליצה על טיפול בדיבור. אמנם לאחר שבועות אחדים אוצר המילים של נועם גדל, אבל התקדמותו הואטה בהדרגה, והוא החל להתקשות בהגיית מילים ואפילו הופיע<strong> גמגום</strong>. קלינאית התקשורת הציעה להתעלם מהקשיים בתקווה שהם ייעלמו מעצמם. </span></div><div class="2" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE">הכרתי את נועם כשהיה בן 11. הערכתי שכבר בגיל צעיר הוא סבל מ<strong>קשיים בקואורדינציה</strong> ומחולשה פסיכו־פיזית. טיפול <strong>בטכניקת אלכסנדר</strong> בגיל צעיר היה מלמד אותו להשתמש בעצמו נכון יותר תוך כדי משחק. לימוד ללא מאמץ וללא התמקדות מיותרת בחולשה שלו היה מחזק אותו ומאפשר לו לארגן את עצמו יותר טוב. שינוי פסיכו־פיזי חיובי היה מאפשר לו להמשיך להתפתח באופן נורמלי ללא צורך בהתערבות ספציפית מיוחדת, ואז גם הדיבור היה מתפתח מעצמו. חולשה זו (<strong>היפוטוניה</strong>) הייתה נעלמת ואיתה הקשיים המוטוריים האחרים, הן של המוטוריקה הגסה והן של העדינה. אולם קלינאית התקשורת ריכזה את המאמץ בטיפול בדיבור שבו בלטה החולשה במיוחד, בלי לספק לנועם כלים מתאימים להתמודדות עם הדרישות החדשות. </span></div><div class="2" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE">היות שנועם הוא ילד שאוהב לעבוד ומשתדל לעשות את שמבקשים ממנו באופן מושלם, הוא התאמץ ככל יכולתו לבצע את הדרישות החדשות. המאמץ אכן הניב פירות, אך בסופו של דבר המחיר היה כבד. המאמץ לדבר כאשר המערכת הפסיכו־פיזית עדיין לא מאורגנת ולא בשלה להתמודד עם פעולה מורכבת ועדינה כמו דיבור יצר לחץ ומתח מיותרים על המערכת באופן כללי ובמיוחד באזור הצוואר. בהמשך התהליך הפריעו הלחץ והמתח המיותרים האלה לניסיונות של נועם לדבר, דבר שבא לידי ביטוי בקשיים בביטוי מילים וב<strong>גמגום</strong>.</span></div><div class="2" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE">אחרי זמן מה הופיעו אצל נועם תסמינים נוספים הקשורים לאותה חולשה פסיכו־פיזית כללית: קשיים במוטוריקה עדינה וגסה, <strong>חולשה בחגורת כתפיים</strong> וקשיים אחרים. הוא הופנה לריפוי בעיסוק, לפיזיותרפיה ולטיפול אצל פסיכולוגית והועבר לגן מיוחד.</span></div><div class="2" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE">כל מומחה בתחומו אבחן את הבעיות לפי מיטב הבנתו. לכל אחד מהם יש שיטת טיפול ספציפית לבעיות שבתחום התמחותו ובצידן דרישות נוספות מהילד, אבל איש מהם לא הבחין בחולשה הבסיסית של המערכת הפסיכו־פיזית ובהיעדר הכיוון המרכזי באופן שבו נועם השתמש בעצמו. נועם הלך עם אמו ממומחה למומחה, מאבחון לבדיקה רפואית, לצילום </span><span dir="ltr">EEG</span><span dir="rtl"></span><span lang="HE"><span dir="rtl"></span> ועוד ועוד. הוא ניסה ככל יכולתו להצליח באבחונים, משתדל ומתאמץ ליישם את הטכניקות המיוחדות שהיו אמורות לטפל בבעיות המיוחדות, אך ככל שהתאמץ יותר כך הוא נכשל יותר, משום שאף מומחה לא ראה שדווקא המאמץ להצליח ולהגיע למטרה שהציבו לפניו הוא המכשלה העיקרית של נועם בדרכו אליה.</span></div><div class="2" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE">נועם איבד בהדרגה את הקשב וניסה להתנתק מההנחיות. החלו להופיע אצלו טיקים בשרירי הפנים וכמובן שהקושי בדיבור וה<strong>גמגום</strong> הלכו והתגברו והפכו למכשול של ממש ביכולת שלו לתקשר עם סביבתו.</span></div><div class="2" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE">כדי לנטרל תופעות לוואי של ההתערבות נתנו לו <strong>רטלין</strong>, במקביל לעבודתם של המומחים. מה שעצוב בסיפור של נועם הוא שהמטפלים התגאו בהצלחותיהם ובשיפור שהשיגו במצבו, אבל כל אחד המשיך להתמקד רק בתופעות הספציפיות שבתחום טיפולו. </span></div><div class="2" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE">אני מאמין כי בהנחיית הכיוון הנכון ובהתערבות מינימלית, לחיזוק כללי של מנגנון הפיקוד הראשוני, מצבו הכללי של נועם היה משתפר ועימו היו משתפרות גם הבעיות הספציפיות. טיפול כזה היה מחזיר את נועם למסלול הנורמלי והמהנה של לימוד ויצירה שאותו חווים שאר הילדים בגילו. </span></div><div class="2" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE" style="letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">בתחילת עבודתנו המשותפת נפגשנו במשך שלושה חודשים פעמיים בשבוע, חצי שעה בכל פעם. בשיעורים הראשונים התמקדתי בעיקר בהסרת ההתנגדויות שנועם פיתח כלפי כל ניסיון להתערב בעולמו הפנימי. היה עליי לרכוש את אמונו ולהוכיח לו שאיני מתכוון להכריח אותו לעשות או לא לעשות תרגילים כלשהם ושהוא לא יידרש להצליח במבחנים. הראיתי לו שהקשר בינינו והתהליך שאני מציע לו מבוסס אך ורק על הסכמתו ועל רצונו החופשי לשתף פעולה. עם זאת הבהרתי לו שיש כאן כיוון מובנה של פעולה, גם אם השיטה שונה משיטות אחרות, ושחופש אין משמעותו הפקרות.</span><span lang="HE"></span></div><div class="2" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE">לאט לאט החל להתרחש השינוי הצפוי ונועם הסכים להיפתח לחוויה חדשה. עדיין מדובר רק בתחילתו של תהליך ארוך, אך הכיוון היה ברור ואפשר לראות את האור בקצה המנהרה</span></div><div class="2" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
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</div><strong></strong></div>Gal Ben-Orhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16477287927090979703noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4681881845502473237.post-86989299583410276972011-05-16T22:42:00.000-07:002011-06-08T01:11:04.592-07:00על חינוך הילד לעבודה מול מחשב בעזרת שיטת אלכסנדר<div dir="rtl" style="text-align: right;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ2sRXzkM7xKCxkhCtAHIfy0afdP_b0SZNba0DLUb0tCpx9BpxxnyoxAuHvn_UTf_s5GWPzBO4TXd8XNh8sc8KM8sf0RnOpyKA-bBbtVxPXc1CDR-yd8oOmIf44TjJ1Pt-ukEKaBWLcnc/s1600/promo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ2sRXzkM7xKCxkhCtAHIfy0afdP_b0SZNba0DLUb0tCpx9BpxxnyoxAuHvn_UTf_s5GWPzBO4TXd8XNh8sc8KM8sf0RnOpyKA-bBbtVxPXc1CDR-yd8oOmIf44TjJ1Pt-ukEKaBWLcnc/s320/promo.jpg" width="212" /></a><b><span dir="ltr" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 14pt;"><shape id="_x0000_i1025" style="height: 310.5pt; width: 206.25pt;" type="#_x0000_t75"><imagedata o:title="promo" src="file:///C:\DOCUME~1\ADMINI~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\msohtml1\01\clip_image001.jpg"></imagedata></shape></span></b><b><span lang="HE" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 14pt;"></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><b><span lang="HE" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt;">קדמה טכנולוגית – ישיבה ארוכת שעות מול המחשב</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE" style="font-family: Arial;">בחברה המודרנית של היום המאופיינת בקדמה טכנולוגית אנו נידונים לישיבה ארוכת שעות על כיסא מול מסך המחשב.מידע רב מועבר באמצעות האינטרנט, והחל מגיל הגן נחשפים הילדים לנפלאותיו של המחשב במשחקים, ומאוחר יותר בבית הספר כאשר על הילד להגיש את שיעוריו שהם מוקלדים על גבי המחשב ומודפסים. בבית הספר התיכון חומר הלימוד מועבר באמצעות האינטרנט, וכל מה שעל התלמיד לעשות הוא להוריד אותו מהאתר המתאים בכל מקצוע ומקצוע. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE" style="font-family: Arial;">עד כאן אין שום פסול – המידע נעשה זמין ויש באפשרותנו להשיגו ללא שום מאמץ – הוא מגיע אלינו הביתה, אבל מה עם האופן שבו אנחנו משתמשים בעצמנו בעת הישיבה מול המחשב? </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><b><span lang="HE" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt;">"הנדסת אנוש" של הילד עצמו – שימוש נכון בגוף</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE" style="font-family: Arial;">חברות רבות משקיעות סכומי כסף גדולים בחשיבה ותכנון בתחום של מה שנקרא - הנדסת אנוש: סוג הכיסא, צורתו, החומרים ממנו עשוי, גובה השולחן וכדומה, אך אין למיטב ידיעתי ולו חברה אחת שחשבה על הנדסת האנוש של הילד עצמו או נכון יותר לומר: <b>לחינוך הילד להשתמש בגופו נכון </b>יותר בזמן שהוא משתמש במחשב.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><b><span lang="HE" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt;">"כיסא פלאים" לעבודה מול מחשב</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE" style="font-family: Arial;">ננסה לבחון את השאלה מנקודת מבט מעשית. גם אם ימצא כסא פלאים המסוגל לשאת את גופו של הילד המשתמש במחשב באופן מושלם, וגם אם ניתן היה לייצר כסא פלאים מיוחד כזה לכל ילד וילד בנפרד בהתאם למידותיו האישיות, ושניתן יהיה להחליף כסא זה מידי שנה בשנה בהתאם לקצב גדילתו של הילד צריך יהיה לקחת בחשבון שתי נקודות: האחת – ההשקעה הכלכלית העצומה הנדרשת למחקר, לפיתוח ולייצור של רהיטים דמיוניים אלו, והנקודה השנייה היא נפשו של הילד והשפעתה על מתרחש בתוך גופו.