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You may have read about Brain Gym, attended a short training or be new to it and feel excited by this new perspective on developing the physiological basis for learning and daily life skills. If you want to discover more and gain some practical experience, then there is an easily accessible next step: join us on one of the many Brain Gym® 101 foundation courses that are held all over the UK and in Northern and Southern Ireland.

Many children enjoy the physical, hands on Brain Gym activities. This child plays at home with a “Lazy 8” track, to help eye-hand co-ordination and central focussing.

They are open to all, regardless of background or experience, and provide a lively, stimulating, experiential, hands on way of getting to grips with what this programme is about and can achieve. The added bonus of attending Brain Gym® 101 is that you get to work on your own goals and issues, in any area that you want to change or improve. In addition to the personal benefits to you, we feel this is the best way of really understanding what these tools are and can do. Brain Gym is all about body-based learning and life skills, so be prepared to move, discuss, learn a simple facilitation process for change, work with others’ goals as well as your own and immerse yourself in the paradox that movement can bring calm, focus and grounding as well as changes in attitude, outlook and skills levels. Many people say they enjoy the type of learning we do on Brain Gym courses as it is so activity based.

If when you have read through this training outline, you still have questions, send them to us via the Online Contact Form or call the office on 020 8202 3141.

The training aims to familiarise participants with the tools of the programme and give them knowledge and confidence to use them. Those training to professional level will acquire competence, flexibility and a thorough understanding of the basis of Educational Kinesiology. The trainings are open to all and may be taken for personal as well as professional development.

There are two levels of professional competence: Educational Kinesiology Consultant and Brain Gym® Instructor:

• Consultants: Consultant status is achieved by completing Steps 1-4 of the Training Programme and achieving a satisfactory standard. Consultants are entitled to work on a one-to-one basis.

• Instructors: Once Consultancy level is achieved, the way is open to gaining Brain Gym Instructor status (Step 5). Instructors are qualified to teach Brain Gym® 101 (the four day Foundation Course) and to present Brain Gym to the wider public.

Consultants on a Brain Gym® Instructor Training course in Japan, taught by a UK Faculty Instructor, take some moments out from the presentation practice to destress with the Hook-Ups Brain Gym activity.

Further Instructor Trainings follow the Brain Gym Instructor level.

Many people attend the training to expand their professional tool kit and find that Brain Gym can easily and effectively be added to existing skills. Once at Instructor level, this highly flexible tool can bring benefit to a further host of personal and professional situations. Those attending for personal development, or wishing to help family and friends only, are welcome to participate in Steps 1-3. A decision to continue or stop at any level of the Training can be made at any time.

The backgrounds of people attending the trainings include:

Teachers, Occupational Therapists, Educational Psychologists, Special Needs Tutors, Speech and Language Therapists, Parents, Personal Development Trainers, Human Resource Managers, Business Skills Trainers, Healthworkers, Physiotherapists, Chiropractors, Managers, Team Leaders, Singers, Dancers, Psychologists, Psychotherapists, Counsellors and people pursuing self-development.

The course is modular and designed to be easily accessible to people in full-time work or with family and time commitments. Assessment is by ongoing evaluation, case studies, projects and additional types of home study. Steps 1-3 and 5 of the Training Programme are standardised courses whose content is set by the International Educational Kinesiology organisation. Step 4 has been developed by UK Faculty Instructors as a final preparation and opportunity to refine skills leading to using the programme professionally.

Brain Gym courses are interactive, experiential and kinesthetic. Much of the practical learning is done in pairs and small groups, with a high level of personal attention.

Every participant has the opportunity to experience the effects of every Brain Gym activity, process and technique taught. They are encouraged to work on personal goals and issues throughout the training so that the tools of the programme, and what they can achieve, can be fully experienced. Embodied learning is a key theme of Educational Kinesiology - experiencing learning with full sensory and body engagement, rather than just “in the head” and the training style reflects this. It is a training goal that every participant comes to their own meaningful understanding of what they are learning.

The objective of the Training Programme is that everyone who completes it has extensive and intensive experience of the effect of the tools through using them for their own changes and is fully prepared, confident and competent to use them with others.

From attendance on Brain Gym® 101, each participant has a mentor.

This varies greatly from person to person and on average about two years. Careful planning of the course sequence allows some people to complete their Consultancy in about a year. A natural gap of 8 months to one year occurs between completion of the Consultancy level and Instructor status, owing to the scheduling of the courses. This offers trainees ample time and opportunity to practise the tools and techniques they will eventually be teaching. As a very wide range of people and ages use Brain Gym, it is important that Instructors feel confidently prepared for this when delivering training.

