I have 12 years experience as a Feldenkrais and Anat Baniel Practitioner. My passion is teaching people how to use this method to help themselves. I consider myself a guide for my students as they discover their own inner teacher.

 

In our world today there are so many approaches for "fixing what is wrong with us". The Feldenkrais Method empowers us to access our potential to learn and heal ourselves. We find very few instances where fixing is necessary, and that in many cases we just need help to develop new ways of moving which includes thinking about and sensing ourselves in new ways. I have helped people with all kinds of problems discover that by moving differently, their pain goes away, they don't need surgery, and they get to enjoy activities that had previously been painful, difficult or not possible.

I work with infants, children, teens and adults, with conditions ranging from neck, back, knee, hip, etc. pain to M.S. and Cerebral Palsy and learning difficulties. I also work with performing artists and athletes interested in reaching higher levels of excellence.

I started teaching group lessons in 1995, and began my private practice in Point Richmond, California in 1997, after graduating from the 4 year training with Anat Baniel in California. In 2000, I completed a special training with Anat Baniel for working with infants and children. I now assist in Anat Baniel's training of new practitioners.

I am one of five Americans to have also graduated from Mia Segal's 3 year foundations course in The Netherlands. After finishing this training in 2003, I continued with her mastery trainings in Europe and the U.S. I am currently a student in her master practitioner course in Austin, Texas. Mia Segal was Dr. Feldenkrais' first and only student for 15 years during the early development of his method.

For the past 6 years, I have worked one afternoon each week, at The Cerebral Palsy Center in Oakland, CA, giving lessons to adults with Cerebral Palsy. Prior to this project, started by Kathryn Goldman-Schuyler, the participants of CPC were not expected to improve. We have seen "the impossible made possible" in our work with those who were available to have lessons. It is my dream that every child born with C.P. can have these lessons as early as possible, so they can overcome many more limitations than they would otherwise.

Also, for 5 years, I have spent one day each week at The Institute on Aging in San Fransisco, giving lessons to seniors. The lessons have made a great difference for them, helping those who had stroke regain more function than they had with traditional P.T. or O.T. Others have been helped with decreased stiffness, pain, or dizziness, and improved balance, coordination and walking. Again, I have seen how so much suffering could be prevented or at least greatly decreased, and our "golden years" can more likely be golden.

I enjoy facilitating this process for others and have received personal benefit. When I began studying Feldenkrais, I had been in pain for several years due to a scoliosis and several injuries. Fifteen years later, I am pain free; I move better and enjoy my life more fully, than ever.

I am happy to speak with you if you have more questions. Please feel free to call me at (510) 237-0935 or e-mail me through the contact page on this site.

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"After working with Lauren just a few times, some lifelong habits that I wasn't even aware of have started changing and now my neck, which was always tense, feels so much better." -Dr. Susan Chew, veterinarian

"I credit Lauren McLeod and her method of doing Feldenkrais with saving me from at least two surgical procedures. Five years ago I was diagnosed with a bone spur in my neck and several protruding discs; I was in excruciating nerve pain radiating down my arm into my fingers, and was feeling quite hopeless. The specialists I had been consulting recommended either getting shots of cortisone in my neck in the operating room under an x-ray machine every few months, or having surgery on the disks and bones spur. Although I experienced some relief from the pain my very first Feldenkrais session, it took some months to reach really maximum effect; now, miraculous to me, I am often pain free for the entire day; and when I do feel pain, it is just a completely different lower level of pain. A while ago I re-injured a knee that has had a series of injuries across the years. Again, the top-notch orthopedist I consulted recommended cortisone shots and/or surgery. My knee is much much better after Lauren's work. I used to come into her office unable to walk up the stairs except slowly, painfully, one stair at a time; even in the very beginning of the work after our appointment I would often be able just to walk down the stairs, pain-free.

Lauren is skilled, perceptive, and intensely supportive. I came in for relief from physical pain, which I got; I have stayed because I am becoming more supple and fluid in my movements- even as an injured, middle-aged, large-sized person - than I ever thought would be possible. I cannot recommend Feldenkrais highly enough, particularly as practiced by Lauren."

                                                                             -Mariah Breeding, Ph.D., social worker, life coach

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"After experiencing problems following a foot operation, I finally tried Feldenkrais (after trying both physical therapy and chiropractics, with little relief.) The word that best describes Feldenkrais for me is "amazing". That's what I say after each session with Lauren, my practitioner. It is a gentle phenomenon that helps my body stand, move, and walk in a whole new way. All the parts finally fit together, and my body feels like a more integrated unit. Pain that I experienced in my foot, knee, and lower back for amonthes began to diappeat after the very first session. After many sessions the results just continue to amaze me. "

-Michele Seville, artist, community coordinator and grandmother, from Richmond, CA

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"I move in a more coordinated way and have less back pain, even while I'm working- heavy lifting, getting into tight spaces. I'm no longer worried about the disc problem I had."

-Jim Hillis, heating and air conditioning installer, grandfather, from Pinole, CA

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I never thought your work could get any better . . . you are certainly able to elicit more profound change with an even subtler approach than I remember from a year ago." 

-Mariah Breeding, PhD, social worker and life coach, San Francisco, CA

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"Lauren is an exceptional practitioner. She has extensive knowledge of the human body and movement, and is able to put this knowledge into practice for effective problem solving. Lauren's work with the clients (at Institute on Aging) has resulted in significant improvements in their functional mobility, attitude and overall quality of life. Lauren has helped them decrease pain and improve their state of mind by helping them realize they can have an effect on their own body and on their lives.

In addition to exceptional technical skills, Lauren demonstrates great understanding and sensitivity to her clients; she is able to consistently listen and really hear what her clients need and feel.

Lauren is respected and valued by those who work with her, and, in many ways, is one of the finest practitioners I have worked with in this setting."

-Helen Lhim, Physical Therapist, Head of Rehabilitation, Institute on Aging, San Francisco

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I really enjoy the way you teach the group lessons, and you are one of the few practitioners who has the kind of touch I want when I receive individual lessons."

-Gretchen Kucserka, occupational therapist, Feldenkrais Practitioner, Anat Baniel Metod Practitioner

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links to other sites related to health and well-being.
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related to The Feldenkrais Method & Anat Baniel Method

read my blog   discoverease
www.Feldenkrais.com
www.mbsacadamy.org (about Mia Segal's Feldenkrais training)
www.mbscenter.org (also from Mia & Leora Gastor Segal)
www.thebeautifulaim.com (the documentary of an experiment in which Arton Baleci, a 23 year old soccer player with average skill, is attempting to achieve, with the help of Feldenkrais, Premiership football in just ...)
www.anatbanielmethod.com
www.desk-trainer.com
www.houfeldenkrais.com (Feldenkrais Center of Houston, TX)
There is also a large collection of video footage about The Feldenkrais Method & Anat Baniel Method on you tube.

related to nutrition

www.westonaprice.org(international)
www.threestonehearth.com (San Francisco east bay community kitchen)

related to meditation

www.springwatercenter.org (a center for meditative inquiry started by Toni Packer, in Sprinwater, NY)


"When there is awareness, a reaction that is seen and understood to be a hindrance diminishes on its own. It may take a lot of repeated suffering, but a moment comes when the energy of seeing takes place of the habit. That is all." - Toni Packer

The following link is a blog belonging to someone taking my weekly class.

therapiststhoughts.blogspot