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><b><span lang="HE" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt;">עבודה מול מחשב – מאמץ נפשי ושכלי בעל השלכות פיזיות</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE" style="font-family: Arial;">לכולנו ידוע היטב מניסיוננו האישי, שהעבודה על המחשב דורשת מאמץ מהכשרים הנפשיים/אינטלקטואלים שלנו, מאמץ שיש לו השלכות על גופנו אשר עלולות לבוא לידי ביטוי לאורך זמן בכאבי גב תחתון, כאבי גב עליון, כאבי צוואר, כאבי כתפיים, כאבים ודלקות בפרק היד, כאבי עיניים ועוד. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><b><span lang="HE" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt;">הניסיון "לחנך את הרהיטים" נידון לכישלון </span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE" style="font-family: Arial;">לריהוט חשיבות משנית ביחס לאופן שבו הילד היושב עליו משתמש בעצמו. אין זה הכיסא שזוקף את קומתו של הילד היושב עליו, הילד עצמו אחראי למתרחש בתוכו והוא היחידי שיכול לשמור על אורכו הטבעי של גבו, וכן על המתח הנכון והמדויק של שאר אברי גופו הלוקחים חלק בתהליך הישיבה.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE" style="font-family: Arial;">הניסיון של העוסקים בהנדסת האנוש "לחנך את הרהיטים" נידון לכישלון בהיותו בלתי מעשי מבחינה כלכלית ובלתי שלם היות שאינו לוקח בחשבון את הילד עצמו, אלא מתייחס לגופו בלבד.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><b><span lang="HE" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt;">יש פתרון – לימוד טכניקת אלכסנדר</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE" style="font-family: Arial;">אל ייאוש ! יש פתרון שהוא פשוט וניתן ליישום מידי בהשקעה קטנה יחסית. הכוונה היא לחינוך הילד לשימוש נכון יותר בעצמו בזמן שהוא משתמש במחשב. כפי שחקר ומצא כבר לפני למעלה ממאה שנה פ.מ. אלכסנדר, ניתן ללמד ולהקנות לילד את היכולת להשתמש בעצמו ובגופו באופן שיבטיח מניעת אי נוחות והתפתחות הרגלים גופניים מזיקים וכן שמירה על בריאות ואיזון פסיכו-פיזיים אופטימאליים ללא קשר לריהוט שבו הוא משתמש. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><b><span lang="HE" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt;">שיטה המלמדת את השימוש בעצמנו – תנועה, מחשבה ונפש</span></b></div><div align="left" class="1" dir="rtl" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: right;"><span lang="HE" style="font-family: Arial;"><strong>טכניקת אלכסנדר</strong> מציעה פתרונות ודרכי התמודדות ייחודיים לקשיים אותם מציבה העבודה מול מחשב. אין מדובר בטיפים פשטניים, בטריקים מתוחכמים או בתרגילים שמטרתם טיפול בבעיות לאחר שהן כבר ישנן. שיטת אלכסנדר מתוך הבנה שהילד הוא יצור פסיכו-פיזי מורכב, מלמדת את העובד מול המחשב להשתמש בעצמו, על המכלול התנועתי, המחשבתי והנפשי, באופן כזה שנמנע היווצרותן של הבעיות מלכתחילה.</span></div><div align="left" class="1" dir="rtl" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: right;"><span lang="HE" style="font-family: Arial;">כאשר הילד משתמש בעצמו באופן המתאים לפעילות שאותה הוא מבקש לבצע נמנעים מתח השרירים והלחצים הנפשיים, השחיקה המתלווה לשעות רבות של עבודה נפסקת והילד שומר על בריאותו לאורך השנים. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE" style="font-family: Arial;">בסדרת מפגשים בני כחצי שעה (תלוי בגיל הילדים) ניתן להקנות כמעט לכל ילד את עקרונות השימוש הנכונים בעצמו לפי שיטת אלכסנדר ולהכשירו למעשה לכל חייו להתמודדות שמציבים לו החיים המודרניים וביניהם השימוש במחשב.</span><span dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial;"></span></div></div>Gal Ben-Orhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16477287927090979703noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4681881845502473237.post-45058734925492690302011-02-07T02:56:00.000-08:002011-04-22T11:25:10.428-07:00הספר כיוונים חיים יצא לאור<div dir="rtl" style="text-align: right;" trbidi="on"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQj1NPfXRmRrTzJK72-H-c-0MBVqjAU7hLzzi3cgLOMBYAC7vMAg8PYKjTFms9RGhFyxNoJPVq3qOfRgJcYGF_Ndg85IFqRrNMtQamwVwG6yFad9hIZ81gKoztKkXvM2MkJwCdJp5_TlI/s1600/DIRECTIONS+FOR+LIFE+f+cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" h5="true" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQj1NPfXRmRrTzJK72-H-c-0MBVqjAU7hLzzi3cgLOMBYAC7vMAg8PYKjTFms9RGhFyxNoJPVq3qOfRgJcYGF_Ndg85IFqRrNMtQamwVwG6yFad9hIZ81gKoztKkXvM2MkJwCdJp5_TlI/s400/DIRECTIONS+FOR+LIFE+f+cover.jpg" width="264" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> עריכה : אתי סהר ,עצוב עטיפה : <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple;"><a href="http://he-il.facebook.com/people/Yael-Kotler-Kalderon/1522247424">יעל קוטלר קלדרון</a></span> , צילום עטיפה : <a href="http://ninoherman.blogspot.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple;">נינו הרמן</span></a>.</td></tr>
</tbody></table> </div>Gal Ben-Orhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16477287927090979703noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4681881845502473237.post-88314983747709918882011-02-05T06:22:00.000-08:002011-05-16T22:33:14.616-07:00יצירת תנאים הולמים ללמידה<div dir="rtl" style="text-align: right;" trbidi="on"><div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="line-height: 14.6pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-hyphenate: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; vertical-align: middle;"><span lang="HE" style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">יצירת תנאים הולמים ללמידה</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="line-height: 14.6pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-hyphenate: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-indent: 8.5pt; vertical-align: middle;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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<span lang="HE" style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.05pt;"><strong>טכניקת אלכסנדר</strong> רואה את הקשר בין האופן שהילד משתמש בעצמו לבין איכות תפקודיו בלימודים ובשאר תחומי החיים. מתוך כך היא פועלת יותר ליצירת התנאים המאפשרים למידה ופחות מתמקדת בלמידה עצמה. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="line-height: 14.6pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-hyphenate: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-indent: 8.5pt; vertical-align: middle;"><span lang="HE" style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">באופן מעשי אני פועל להנחיל הבנה שכלית וחווייתית של עקרונות היסוד שבבסיס התנועה הזורמת והמאוזנת. ניתן לראות זאת במגוון פעילויות החל מישיבה וקימה מכיסא,<strong>יציבה נכונה</strong>, משחקי שולחן או ציור <strong>וכתיבה נכונה</strong> וכלה בתרומה לשליטה יותר טובה בהתנהגות, באימפולסיביות,ב<strong>היפראקטיביות</strong> ולשיפור <strong>הקשב והריכוז</strong> והביטחון העצמי, אך ללא "תרגילים" המיועדים לשיפור מיומנות זאת או אחרת. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="line-height: 14.6pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-hyphenate: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-indent: 8.5pt; vertical-align: middle;"><span lang="HE" style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">בכל הפעולות אני מקפיד להתערב מעט ככל האפשר ב"מה" שהילד בוחר לעשות ותומך בו יותר ב"איך". הדגש יהיה על לימוד האמצעים אשר באמצעותם יוכל הילד להשיג את מטרתו.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="line-height: 14.6pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-hyphenate: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-indent: 8.5pt; vertical-align: middle;"><span lang="HE" style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">כדי שהילד ילמד יש ליצור תנאים מתאימים ל<strong>למידה</strong>. יש ליצור קודם כול תנאים פסיכו־פיזיים מתאימים של הילד עצמו. ככל שתנאים פסיכו־פיזיים אלו ישתפרו, ישתפר תפקודו של הילד ותגדל יכולתו ללמוד. בתפיסתו של אלכסנדר, כדי שמורה יוכל ללמד ילד רעיון חדש, מופשט או מעשי, הוא חייב לקחת בחשבון ולהכיר את האופן שבו מבין הילד את המילים או ההנחיות שלו – של המורה. כדי שאדם א' יוכל ללמד אדם ב', אדם א' חייב להכיר את האופן שבו אדם ב' מבין ותופס את המילים - מדוברות או כתובות, של אדם א'. אותו תהליך מתקיים גם בין האדם לבין עצמו. ובציטוט מתרגום ספרו של אלכסנדר "שליטה עצמית מודעת ובונה" (2008 הוצאה ראשונה 1923, 87) "כוונתי לכך שבכל פעם שאנו רוצים להעביר לאדם רעיון חדש באמצעות המילה הכתובה או המדוברת, כלומר ללמד אותו דבר־מה, האדם שרוצה להשתמש ברעיון החדש בעזרת הפעילות הפסיכו־פיזית המכונה למידה חייב להגיע קודם כול לידי איזו תפיסה או הבנה משלו באשר לכוונת המילים שנמסרו לו. יכולתו להשתמש בפועל ברעיון החדש מותנית בתפיסה הזאת. והוא הדין גם בכל תהליך שבו אדם לומד בעצמו. מכאן שבתחום של רכישת ידע, בייחוד ידע הקשור בהפעלת המערכת הפסיכו־פיזית, חשובה מכול התפיסה האישית באשר למילים שנכתבות או נאמרות, שכן זוהי התבנית שלתוכה הלומד, מבוגר או ילד, מכניס את הרעיון שהוא שומע או קורא, והיא שתקבע את דרך הפעולה שלו או את כיוון מחשבתו".</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="line-height: 14.6pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-hyphenate: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-indent: 8.5pt; vertical-align: middle;"><br />
