Claire Conley

Claire became aware of Anat Baniel and her remarkable work with children 25 years ago when a dear friend had a baby boy born with global brain damage. His parents were handed a devastating medical diagnosis with an even more horrific prognosis for their boy.  Shortly thereafter, that baby started intensive lessons with Anat Baniel and subsequently achieved what no one would have even hoped for.   Claire followed the progress of this child over the years and fueled her interest in the method by taking adult Feldenkrais® classes and private lessons from Anat Baniel and Marcy Lindheimer when they came to Chicago on a regular basis.   Later, Claire used this same method to successfully recover from a severe brain injury sustained after a terrible car accident in 1996.  She was astounded by the remarkable effectiveness of this method on her recovery from the accident, given that she was not a child but in her early 40’s.  Within three years of the accident, Claire chose to “reinvent herself” and switch careers to become an Anat Baniel Method℠ & Feldenkrais practitioner.  Claire graduated from Anat’s first-ever ABM Practitioner Training Program and her first ABM Advanced Trainings.  Following her graduation, Claire assisted Anat for 8 years in her Practitioner and Advanced Trainings, being one of the initial members of the ABM Assistant Training Program.

She is passionate about the possibilities of what this neuromovement work can do to transform the lives of people, of all ages.   And because she, herself, personally experienced the healing power of this method, she has dedicated herself to bring about greater awareness of this method, which had been relatively unknown, to the larger public.

Claire is a certified Anat Baniel Method℠ Practitioner (2002), Feldenkrais® Practitioner (FGNA - 2003), with advanced certification in ABM for Infants & Children,  ABM for High Performers and ABM Vitality & Anti-Aging.  Claire also has graduated with advanced certification from The Scoliosis Project 2008 in Zurich, Switzerland, taught by Feldenkrais virtuosos, Eilat Almagore and Anat Krivine.  Additional studies, beyond ABM, include advanced coursework with master trainers such as Mia Segal, Larry Goldfarb, Chava Shelhav and Svetlana Masgutova.  Claire also counts ABM Senior Trainer, Marcy Lindheimer, as her treasured mentor and friend.  Claire has taught ABM lessons for clients and students in Illinois, Wisconsin, Florida, Missouri, Kansas, California, New York and Texas.  In addition, Claire has assisted Anat Baniel with her public speaking engagements in the Chicago area and also has spoken herself about ABM at a number of meetings, conventions and conferences in the Midwest.

Since 2003, Claire has built one of the largest ABM children’s practices in the Midwest (US) and works in Chicago with special needs infants and children, as well as healthy infants and children. Claire’s practice also includes adults, seniors, athletes, musicians and artistic performers of all kinds to achieve enhanced performance. Claire’s work also helps people who have chronic or situational pain issues: scoliosis, back pain, neck & shoulder pain, for examples.  And, finally, she is also a proud member of the staff of Mindful Movement in Highland Park, IL, working closely with fellow ABM colleague and friend, Suzi Marks.

Claire’s Chicago Practice is Movement is Life and for more information see: www.movementislife.com