The answer to this is that for Step 1 and Step 2 courses (excepting Further into Brain Gym®), which are organised by the Instructors themselves, the investment may vary somewhat based on region, type of course venue, whether lunch is included and other practical factors. The courses comprising Steps 3, 4 and 5 are only taught by Faculty Instructors and Further into Brain Gym® is taught by one senior Instructor, so there is a fixed outlay.

For an overall picture of the costs, send us a Contact Form or call Ruth at the Foundation office on 020 8202 3141.

Here is where it all starts, the key that opens the door to the programme, the activities, concepts, techniques and processes. This makes the Brain Gym 101 an exceptional investment in time and energy, as what you learn during this training is used and built on in all the subsequent courses. Another great aspect of the course is that it is a complete training in itself – were you to go to no other Brain Gym course, you would come away with enough tools to make a difference to yourself and others for a lifetime. All Training Track courses have in common that you work on your own goals, as well as learning how to facilitate others to reach theirs, and this is no exception.

A Brain Gym® 101 course held in a Slovenian school (March 2008), sponsored by the Slovenian Dyslexia Association and jointly presented by a Slovenian and UK Instructor. Holding a Brain Gym® 101 training at your own school, and sharing the training with other schools, can be a practical and enjoyable option.

Apart from the irreplaceable and grounded knowledge that occurs right in the body from experiencing the effect on yourself of what you are learning, it is a common experience that our own state has a subtle and sometimes profound effect on others. Parents and teachers will be especially aware of this and the course gives you strategies and tools to move into positive states of mind and body if you choose, liberating your best resources for happiness and productivity and encouraging this in others.

There are three main components of the Brain Gym 101 syllabus:

• The 26 Brain Gym activities and two Repatterning sequences.

• Educational Kinesiology’s unique 5-step process for setting and progressing towards goals, involving the development of “Noticing” skills, Brain Gym terminology for body-based self-observation.

• The model of the Three Dimensions of Learning, a tool for gathering information on how attitude and body are affected by challenges.

The focus of this course is the physiology of learning – how the body is involved in all learning. This is an area of discovery and research which is relatively new and enormously exciting, especially in the light of ongoing discoveries about how the brain and body communicate and function. In Brain Gym our entire focus is on facilitating changes in skills, behaviour and outlook that are observable in a concrete way. For example, a child may have a goal to write legibly or to understand what they read, an adult may wish to play a piece of music fluently or address a public meeting confidently. Positive changes in these skills can be directly noticed and evaluated. Course participants will learn how to set up, observe and evaluate changes before and after the use of Brain Gym activities and how to help others to do the same.

On completion of the course, participants will have a thorough experience of the entire package of Brain Gym skills, ready for immediate use. They will have the knowledge to implement the training into their particular context, be it mainstream education, special needs, sport, self-development, business, health, stress management or elsewhere. The support of a mentor, time, practice and – if a professional status is desired - case studies, will bring further depth of learning to the deeply practical and hands on Brain Gym programme.

An Instructor demonstrates The Footflex, a muscle lengthening activity to release the physical effects of a stress reflex. The course covers adapting the 26 self-help activities for facilitated use and for people with different types of physical and cognitive abilities.

 

For more information on the detailed content of this course, click here

Course Dates: click here

Booking: Contact one of the Brain Gym Instructors listed in the Professional Directory

The first day of this course looks at basic brain/body links and provides a relevant introductory context for the Brain Gym tools.

The second day revisits the tools learnt on Brain Gym® 101 and deepens participants’ knowledge of the Brain Gym process and exercises. Participants are encouraged to identify where they need to increase confidence or understanding. This is a learner-centred training in the hands of a very experienced Brain Gym Instructor, with many years of clinical experience and a background in physiotherapy. It can be attended as the next course after Brain Gym® 101, alternatively many trainees prefer to have had some months of using Brain Gym first before returning to more in-depth learning.

Course dates: click here

Booking: Contact the Educational Kinesiology office on 020 8202 3141 or complete the Booking Form

In this course we learn to identify sensory and brain organisation patterns in ourselves and others: which is the preferred eye, ear, hand, foot and right or left hemisphere processing preference? Participants experience how this may change with stress and in different situations.

These are invaluable tools in education for working with learning challenges, different learning styles and making the most of natural gifts. An understanding of these profiles has equal relevance in the workplace for developing human resources, building team co-operation, evolving effective management strategies and providing insight into presentation and teaching styles. In the social and interpersonal sphere, they are a rich resource for understanding our own and others’ behaviour, attitude, strengths, challenges and perception of the world.

Course dates: click here

Booking: Contact one of the Optimal Brain Organisation Instructors listed in the Professional Directory.