</div></div>Gal Ben-Orhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16477287927090979703noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4681881845502473237.post-70729516573131599082011-02-04T13:33:00.000-08:002011-04-22T11:42:21.250-07:00A Short story from the preschool<div dir="rtl" style="text-align: right;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: right;"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 12pt 0cm 0pt; mso-pagination: lines-together; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: left;"><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 12pt 0cm 0pt; mso-pagination: lines-together; page-break-after: avoid;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Alexander tichnique with Amir during a game of checkers</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 12pt 0cm; mso-pagination: lines-together; page-break-after: avoid;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Amir sits comfortably and upright in his chair, moves his pieces on the board without effort, alertly and easily maintaining his posture. My right hand is placed lightly in the center of his back, giving gentle support to the psychophysical experience of the game of directions. At a certain point in the game he is cornered in a complex situation in which any move he makes means the loss of a piece. When he understands the situation, he stops the flow of his game and says aloud to himself: ‘Wait a minute; let’s think.’ As he says this, he puts the elbow of his right arm on the table and leans his head on his hand. Simultaneously his back contracts and curves and his muscles harden. I suggest quietly to him, as I support his back with directions by my right hand, ‘Come on; try to think without letting your back fall. Try not to put your elbow on the table.” Without a word, Amir straightens his back subtly and his hand returns to its place. We continue by analyzing together the possible ways to continue the game. After a minute or two Amir returns to the same ‘posture of thinking.’ I repeat my request, and again he responds easily despite the energy this requires. The third time this happens Amir has already integrated the idea of a ‘new possibility of thinking’ and he adopts a new inner direction that maintains his alert and easy sitting posture, even during more complicated situations on the checkerboard which demand from him unusual intellectual and emotional effort. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 12pt 0cm; mso-pagination: lines-together; page-break-after: avoid;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 12pt 0cm 0pt; mso-pagination: lines-together; page-break-after: avoid;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The important emphases in this story are:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 12pt 0cm; mso-pagination: lines-together; page-break-after: avoid;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. Amir’s association of thinking with a defined physical movement.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 12pt 0cm; mso-pagination: lines-together; page-break-after: avoid;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. Amir’s ability to let go of this habit without decreasing either his ability to think as he continues playing or his pleasure in the game. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 12pt -16.7pt 12pt 0cm; mso-pagination: lines-together; page-break-after: avoid;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3. Blending the Alexander Technique in real time as a daily and normal activity prevents fixing harmful habits,and enables a child to acquire consciousness of the way he uses himself, to learn how to integrate new life- situations without fear, without opposition, without external disciplining, and without interfering with the flow of life. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 12pt 0cm; mso-pagination: lines-together; page-break-after: avoid;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4. Amir experienced the possibility of thinking – analyzing situations, planning a process and making decisions – without this causing loss of the natural and spontaneous movement of his body.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0cm; mso-pagination: lines-together; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5. When this experience is repeated it becomes dominant in a child’s life and replaces faulty habits of use based on extra muscular effort, as well as the adoption of rigid body movements and harmful, imprecise psychophysical habits of use.Intervention of this kind by an Alexander teacher is possible only when the basic conditions are present and after the child has acquired basic knowledge of the Technique, as was the experience of Amir.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div></div></div></div>Gal Ben-Orhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16477287927090979703noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4681881845502473237.post-20098848755586405722011-02-04T11:53:00.000-08:002011-04-22T11:42:53.323-07:00The idea leading work with families<div dir="rtl" style="text-align: right;" trbidi="on"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14pt;"></span></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-pagination: lines-together; page-break-after: avoid;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-pagination: lines-together; page-break-after: avoid;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In parallel to my individual work with children, I relate to them also as part of a wide circle of family including, most importantly, their parents.</span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-pagination: lines-together; page-break-after: avoid;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Not only is it the child who is disappointed of himself because he cannot meet the expectations adults have hung on him. Many parents who speak with me also feel disappointed. Often they, too, have been hurt; their trust has been hurt, the trust they had in care givers, in the possibilities for their child and in their own ability to help him.</span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-pagination: lines-together; page-break-after: avoid;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I look at them. They look at me and look at their child. </span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-pagination: lines-together; page-break-after: avoid;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What are they thinking about? </span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-pagination: lines-together; page-break-after: avoid;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What are they feeling? </span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-pagination: lines-together; page-break-after: avoid;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I try to get to know them, to have an impression of them, to feel. What are their feelings? What are they saying? What does their body language say? </span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-pagination: lines-together; page-break-after: avoid;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I say to them in my way: ‘Observe. Ask. Don’t work from blind faith, but don’t refuse without understanding as well. Take part in the process. I’m not hiding anything. I have no tricks, no magic, no professional secrets or short cuts.