From Fixing to Connecting-Developing Mutual Empathy Guided Through Movement as a Novel Path for the Discovery of Better Outcomes in Autism

Anat Baniel ¹ Eilat Almagor ² Neil Sharp ^3,4* Ohad Kolumbus ² Martha Reed Herbert ^5,6

• ¹ Anat Baniel Method Inc, San Rafael, California, United States
• ² The Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
• ³ Cambridge University Library (CUL), University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
• ⁴ ABMNM®NeuroMovement® Center of Marin, San Rafael, California, United States
• ⁵ Higher Synthesis Foundation, Cambridge, California, United States
• ⁶ Life University, Marietta, Ohio, United States

This article will present the theoretical foundation of two well established movement-based methods that represent a fundamental departure from most current interventions and are applied globally with children and adults experiencing diverse motoric, cognitive, and social challenges as well as with high functioning individuals: the Feldenkrais Method (FM) and Anat Baniel Method®NeuroMovement® (ABMNM®). These methods are based on leveraging neuroplasticity through the utilization of movement, not as “exercise” or externally imposed motor sequences, but as a means for effective, two-way felt communication with the recipient and their brain. Through connecting with the recipient, starting where they are–motorically, emotionally, and cognitively, we follow their unique responses, moment-by-moment, creating a dance-like dyadic process of self-discovery that mimics the spontaneous, organic way typically developing (TD) children play, learn, and grow. Practitioners in these methods, by joining and creating mutual connection with the recipient, help turn the subjective experience of the recipient into a reliable means of co-attaining spontaneous, mutually generated emergent learning. In this process the autonomy of the recipient is respected and enhanced. Our work will be described through direct applications to autism seen as a neuro-motor-sensing disorder where those challenges can be transcended through the dyadic dance embodied in our techniques. Since eighty-seven percent of children with ASD have significant movement challenges (Bhat, 2020, 2021), we propose that movement, as a means for effective two-way communication with the child and their brain, needs to play a central role in the intervention. In this article we outline how our interventions take place through case studies, vignettes and discussion, separately for each of the two methods. This paper will also include recommendations for conducting investigations that characterize some of the basic components of these two methods, utilizing experimental designs and recently developed technologies and biometrics that generate unique individual profiles of both the receiver and the provider of the intervention, and of the interbrain synchrony, correlate them with changes in movement organization, cognitive functioning and coherence, and track changes in the signal-to-noise ratio. These methods should enable refinement and scalability of tracking and assessing the mechanisms and effectiveness of the interventions.