Portrait of Birgit Jung-Schmitt, ABM NeuroMovement practitioner in California.

My Story

My first introduction to brain plasticity came through a yoga teacher who, during meditation classes, recommended My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor and The Brain That Changes Itself by Norman Doidge. In meditation, I began to sense how attention itself can reorganize posture and movement—how simply listening without judgment allows the body to find new balance.

The same kind of listening and inquiry happens in NeuroMovement®: quiet, attentive, full of discovery, and surprises. It still fascinates me to witness how the brain self-organizes when we become truly present. Years after I read Jill Bolte Taylor’s book, it was a wonderful when I got to meet her in person as a guest speaker at Anat Baniel’s trainings.

I began working with children and adults in 2015 after years of training with Anat Baniel, where I also served as staff and assistant in her professional trainings. My home base is in Ojai, California, but I also enjoy traveling as a practitioner, and have met families in Russia, Germany, Lithuania, Canada, and South Korea.

To deepen my understanding of this work, I’m currently completing the professional Feldenkrais Method® training with master trainer Eilat Almagor. Before discovering NeuroMovement, I taught yoga and practiced meditation, which sparked my interest with brain plasticity and how we learn. I hold a Master’s in Fine Arts from the State Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart, Germany, where I exhibited my art before moving to the U.S. in 2001.

Certifications & Experience

  • ABM NeuroMovement® Practitioner, 2015

    ABMNM for Children with Special Needs, 2016

    ABMNM for Anti-Aging & Vitality, 2017

    ABMNM for High Performers, 2017

    ABMNM Childrens Mastery, Level 5, 2020

    Experience:

    I have been practicing full-time since 2015, first in Arizona, and since 2016 in Ventura County and Los Angeles. I have also offered intensives traveling to Russia, Lithuania, Germany, Canada, and South Korea.

  • Supervision w/ Sylvia Shordike, 2016

    Foundations Workshop w/ Suzi Marks, 2019

    Practitioner Excellence Mentoring Program w/ Anat Baniel, 2019

    Training for Online at Home Coaching, Level 1 w/ Anat Baniel 2020

    Training for Online at Home Coaching, Level 2 w/ Anat Baniel 2020

  • I was a member of Anat Baniel's staff at her professional trainings for six years and an assistant teacher at her Parent-Child workshops. I also have organized public workshops to bring Anat to my communities in Tucson, AZ and Southern California.

  • In 2024 I started the 4-year professional training with Eilat Almagor in Italy to become a certified Feldenkrais practitioner.

  • Hatha Yoga Teacher Certification, 250 Hours, 2008, The Yoga Connection, Tucson, Arizona, 2008

    Teaching privately (2007 - 2015) and at Parks & Recreation (2011-2015) in Tucson, AZ

  • Masters of Fine Arts, Stuttgart State Academy of Art and Design, Germany, 1995

    Bachelors of Fine Arts, Stuttgart State Academy of Art and Design, Germany, 1993

    I worked as an artist in Germany from 1988 - 2001, and showed my work in several solo exhibitions as well as group shows in galleries and museums in Stuttgart, Esslingen, Cologne, Bonn, Berlin, and more.

Anat Baniel working with Birgit Jung-Schmitt during a demonstration at her professional training.

Getting a lesson from Anat Baniel at my training—an experience that I still draw from today! I remember clearly the subtlety and accuracy with which she guided me, and the discovery of a new level of ease and lightness in moving that I just didn’t know until then.

Snapshot from Birgit's training with trainers Anat Baniel and Marcy Lindheimer and guest speaker Jill Bolte Taylor.

A pile of brilliant people: Anat Baniel, Jill Bolte Taylor, and Marcy Lindheimer—another precious moment from my training.

My Personal Benefits from this Method

  • "I first was interested in the method because it helped me figure out how to be more comfortable in my yoga practice and gave me new tools as a yoga teacher."

  • "NeuroMovement shifted my teaching style dramatically. Instead of telling my yoga students how to do poses "correctly", which just never felt right, I switched to engaging them in their own experience with curiosity by offering variations to explore, connecting them more to what they feel, allowing them to discover from within what worked best for them. "

  • "I had quite a few surgeries in my life, which all helped, but also created some new challenges for me. I don't know where I would be without this method! It helped me a lot to regain comfort and confidence in my movement."

  • "I'm able to take in more things at once, e.g. in traffic. This gives me greater courage and freedom. I now have no problem driving at night or in heavy traffic, or to new places, which all scared me before."

  • "I know I can learn and I’m eager to learn more. Things that were out of reach or boring for me before are now more accessible and interesting."

  • "Movement lessons are my favorite go-to for when I feel off in some way. I lie down on the floor and put on a recording and start exploring. After a few minutes I already feel better. The lessons calm me down when I'm overly nervous, they help me return to feeling well when I'm hurting, they inspire me. I ljust ove that I can help myself like that! I'm very much into DIY wellness."