</span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-pagination: lines-together; page-break-after: avoid;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I invite them to join the process of trial and error, repair and renewal, freedom and direction. I explain my method of work to them and the principles behind my work, and I guide them in that area which Alexander called ‘The use of the child by himself.’ I explain to them the new terms of the Alexander Technique: direction, primary control, sensory appreciation, giving directions, and such, and I demonstrate on their child and on themselves what I mean by these terms. In this way I give them my message of shared work and cooperation, cooperation between them and their child, between them and me.</span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="direction: rtl; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: right; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-pagination: lines-together; page-break-after: avoid;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My work offers changes.<b> </b>It teaches children to do what they want to do in a new way, and later they are asked to live this change also outside the work room. The children have, of course, personal responsibility for themselves and for the change that comes to them from the work, but at the same time they are a part of a wider system of family and society. From this comes the great importance I give to the condition that the child’s close environment, and in particular his family, understand the processes that are affecting him, in both theory and practice, and know how to contain these processes so as to support the child. It is important that the parents, or at least one of them, receive practical lessons in the Technique.<b> </b>Without their own practical experience it is impossible to truly understand their child’s experience</span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-pagination: lines-together; page-break-after: avoid;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The basic, immediate and natural wish of every parent is to help their child, especially whenever there is any problem, such as back pains, difficulties in writing or a bent spine. However, occasionally parents are unaware of the importance of the way in which they help. </span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-pagination: lines-together; page-break-after: avoid;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The great contribution that they can make to help their child lies first of all in the work that they do on themselves. Only when they do this work seriously and honestly have they the possibility of establishing a supporting dialogue between themselves and their child. Parents have an enormous influence on their child from the day of their birth. They are the example their child copies, and from them he learns the most basic, primary matters. </span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="direction: rtl; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: right; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-pagination: lines-together; page-break-after: avoid;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Among these basic matters they have a far reaching and deep influence on the way their child uses himself. For example: A father’s particular style of walk can be clearly seen in the style of walk of his son or daughter; a mother’s special tilt of her head can be recognized in her son or daughter. </span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-pagination: lines-together; page-break-after: avoid;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-pagination: lines-together; page-break-after: avoid;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sometimes parents forget or they don’t properly appreciate the power of personal example, one of the most significant powers in education. A father who smokes has vast difficulties persuading his son not to do as father does. A mother who suffers from lower back pain should not wonder if her daughter develops similar pain.</span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-pagination: lines-together; page-break-after: avoid;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, parents are the model to copy and from a very young age children integrate their parents’ habits, for good or for bad. Therefore, when a parent asks me, ‘What can I do to help my child?’ I suggest that he begin to create consciously a change for the good in his own use of himself. When the parent improves consciously his use of himself, he changes his unconscious, harmful influence on his child to a conscious, positive and beneficial influence without any direct effort from the child.<span dir="rtl" lang="HE"></span></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-pagination: lines-together; page-break-after: avoid;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Occasionally I run up against parents who believe that if they only sit and observe the lessons without taking lessons themselves, they will understand what I am talking about. Parents who observe a lesson and have no training themselves will see a child who sits straight and comfortably in a chair and plays. Usually at the end of the lesson they say to their child: ‘From today, you’ll begin to sit straight, just as Gal showed you.’ for that is what they think they have seen. Of course, they say this because of their lack of understanding because of their desire to help, certainly not from any desire to harm, but such words may accomplish exactly the opposite of their desire. They may create unnecessary tension in their child, who can not yet control by himself his new use. They may also create unnecessary tension between parents and their child, for the child feels that he does not live up to his parents’ expectations. This tension can arouse the child’s opposition to the Technique and to what is happening in our meetings. </span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-pagination: lines-together; page-break-after: avoid;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I never ask a child to ‘sit straight’. A wall or a floor is meant to be straight, but a back has naturally a kind of S shape, and is not meant to be ‘straight’. A back is meant to be in a constant subtle movement of lengthening and widening. The child’s upright sitting is the active result of his improving use. My advice to the parents of a child who studies the Alexander Technique is, first, there is no homework and no need for anyone to tell the child, ‘Sit straight’ or to give any other order. If parents follow this advice, they will save themselves a frustrating struggle as well as a total impossibility to help him, since he doesn’t know how to do that.</span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-pagination: lines-together; page-break-after: avoid;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Second, I suggest that they take some Alexander lessons, so that they acquire understanding, both theoretical and practical, of the Technique. When parents want their child to become stronger, it is better that they first become stronger. With their own process of inner strengthening, their child will also strengthen. The parents of a child with difficulties must take an active part in his change, as it is first of all their own inner change. Through the process of change that they undergo, they will themselves be an active part in the processes their child undergoes; they can become themselves a model and an inspiration for him to copy. <span dir="rtl" lang="HE"></span></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-pagination: lines-together; page-break-after: avoid;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These words are just as true regarding prevention, education and a preparation for a healthy and balanced life. When a parent acquires basic knowledge related to the way he uses himself, he is able to guide and support his child exactly as he teaches him to speak properly or to eat with a knife and fork at the table.