FROM HOME PAGE

SERVING

  • Individuals who suffered a stroke or brain injury

  • Children with special needs and their families and caregivers

  • Adults looking for improvement in function and greater vitality

OFFERING

  • In-Person Lessons for Children

  • In-Person and Online Lessons for Adults

  • Coaching for Parents

  • Workshops & Group Classes

  • Intensives in Ojai and Los Angeles

  • Traveling locally and internationally by request

CONTACT

To schedule lessons or get more information please text, call, or email me. I'm looking forward to connect!

Phone: 520-369-5460 / Email: bjungschmitt@gmail.com

Birgit Jung-Schmitt is a certified Anat Baniel Method® (ABM) NeuroMovement® Practitioner in Ojai, California who works with infants, children, teenagers, adults, and seniors to help them discover new ways of moving, thinking and relating. She has been practicing since 2015 and is a dedicated life long learner. She has successfully completed all master programs in the Anat Baniel Method NeuroMovement:

  • ABM NeuroMovement for Children with Special Needs

  • ABM NeuroMovement for Anti-Aging and Vitality

  • ABM NeuroMovement for High Performers.

Birgit sees the brilliancy and enormous potential for growth in each one of her clients, no matter what their diagnosis and level of performance is. Taking advantage of the brain’s amazing power to change itself for the better, Birgit engages her clients in an experiential learning process that results in the forming of new neural connections and patterns, leading to often surprising and dramatic improvements in mind and body, enhancing physical, cognitive, emotional and creative performance.

Languages: English and German

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FROM NEXT VERSION OF HOME PAGE

ANAT BANIEL METHOD® NEUROMOVEMENT® IN LOS ANGELES

Looking for movement therapy in Los Angeles? Discover the Anat Baniel Method NeuroMovement, a gentle, brain-based approach for children and adults.

Hi, my name is Birgit Jung-Schmitt. I’m a certified Anat Baniel Method®NeuroMovement® (ABMNM) Practitioner based in Oak View, California, serving children and adults in Ventura and Los Angeles counties.

The Anat Baniel Method NeuroMovement taps into the amazing possibilities of brain-plasticity, the brain’s ability to change itself in response to its experience. We often think of neuroplasitcity just in terms of science and technology, or in the context of medical interventions, but there are very practical ways to use - dance with it - to bring it into our daily lives and facilitate powerful learning and transformation for ourselves and others.

I studied extensively with Anat Baniel from 2013 until 2020, first as a student going through all her trainings and master programs, then continuing to deepen my understanding as a member of her training staff. I’m currently in training to become certified in the Feldenkrais Method® as well. My first experience with and introduction to brain plasticity - this amazing feature of the brain to change itself - happened through one of my yoga teachers who in his meditation classes recommended books like “My Stroke of Insight” by Jill Bolte Taylor, and “The Brain the Changes Itself” by Norman Doidge. It was very cool to meet Jill years later as a participant and guest speaker at Anat Baniel’s trainings.

Over the past ten years, I have worked with clients of all ages, from newborns to adults in their 90s, with a wide range of abilities, challenges and goals.

There is infinite potential for growth in every person, regardless of diagnosis, and I have personally experienced many surprising benefits from the Anat Baniel Method NeuroMovement. It’s my greatest pleasure to introduce this approach to others and provide ABM NeuroMovement sessions and intensives in Oak View and the Los Angeles area.

I invite you to look through the content of my website and learn about the method and my service. To book a lesson or receive more information please contact me here.

I look forward to connecting with you!

How is the Anat Baniel Method NeuroMovement different from traditional therapy?

While many families and individuals search for “movement therapy” or “alternative therapy approaches” when seeking help for themselves or their children, it is important to know that the Anat Baniel Method NeuroMovement is not medical therapy. Rather, it is an educational, holistic approach that uses gentle movement to wake up the brain and do it’s job better. You could describe this as learning to learn. Along with the movement we use what we call “the 9 essentials”. These are tools to create the conditions the brain needs to be in the learning mode and create something new instead of using already established patterns.

So I’m not a therapist, I’m a learning facilitator. Instead of looking to impose knowledge on my clients/students, I set aside my ideas to be fully present with my client/student and meet them where they are, helping them to become aware of what they are doing and how and guide them to explore new directions. This process improves the quality of what they are doing and opens doors to new possibilities.

People often find ABM NeuroMovement after trying traditional therapies and seeking a complementary approach that is gentle, respectful, and effective. The method is known for its positive outcomes with neurodiverse and neurotypical children, adults living with pain, individuals recovering from brain-related injuries, and high-performing adults—including athletes, musicians, and actors—looking to find greater ease, refinement, and new possibilities in their work and life.

The Anat Baniel Method®NeuroMovement®, which is an evolution of the Feldenkrais Method®, offers this gentle and respectful approach. Both methods provide a highly individualized learning process that focuses on connection, exploration, and the discovery of new potential in each person.

In their recently published research paper about ABMNM and FM in the context of Autism (“From fixing to connecting - developing mutual empathy guided through movement as a novel path for the discovery of better outcomes in autism”, published April 1, 2025 in Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience) the authors describe the general approach of these methods the following:

“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 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 attaining spontaneous, mutually generated emergent learning in the recipient. In this process the autonomy of the recipient is respected and enhanced.”

— Anat Baniel, Eilat Almagor, Martha Herbert, and others

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FROM ABOUT PAGE

MY STORY

Looking to expand my skills as a yoga instructor, I came across the Anat Baniel Method in 2008. I immediately fell in love with the approach and started bringing what I learned into practicing and teaching yoga. 

At that time I was dealing with chronic pain issues and was thrilled to discover how quickly these long held patterns could change.

Yoga poses that I struggled with or seemed out of reach all together, became pleasurable and a real possibility. Soon I noticed positive changes in many other areas of my life as well, anywhere from my personal relationships to daily life activities like driving at night, making my life a whole lot better.

Facilitating this kind of life changing learning and transformation for others as an ABMNM Practitioner brings me the greatest joy!!

MY ABM TRAINING

Certifications

  • 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

Continuing Education

  • 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 am a member of Anat Baniel's staff at her professional trainings and have been 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.

THANK YOU to all my wonderful teachers: Anat Baniel, Marcy Lindheimer, Sylvia Shordike, Suzi Marks, Carla Oswald Reed, Deb Loest Deppe, Sharon Tompsky, Neil Sharp, and Randy Roberts.

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FROM WHO CAN BENEFIT?

The NeuroMovement® approach of the Anat Baniel Method® can be applied broadly across the human spectrum—from typically developing children to children with special needs to high-performing adults; from traumatic injuries to the aches and pains of daily life to reaching new levels of performance.