</span></div></div><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="direction: rtl; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-pagination: lines-together; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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</div></div>Gal Ben-Orhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16477287927090979703noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4681881845502473237.post-63278206100292620042011-02-04T10:06:00.000-08:002011-04-22T11:43:26.388-07:00טכניקת אלכסנדר בגן הילדים<div dir="rtl" style="text-align: right;" trbidi="on"><div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="line-height: 14.6pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-hyphenate: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; vertical-align: middle;"><span lang="HE" style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">עבודה עם אמיר בזמן משחק דמקה</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="line-height: 14.6pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-hyphenate: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-indent: 8.5pt; vertical-align: middle;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="line-height: 14.6pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-hyphenate: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-indent: 8.5pt; vertical-align: middle;"><span lang="HE" style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">אמיר בזמן משחק דמקה. הוא יושב נינוח וזקוף בכיסא, מזיז את חייליו על הלוח ללא מאמץ ובשמירה ערנית וקלילה על אופן ישיבתו. ידי הימנית מונחת קלות במרכז גבו, נותנת גיבוי עדין לאותה חוויה פסיכו־פיזית של משחק וכיוון.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="line-height: 14.6pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-hyphenate: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-indent: 8.5pt; vertical-align: middle;"><span lang="HE" style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">בשלב מסוים במהלך המשחק הוא נקלע למצב מורכב שבו כל מהלך שלו היה כרוך בהפסד של חייל. כאשר הבין זאת, עצר את שטף משחקו ואמר לעצמו בקול: "רק רגע, בוא נחשוב". תוך כדי כך הוא הניח את מרפק ידו הימנית על השולחן והשעין את ראשו על כף היד. כשעשה זאת גבו התכווץ ונעשה כפוף ושריריו התקשו. ביקשתי ממנו בשקט, בתמיכה בגבו בידי הימנית: "בוא תנסה לחשוב בלי ליפול בגב. תנסה לא להניח את המרפק על השולחן".ללא מילים אמיר זקף בעדינות את גבו וידו חזרה למקומה. המשכנו לנתח יחד את מהלכי המשחק האפשריים. כעבור דקה או שתיים חזר אמיר לאותה "תנוחת חשיבה". חזרתי שוב על בקשתי וגם הפעם הוא נענה בקלות, למרות המאמץ שהיה כרוך בכך. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="line-height: 14.6pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-hyphenate: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-indent: 8.5pt; vertical-align: middle;"><span lang="HE" style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">בפעם השלישית כבר הפנים אמיר את הרעיון של "חשיבה במצב חדש" והוא אימץ כיוון חדש שבו נשמרת ישיבתו הערנית והקלילה. מכאן ואילך המשכנו לשחק, כשאמיר שומר על עדינות דינמית וקלילה בגופו גם במצבים מורכבים יותר שדרשו ממנו מאמץ שכלי ונפשי מיוחד.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="line-height: 14.6pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-hyphenate: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-indent: 8.5pt; vertical-align: middle;"><span lang="HE" style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">הדגשים החשובים בסיפור זה:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="line-height: 14.6pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-hyphenate: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-indent: 8.5pt; vertical-align: middle;"><span lang="HE" style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">1. הקשר האסוציאטיבי של אמיר בין חשיבה לאימוץ תנוחה גופנית מוגדרת. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="line-height: 14.6pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-hyphenate: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-indent: 8.5pt; vertical-align: middle;"><span lang="HE" style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">2. היכולת של אמיר לעזוב הרגל זה, בלי שהשינוי יגרע מיכולתו לחשוב ולהמשיך לשחק, או מהנאתו מהמשחק.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="line-height: 14.6pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-hyphenate: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-indent: 8.5pt; vertical-align: middle;"><span lang="HE" style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">3. התערבות <strong>בשיטת אלכסנדר</strong> בזמן אמת תוך כדי הפעילות היומיומית הנורמטיבית <strong>בגן הילדים</strong>, מונעת קיבוע של <strong>הרגלים</strong> מזיקים ומאפשרת לילד לרכוש מודעות לאופן שבו הוא משתמש בעצמו, ללמוד ולהפנים מצבי חיים חדשים בלי פחד, בלי התנגדות, בלי כפייה חיצונית ובלי שהדבר יפריע לזרימה הטבעית של החיים.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="line-height: 14.6pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-hyphenate: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-indent: 8.5pt; vertical-align: middle;"><span lang="HE" style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">4. אמיר חווה אפשרויות של חשיבה - ניתוח מצבים, תכנון מהלכים וקבלת החלטות, בלי שהדבר יגרום לאיבוד <strong>התנועה הטבעית</strong> והספונטנית של גופו.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="line-height: 14.6pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-hyphenate: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-indent: 8.5pt; vertical-align: middle;"><span lang="HE" style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5. כאשר חוויה זו חוזרת על עצמה היא הופכת להיות דומיננטית בחייו של הילד ומחליפה הרגלי שימוש לקויים המבוססים על מאמץ שרירים עודף, אימוץ תנוחות גופניות נוקשות והרגלי שימוש פסיכו־פיזיים לא מדויקים ומזיקים. התערבותו כזאת של מורה <strong>לשיטת אלכסנדר</strong> אפשרית רק כאשר מתקיימים התנאים הבסיסיים ולאחר שהילד רכש מיומנות בסיסית מעשית בעבודה בשיטה כפי שהיה במקרה של אמיר. <span style="letter-spacing: 0.05pt;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="line-height: 14.6pt; 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</div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="line-height: 14.6pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-hyphenate: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-indent: 8.5pt; vertical-align: middle;"><strong></strong></div></div>Gal Ben-Orhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16477287927090979703noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4681881845502473237.post-83529116367220566112011-02-04T04:34:00.000-08:002011-04-23T14:03:43.767-07:00זאב עולה לכיתה א' בעזרת שיטת אלכסנדר<div dir="rtl" style="text-align: right;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">לפני מספר שנים פנתה אליי אמו של זאב לייעוץ בנוגע לבנה. זאב היה אז בן ארבע שנים וחמישה חודשים. האם סיפרה שהתפתחותו של זאב בגיל הרך הייתה איטית ושיש לו <strong>קשיים בהתארגנות</strong>, בתכנון התנועה ובדיבור. לקשיים אלה הייתה השפעה גם על <strong>השקט הנפשי</strong> שלו. המרפאה בעיסוק ביחידה להתפתחות הילד אבחנה אותו כ<strong>היפוטוני</strong> בעל נטייה ל<strong>היפראקטיביות</strong>, <strong>בעיות קשב</strong> ו<strong>קשיים מוטוריים</strong>. <br />
הוא טופל זמן מה בריפוי בעיסוק, אך לא חל כל שיפור במצבו. מסלול הטיפולים המתוכנן של זאב היה ריפוי בעיסוק, פיזיותרפיה, טיפול ב<strong>ריטלין</strong> וכניסה מאוחרת לכיתה א בחינוך המיוחד.למזלו של זאב אמו התנגדה למסלול זה וניסתה כיוון חדש. בהמלצתי החל זאב לבוא אליי פעמיים בשבוע לשיעורים ב<strong>שיטת אלכסנדר</strong>.עקבתי מקרוב אחר פעילויותיו של זאב. הבחנתי שהוא סובל משיבוש חריף של היחס הבסיסי בין הצוואר, הראש והגב. כתוצאה מכך גבו היה כפוף ונפול, ולכן הוא נאלץ להתאמץ מאוד בביצוע פעולות יומיומיות ופשוטות כמו קימה, ישיבה או כתיבה.<br />
במפגשים התמקדתי בכיוון מחדש של מערכת הפיקוד הראשוני: היחס בין הצוואר, הראש והגב. זאב חווה זאת במשחק, בביצוע פעילויות לימוד שונות, בציור, בגזירה, בשמיעת סיפור ועוד. הדגש היה תמיד על הדרך שבה מבצעים את הפעילות ולא על הפעילות עצמה, על התהליך ולא על התוצאות. השינוי ביחס שבין הצוואר, הראש והגב איפשר תנועה חופשית וזורמת ונוצרו התנאים לשקט ולאיזון פנימי המפנים מקום למחשבה בהירה ומרוכזת. כך בלי לערער על האבחון של המרפאה בעיסוק, אך גם בלי לעסוק ישירות בתפקודים עצמם ולנסות להגיע לתוצאות מיידיות תמכתי בזאב ועודדתי אותו בעקיפין להתפתח ולהתחזק בכוחות עצמו.<br />
לאחר כשנתיים של עבודה משותפת שבמהלכן התחזק זאב מאוד נעלמו הקשיים שהפריעו לו. הוא עלה לכיתה א ככל הילדים, ביציבות, בביטחון עצמי, ילד חברותי ותלמיד טוב, בלי קשיים בלימודים, בקריאה ובכתיבה. השתלבותו בכיתה הייתה טבעית ומוצלחת. קשה היה להאמין שעד לא מזמן הוא לא תפקד בטבעיות. גם המורה שלו התקשתה להאמין שהיו לו קשיים בעבר, לדבריה של האם.<br />
זאב המשיך ללמוד במסגרת רגילה ועמד בהצטיינות בכל הדרישות ללא קושי מיוחד. לאחר כמה שנים שלא פגשתי אותו נפגשנו לצורך צילומים של סרטון על עבודתי עם ילדים. זאב הפתיע אותי לחלוטין כשהפגין יכולת <strong>קואורדינציה</strong> מרשימה בביצוע פעלולים עם שלושה וארבעה כדורי ג'אגלינג. ברור היה לי שהשינוי שהתרחש בתקופה שלמד את <strong>שיטת אלכסנדר</strong> נקלט היטב. הכלים שהוא השתמש בהם כדי להתמודד עם הקשיים שהיו בדרכו הפכו לחלק ממנו. <br />
חלק מהצלחתו של זאב לחולל שינוי כה משמעותי בחייו הוא חייב לאימו, שמתוך עניין אמיתי ואמונה עמוקה בחשיבותם של התהליכים שעבר, החלה אף היא ללמוד את <strong>שיטת אלכסנדר.</strong>היא רכשה הבנה תאורטית ומעשית כאחד בשפה של שיטת אלכסנדר ויישמה אותה על עצמה ועל ילדיה. כך היא שיפרה את בריאותה האישית ואת תפקודה בבית ויכלה להמשיך ולתמוך בשינויים, שנוצרו בשיעור <strong>בשיטת אלכסנדר</strong>, גם במרחב החיים ובמשפחה.<br />
בשנים שאחרי כן היא שלחה אליי לטיפול עוד שלושה מילדיה וגם את בעלה שסבל מכאבי פרקים. <br />
סיפורם של זאב ומשפחתו מוכיח כי העקרונות של שיטת אלכסנדר יכולים לשמש מנוף לשינוי ולגדילה של כל ילד לפי צרכיו האישיים וגם בחוג משפחתו.</span></div>Gal Ben-Orhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16477287927090979703noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4681881845502473237.post-79630481470582352512011-02-04T03:07:00.000-08:002011-04-19T06:00:08.825-07:00סיפורה של "הילדה המושלמת" וטכניקת אלכסנדר<div dir="rtl" style="text-align: right;" trbidi="on"><div class="2" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE">על דלת חדר העבודה שלי נשמעה נקישה חלשה.</span></div><div class="2" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE"> כשפתחתי אותה ראיתי לפניי אישה צעירה. מאחוריה במעלה המדרגות עמדה ילדה נשענת על זוג קביים בתחילתה של התארגנות לקראת הירידה במדרגות. שיערה שחור וחלק, עיניה שחורות גדולות הסתתרו מאחורי משקפיים<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>וחיוך. הייתי יכול לספר שעה ארוכה על החיוך הזה, חיוך השמור לבנות אצולה כשהן נתפסות לרגע לא מוכנות, כאילו באותו רגע מתגלה טבען הארצי, המסורבל משהו. </span></div><div class="2" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE">החזרתי לה חיוך בלי לומר מילה. באותו רגע היה ברור לשנינו שהיא במרכז העניינים ושהקשר בינינו יהיה ישיר, פשוט וכן. שלא כמו במקרים של ילדים צעירים המגיעים אליי בפעם הראשונה, כאן לא נדרש תיווכה של האם. </span></div><div class="2" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE">הדס מסרה לאימה את הקביים וירדה במדרגות בקפיצות על רגל אחת כשהיא נעזרת במעקה. אחר כך לקחה את הקביים, נכנסה במרץ פנימה והתקדמה בכוחות עצמה לעבר חדר העבודה. אם קודם עלתה בי מחשבה לעזור לה, היא נעלמה כשראיתי איך היא מתנהלת. למרות הסרבול שבשימוש בקביים היא התאמצה לשמור על חזותה האצילית ולי לא הייתה כל כוונה למנוע זאת ממנה. </span></div><div class="2" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE">הדס בת שבע. בשנה האחרונה היא סבלה <strong>מדלקות</strong> חוזרות בגיד אכילס של רגלה הימנית. בין ההתקף הראשון לשני הייתה הפוגה של כארבעה חודשים, אך בהמשך ההתקפים החריפו והיו יותר תכופים.</span></div><div class="2" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE">הדס התיישבה בכבדות על הכיסא באמצע החדר ושאלה אם היא צריכה להוריד את הנעליים כדי שאבדוק אותה. היה לי ברור שיש לה ניסיון רב בבדיקות. בדקתי בשטחיות את רגלה ושאלתי כמה שאלות על אופי הכאב ועל מיקומו. הערכתי כי הפיתרון לא יימצא בהתמקדות ב"בעיה". </span></div><div class="2" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE">עצרתי את השיחה לרגע ואמרתי: "בואי נעזוב לרגע את הרגל. יש פה על השולחן כל מיני משחקים. מה דעתך שנשחק?" </span></div><div class="2" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE">היא שמחה לרעיון ובחרה באחד המשחקים. זה היה משחק הרכבה של מגדל ליצנים מפלסטיק, בבסיס ליצן יחיד ומעליו ליצנים זה מעל זה. מעבר לכך שהמשחק מעניין ומהנה, הוא מאפשר לבחון את תכונותיו של הילד, למשל עד כמה הוא מעז ומוכן לקחת סיכונים, וכן לבחון את <strong>הקואורדינציה</strong> של הידיים. </span></div><div class="2" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE">ביקשתי מהדס שאם אין לה התנגדות, בזמן שהיא תשחק אני אתן לה <strong>כיוונים</strong> במגע ידיי. היא הסכימה בקלות ובטבעיות. מטרתי העיקרית הייתה להנחות את תנועותיה כך שיזרמו ללא מתח ומאמץ. תוך כדי כך בחנתי גם את איכות תנועותיה. התחושה שקיבלתי הייתה של גב חזק ויציב. היא הייתה זקופה, חייכנית ומאושרת. משחקה היה שוטף, היא שלטה בליצנים בקלות ותקשרה איתי ללא מחסומים. </span></div><div class="2" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE">אימה סיפרה לי שאין להדס קשיים מיוחדים בלימודים, שהיא אוהבת תנועה וספורט ומרבה לבלות במשחקים בחוץ. </span></div><div class="2" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE">למרות זאת יש לה בעיה של <strong>דלקות גידים</strong> חריפות. הערכתי שמשהו באופן שבו הדס משתמשת בעצמה גורם לדלקות האלה, אך בשלב זה עדיין הייתי כמגשש באפלה.</span></div><div class="2" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE">כשהדס סיימה לשחק ביקשתי ממנה לשכב על שולחן העבודה שלי. היא קיפצה עד לשולחן שהיה במרחק שני מטר מאיתנו ונשכבה על גבה. נעמדתי מאחורי ראשה והנחתי בעדינות את ידיי מתחתיו, באזור החיבור לעורף. בתוך מספר שניות הבחנתי בתחילתה של תנועה עדינה, חרישית, בלתי נראית לעין, אך מגיעה עד העקבים וקצות אצבעות הרגליים. הבנתי שמצאתי קצה חוט לפיתרון הבעיה של הדס. רצונה להצטיין והמאמץ שהיא משקיעה לשם כך גורמים לזרימת התנועה הפנימית של החיים בגופה להיעצר. שריריה מתקשים בניסיון "להיות בסדר", לפעול "נכון" ולהיות "ילדה טובה". </span></div><div class="2" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE">אחרי שהדס הרשתה לעצמה לנוח דקה או שתיים עברתי לעבוד עם רגל ימין. תוך כדי כך הסברתי לה מה אני עושה. מיד הבחנתי שאפה מתכווץ בניסיון להבין את דבריי ולהראות לי שהיא מקשיבה. אמרתי לה בפשטות: "אין כל צורך שתתאמצי להבין. מותר לך לשכב, לנוח ולא לעשות כלום, לא להבין, לא להגיב ואין צורך שתזכרי את מה שאני אומר. "באמת, מותר לך פשוט לנוח" הסברתי. היא חייכה בהקלה והחיים שבו לזרום בגופה. </span></div><div class="2" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE">לאחר דקות ספורות הקמתי אותה ואמרתי לה שלא תנסה לעשות לבד את מה שלמדה, שמותר לה לשכוח ולהמשיך כרגיל, בלי שיעורי בית. בכל אותו הזמן אימה ישבה והתבוננה בנו. היא לא התערבה אפילו פעם אחת. היא פשוט הסתכלה, מאפשרת לרשמים להגיע אל תודעתה. עכשיו יכולתי להתפנות לשוחח איתה. בינתיים הדס מצאה לה משחק הרכבה והעסיקה את עצמה. </span></div><div class="2" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE">הסברתי לאם את דרך עבודתי ואת עקרונות <strong>טכניקת אלכסנדר</strong> ועניתי על שאלותיה הרבות. נפרדנו לשלום וסיכמנו שאם היא תחליט להתחיל בטיפול היא תתקשר לקבוע זמן מתאים.</span></div><div class="2" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
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</div></div>Gal Ben-Orhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16477287927090979703noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4681881845502473237.post-73519208235363039672011-02-03T12:46:00.000-08:002011-04-19T06:08:02.567-07:00על טכניקת אלכסנדר ותפקיד ההורים<div dir="rtl" style="text-align: right;" trbidi="on"><span lang="HE" style="color: black; font-family: "NarkisBlockMF Light"; font-size: 16pt; letter-spacing: -0.15pt; mso-text-raise: 8.0pt; position: relative; top: -8pt;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="line-height: 14.6pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-hyphenate: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-indent: 8.5pt; vertical-align: middle;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="line-height: 14.6pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-hyphenate: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-indent: 8.5pt; vertical-align: middle;"><span lang="HE" style="color: black; font-family: "Al FrankRuehl"; font-size: 11.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">במקביל להתייחסות הפרטנית שלי בעבודתי עם הילדים אני מתייחס אליהם גם כחלק מהמעגל הרחב של משפחתם, של הוריהם. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="line-height: 14.6pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-hyphenate: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-indent: 8.5pt; vertical-align: middle;"><span lang="HE" style="color: black; font-family: "Al FrankRuehl"; font-size: 11.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">לא רק הילד מאוכזב מעצמו בעקבות הציפיות שמבוגרים תולים בו. רבים מההורים המגיעים אליי חשים גם הם מאוכזבים. לא פעם גם הם פגועים והאמון שלהם נפגע – האמון במטפלים, האמון בסיכוייו של ילדם והאמון שלהם בכוחם לעזור לו.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="line-height: 14.6pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-hyphenate: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-indent: 8.5pt; vertical-align: middle;"><span lang="HE" style="color: black; font-family: "Al FrankRuehl"; font-size: 11.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">אני מסתכל בהם, הם מסתכלים בי ומסתכלים בילדם. על מה הם חושבים? מה הם מרגישים? אני מנסה להכיר, להתרשם, להרגיש. מה הם משדרים? מה הם אומרים? מה אומרת שפת הגוף שלהם? אני אומר להם בדרכי: "תסתכלו, תשאלו, אל תתנו אמון עיוור, אך גם אל תשללו בלי להבין. קחו חלק בתהליך". אני איני מסתיר דבר. אין לי טריקים ואין לי קסמים, אין לי סודות מקצועיים או קיצורי דרך. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="line-height: 14.6pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-hyphenate: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-indent: 8.5pt; vertical-align: middle;"><span lang="HE" style="color: black; font-family: "Al FrankRuehl"; font-size: 11.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">אני מזמין אותם להצטרף אליי לתהליך של ניסוי וטעייה, תיקון ותהייה, חופש וכיוון. אני מסביר להם את דרך עבודתי ואת עקרונות השיטה שעל פיהם אני עובד, ומדריך אותם בתחום שאלכסנדר קרא לו "השימוש של הילד בעצמו". אני מסביר להם את המושגים החדשים של שיטת אלכסנדר: כיוון, פיקוד ראשוני, הערכת תחושה, הנחיית כיוונים וכן הלאה וממחיש להם למה כוונתי במושגים אלה אצל ילדם וגם אצלם עצמם. כך אני מעביר להם מסר של שותפות. שותפות בינם לבין ילדם, בינם לביני. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="line-height: 14.6pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-hyphenate: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-indent: 8.5pt; vertical-align: middle;"><span lang="HE" style="color: black; font-family: "Al FrankRuehl"; font-size: 11.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">עבודתי מציעה שינוי. היא מלמדת את הילדים לעשות את מה שהם רוצים לעשות בדרך חדשה, ובהמשך הם מתבקשים לחיות את השינוי גם מחוץ לחדר העבודה. לילדים יש אמנם אחריות אישית ביחס לעצמם ולשינוי המוצע להם בלימוד השיטה, אך בו־זמנית הם גם חלק ממערכת רחבה יותר של משפחה וחברה. לכן יש חשיבות רבה לכך שהסביבה הקרובה של הילד בעיקר המשפחה תבין את התהליכים שהוא עובר הלכה למעשה ותדע להכיל אותם כדי לתמוך בו. חשוב שההורים, או לפחות אחד מהם, יקבלו שיעורים מעשיים בשיטה. ללא התנסות מעשית אי אפשר להבין באמת את החוויה שהילד עובר. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="line-height: 14.6pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-hyphenate: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-indent: 8.5pt; vertical-align: middle;"><span lang="HE" style="color: black; font-family: "Al FrankRuehl"; font-size: 11.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">הרצון הבסיסי והמיידי של כל הורה באופן טבעי הוא לעזור לילדו במיוחד כשיש בעיה כלשהי כמו <strong>הרגלי יציבה</strong> לא נכונים, <strong>כאבי גב</strong>, קושי <strong>במוטוריקה עדינה</strong> <strong>ובכתיבה</strong> או<strong> עקמת</strong> של עמוד השדרה. אך לעיתים נעלמת מעיניהם החשיבות של האופן שבו הם עוזרים לילדם. התרומה הגדולה ביכולתם לעזור נמצאת קודם כל בעבודה שלהם עם עצמם ורק כשהיא נעשית ברצינות ובכנות יש מקום לדיאלוג תומך בינם לבין ילדם. להורים יש השפעה עצומה על ילדם מיום היוולדו - הם הדוגמה שלו לחיקוי ומהם הוא לומד את הדברים הבסיסיים והראשוניים ביותר ויש להם השפעה עמוקה ומרחיקת לכת גם כשמדובר באופן שבו הילד משתמש בעצמו, לדוגמה: את סגנון ההליכה של האב ניתן לראות בבירור בסגנון ההליכה של הבן או הבת, את הטיית הראש הייחודית של האם אפשר לזהות אצל הבת או הבן וכדומה. לעיתים ההורים שוכחים או אינם מעריכים נכונה את מקומה של דוגמה אישית כאחד הכוחות המשמעותיים ביותר בחינוך. אב מעשן יתקשה מאד לשכנע את בנו שלא לעשות כמותו, ואם הסובלת מכאבים בגב התחתון, אל לה להתפלא אם בתה תפתח כאב דומה.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="line-height: 14.6pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-hyphenate: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-indent: 8.5pt; vertical-align: middle;"><span lang="HE" style="color: black; font-family: "Al FrankRuehl"; font-size: 11.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">אם כן, ההורים הם מודל לחיקוי ומגיל צעיר מאוד מפנימים הילדים גם את ה<strong>הרגלים</strong> שלהם, לטוב ולרע. לכן כשהורה שואל אותי "איך אני יכול לעזור לילד שלי?" אני מציע לו שיתחיל ליצור באופן מודע שינוי לטובה באופן שבו הוא משתמש בעצמו. כשההורה משפר את השימוש שלו בעצמו הוא הופך את ההשפעה הלא מודעת והמזיקה שלו על הילד להשפעה מודעת, חיובית ומיטיבה ללא כל מאמץ ישיר מצד הילד. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="line-height: 14.6pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-hyphenate: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-indent: 8.5pt; vertical-align: middle;"><span lang="HE" style="color: black; font-family: "Al FrankRuehl"; font-size: 11.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">מפעם לפעם אני נתקל בהורים שמאמינים שאם הם ישבו ויסתכלו בזמן שאני עובד עם ילדם בלי לקחת בעצמם שיעורים הם יבינו במה דברים אמורים. הורים המסתכלים מבחוץ ואינם מיומנים רואים ילד היושב בזקיפות נינוחה בכיסאו ומשחק, ועל פי רוב בתום השיעור הם יגידו לילדם: "מהיום תתחיל לשבת ישר כמו שגל אמר" כי זה מה שנדמה להם שהם ראו. כמובן שהם אומרים זאת בשל חוסר הבנה ומתוך רצון לעזור, ודאי שלא מרצון לקלקל, אבל אמירה כזאת עלולה להשיג בדיוק את ההפך מהרצוי. היא עלולה ליצור מתח מיותר אצל הילד שעדיין אינו שולט בשימוש החדש שלו בעצמו והיא עלולה ליצור מתח מיותר בינם לבין הילד, שמרגיש שהוא אינו עומד בציפיות הוריו. המתח עלול לעורר התנגדות של הילד לטכניקה ולמתרחש במפגשים.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="line-height: 14.6pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-hyphenate: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-indent: 8.5pt; vertical-align: middle;"><span lang="HE" style="color: black; font-family: "Al FrankRuehl"; font-size: 11.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">לעולם איני מבקש מהילד "לשבת ישר". הקיר או הרצפה אמורים להיות ישרים, אבל לגב יש באופן טבעי מעין צורת </span><span dir="ltr" style="color: black; font-family: "Al FrankRuehl"; font-size: 11.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">S</span><span dir="rtl"></span><span lang="HE" style="color: black; font-family: "Al FrankRuehl"; font-size: 11.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.05pt;"><span dir="rtl"></span> והוא אינו אמור להיות "ישר". הוא כן אמור להיות בתנועה עדינה ומתמדת של התארכות והתרחבות. ישיבתו הזקופה של הילד היא פועל יוצא של שימוש נכון יותר שלו בעצמו.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="line-height: 14.6pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-hyphenate: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-indent: 8.5pt; vertical-align: middle;"><span lang="HE" style="color: black; font-family: "Al FrankRuehl"; font-size: 11.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">עצותיי להורים שילדם לומד את <strong>טכניקת אלכסנדר</strong>:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="line-height: 14.6pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-hyphenate: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-indent: 8.5pt; vertical-align: middle;"><span lang="HE" style="color: black; font-family: "Al FrankRuehl"; font-size: 11.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">ראשית, אין שיעורי בית ואין צורך לומר לילד "שב ישר" או כל הוראה אחרת. אם ההורה מקפיד על כך, נחסך ממנו המאבק המתסכל וחסר הסיכוי לנסות לעזור לילדו כאשר הוא אינו יודע כיצד לעשות זאת.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="line-height: 14.6pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-hyphenate: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-indent: 8.5pt; vertical-align: middle;"><span lang="HE" style="color: black; font-family: "Al FrankRuehl"; font-size: 11.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">שנית, אציע להם לקחת מספר שיעורים <strong>בשיטת אלכסנדר</strong> כדי שירכשו הבנה תיאורטית ומעשית בטכניקה כאחד. כאשר הורים רוצים שילדם יתחזק יהיה נכון יותר קודם כל להתחזק בעצמם. מתוך תהליך ההתחזקות הפנימית שלהם יתחזק גם ילדם. הורים שילדם מתקשה והם רוצים, שיתחזק חייבים לקחת חלק פעיל בשינוי, שהוא קודם כל שינוי פנימי שלהם. תוך כדי תהליך השינוי שהם עוברים, הם יהיו בעצמם חלק פעיל בתהליכים שילדם עובר ויוכלו לשמש לו מודל לחיקוי ולהשראה. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="line-height: 14.6pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-hyphenate: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-indent: 8.5pt; vertical-align: middle;"><span lang="HE" style="color: black; font-family: "Al FrankRuehl"; font-size: 11.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">דברים אלה נכונים באותה מידה בהיבט של מניעה, חינוך והכנה <strong>לחיים בריאים</strong> ומאוזנים. כאשר ההורה רוכש את הידע הבסיסי, הקשור לאופן שבו הוא משתמש בעצמו, הוא יוכל להדריך ולתמוך בילדו באותו אופן שבו הוא מלמד אותו לדבר בשפה נקייה או לאכול בסכין ובמזלג ליד השולחן.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="line-height: 14.6pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-hyphenate: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-indent: 8.5pt; vertical-align: middle;"><br />
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</div></div>Gal Ben-Orhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16477287927090979703noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4681881845502473237.post-38899104656752790902011-02-02T02:19:00.000-08:002011-04-19T06:08:44.227-07:00שעור ראשון בטכניקת אלכסנדר עם איתי<div dir="rtl" style="text-align: right;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9iKb2vpgVjVdUceHvHomrSMX6IWlGiGyT5Y3NuBIQzmPK2UG2ojStVUGxcyjirrs91L3UFfv8lMJomnCMBqlg2CEWtbvFC1o1P4Vw5pch_xGLBUKg9w_C-TdKaVbdMxevPUyBql0H4gA/s1600/%25D7%2590%25D7%2599%25D7%25AA%25D7%2599+%25D7%259C%25D7%2595%25D7%259E%25D7%2593+%25D7%259C%25D7%259B%25D7%25AA%25D7%2595%25D7%2591.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" j6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9iKb2vpgVjVdUceHvHomrSMX6IWlGiGyT5Y3NuBIQzmPK2UG2ojStVUGxcyjirrs91L3UFfv8lMJomnCMBqlg2CEWtbvFC1o1P4Vw5pch_xGLBUKg9w_C-TdKaVbdMxevPUyBql0H4gA/s320/%25D7%2590%25D7%2599%25D7%25AA%25D7%2599+%25D7%259C%25D7%2595%25D7%259E%25D7%2593+%25D7%259C%25D7%259B%25D7%25AA%25D7%2595%25D7%2591.jpg" width="259" /></a></div></div>Gal Ben-Orhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16477287927090979703noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4681881845502473237.post-40188179925729405972011-02-01T09:42:00.000-08:002011-04-19T06:16:39.430-07:00חגית למדה לכתוב בקלילות בעזרת טכניקת אלכסנדר<div dir="rtl" style="text-align: right;" trbidi="on"><div class="2" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE">חגית הייתה בת שבע כשהפנו אותה אליי לטיפול <strong>בטכניקת אלכסנדר</strong> בגלל קשיים בכתיבה. כשהייתה תינוקת בת שלושה־ארבעה חודשים היא אובחנה כילדה חלשה ומאז טופלה במתן "חיזוקים". מיד אחרי האבחון היא קיבלה טיפולי פיזיותרפיה לשיפור <strong>הרגלי היציבה</strong>, בהמשך - ספורטף (התעמלות לפעוטות), ולפני כיתה א' – ריפוי בעיסוק לשיפור <strong>המוטוריקה העדינה</strong>. היא הגיעה אליי לאחר שגם המרפאה בעיסוק והמורה <strong>לכתיבה מתקנת</strong> דיווחו שמבחינתן הן מיצו את יכולתן. הילדה ידעה לכתוב, אבל התקשתה מאוד לכתוב במהירות ובקלות.</span></div><div class="2" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE">במפגש הראשון שלי עם חגית ביקשתי ממנה לכתוב. הבחנתי במאמץ הגדול שהיא משקיעה בפעולה. הכוח שהפעילה על קצה העיפרון היה מספיק להרמת חפץ כבד מאוד. נוסף לכך גבה התכווץ, כתפיה התרוממו כמעט עד גובה האוזניים, והיחס הראשוני בין הצוואר, הראש והגב השתבש באופן קיצוני. הנחיתי אותה לעצור לרגע, לשמור על התארכות הגב ולצייר את האות "א" בלי להתאמץ לדייק. כעת היא עשתה זאת בפשטות ובקלות.</span></div><div class="2" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE" style="letter-spacing: 0pt;">לאחר מכן הצעתי לה לבחור במשחק וליוויתי את תנועותיה בידיי, בהנחיית כיוונים לצוואר, לראש ולגב. בשלב זה העדפתי לא להתמקד בכתיבה בלבד. רציתי להעביר לה מסרים נוספים מעבר לקושי הספציפי שבגללו הגיעה אליי. למשל, ביקשתי לשדר לה שאני רואה בה ילדה ולא בעיה, ילדה עם צרכים ויכולות ושלאופן שבו היא משתמשת בעצמה יש חשיבות לא רק בכתיבה, אלא בכל פעילויותיה היומיומיות.</span></div><div class="2" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE" style="letter-spacing: 0pt;">בתחילת המפגש השני שלנו הצעתי לה לבחור פעילות כלשהי כרצונה. היא ניגנה כמה דקות באורגן ואחר כך התיישבה ליד השולחן וביקשה "להתאמן ב<strong>כתיבה</strong>". האופן שבו היא אמרה את הדברים והמילים שבחרה בהן משכו מיד את תשומת ליבי. הבחנתי שהיא רואה בכתיבה פעולה קשה שיש "להתאמן" בה כדי לשפרה. התייחסות כזאת יוצרת כיווצים ומעוררת מתחים פסיכו־פיזיים מיותרים שמפריעים לכתיבה זורמת.</span><span lang="HE"></span></div><div class="2" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE">כשאחזה בעיפרון בידה ראיתי כמה היא מתאמצת להחזיק בו "נכון", כפי שהדריכו אותה. הפסקתי אותה ואמרתי לה בפשטות: "את לא צריכה להחזיק את העיפרון נכון. תחזיקי אותו כמו שנוח לך, ועשי איתו מה שאת רוצה". אמרתי זאת כי הרגשתי שההנחיות על החזקה "נכונה" של העיפרון יצרו אצלה מאמץ גדול שהקשה עליה עוד יותר את פעולת הכתיבה.</span></div><div class="2" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE" style="letter-spacing: 0pt;">התנועות שלה הפתיעו גם אותי וגם את אמה. כעת היא ציירה בתנועות קלות, חזקות ומהירות. היא אחזה בשניים־שלושה גירים יחד, עברה בזריזות מצבע לצבע ותוך שתי דקות מילאה ארבעה דפים בצבעים מכל הלורדים והעפרונות שהיו על השולחן. פרץ היצירתיות היה מדהים. הוא הזכיר לי אדם מורעב שנכנס לחנות מכולת ומתחיל לזלול מכל הבא ליד. לאחר שחלפה הסערה היא נשמה לרווחה בסיפוק. </span></div><div class="2" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE">הרגשתי שהיא עייפה ולקחתי אותה להדרכה בשכיבה על שולחן העבודה. היא אפשרה לעצמה לנוח ולהשתחרר. במצב הזה היא חוותה <strong>שקט פנימי</strong> שנוצר בעקבות התארגנות טבעית יותר בתוך הגוף. תחושת הגב המתארך נחוותה בעדינות הולכת וגדלה, והקשר האינטימי בינה לגופה העמיק. לקשר כזה של אדם עם עצמו יש משמעות רבה גם בהיבטים הנפשיים, אך חשיבותו בשלב הראשון היא בכך שהוא משמש בסיס ל<strong>מודעות</strong> למערכת הכיוונים. מתוך מודעות זו חגית תוכל לכוון את עצמה בזמן הכתיבה, ובהמשך, גם בפעולות היום־יום האחרות שלה.</span></div><div class="2" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE">בחודשיים הראשונים עבדנו פעמיים בשבוע ובחודשיים הבאים פעם בשבוע. חגית למדה להימנע ממאמץ מיותר ולתת כיוון בזמן משחק, בכתיבה, בנגינה ובפעילויות אחרות הדורשות <strong>מוטוריקה עדינה</strong> עד שיום אחד היא הכריזה: "אני לא צריכה יותר שיעורים מגל!"</span></div><div class="2" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="HE">אימה סיפרה שהיא אכן כותבת במהירות כמו חברותיה לכיתה ומכינה שיעורי בית ללא קושי.</span></div><div class="2" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
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