Trainees now build on the foundation stone of Brain Gym® 101 with a fascinating further journey through vision enhancement, in the context of awakening full sensory awareness and perception. This is a road map to the completion of developmental skills, through 32 Vision Gym™ activities, art and play based around groups of developmental, visual and perceptual skills – the “Circles”.

Participants experience how releasing developmental stages – and the skills which accompany these – where we may have become stuck, can affect our perceptions and possibilities far into adult life. Through awakening all the senses and integrating visual, perceptual and motor skills, flexibility and choice is enhanced in learning and life for children and adults alike.

Course dates: click here

Booking: Contact one of the Vision Circles TM Instructors listed in the Professional Directory.

 

The skills taught here are based on Dr John Thie’s groundbreaking work in natural healthcare – the Touch for Health programme - which explores how the muscles and body can provide information about our physical and emotional state.

Trainees gain a basic familiarity with how muscles function and their value in providing feedback on the brain/body system. The difference in muscle response and posture when a person is relaxed or stressed, happy or despondent, energised or depleted, finding tasks easy or effortful, is something that we recognise from everyday life and observation. In this course more conscious awareness is brought to this change in physiology and how we can use it to guide and inform us in getting the best results from the Brain Gym tools. The skills learnt on this course prepare the way for techniques and more sophisticated observation skills taught on the Seven Dimensions of Intelligence In Depth Course.

Booking: Contact one of the Touch for Health Instructors listed in the Educational Kinesiology Professional Directory on this site or contact the Kinesiology Federation who have a countrywide list of qualified Touch for Health Instructors:

Kinesiology Federation, PO Box 28908, Dalkeith, EH22 2YQ

Tel: 0845 260 1094

Email: kfadmin@kinesiologyfederation.org

www.kinesiologyfederation.org

Course dates: click here

This course is taught by a Faculty Instructor and completes the core syllabus by extending the Brain Gym model to seven dimensions of brain/body co-ordination. The course involves facilitated techniques, suitable for one-to-one consultations, together with self-help tools. It is open to anyone for personal and skills development and is the last training step before the Consultancy courses. Advanced techniques and procedures are learnt, building on the tools of the previous modules.

Students practise a facilitated technique to lengthen the Gastrocnemius (calf) muscle and release the Tendon Guard Reflex, a reflexive response to stress.

The model used in this course expands to seven dimensions of function. The course teaches further “Noticing” skills (body-based observation) as to when we, and our clients or pupils, access these dimensions with ease or when they are a source of struggle or stress. The seven dimensions, with some common experiences of how they can be out of balance, are:

• The ability to communicate easily - or feeling blocked in self-expression

• Feeling motivated to move forward towards goals - or held back by negative expectations, thoughts and feelings

• Ease and competence in organisation - or struggling to bring order into life and work

• The skill of staying focussed on task while remaining aware of the context or “big picture” - or becoming bogged down in detail or overwhelmed by the hugeness of tasks

• Keeping the natural rhythm, flexibility and pulse of our body and life - or becoming locked and rigid in body or self-expression

• Ease of inhalation and exhalation of breathing, a sense of comfort and space in the body - or holding our breath and inhibiting its natural rhythm, which is a primal response to stress and anxiety

• Self-management - balancing what we take in and what we give out, for example, in food, activity and relationships - or going to extremes of food intake, lack of rest (or too much) and difficulty in accepting from others or sharing ourselves

People often manifest inhibitions in one or more of these areas in relation to life challenges and learning issues and the course provides body-based tools and movement work to address these.

The objective of this course is for participants to learn at a more advanced and deep level how to deal with learning and life issues in themselves and others. Asa participant on this course you will further develop your skills of observation, both of yourself and others, as a starting point for change. New Educational Kinesiology interventions are added and the emphasis is on using them for one-to-one work, although almost any of the tools can be adapted for group dynamics.

Course dates: click here

Booking: Contact the Educational Kinesiology Foundation office on 020 8202 3141 or complete the Booking Form

The aim of this course is to consolidate practitioner skills in preparation for setting up as an Educational Kinesiology Consultant. The skills covered include dynamic marketing and other business strategies for a successful outcome to the training, some of which are particular to Brain Gym. The learning tools draw on all the techniques, principles and processes learnt in the earlier part of the Training Track and there is high emphasis on personal development work amongst participants.

The objective is to provide participants with a solid information base, from Faculty Instructors who have long experience in running their businesses, and to encourage confidence in personal abilities.

Course dates: click here

Booking: Contact the Educational Kinesiology Foundation office on 020 8202 3141 or complete the Booking Form

This final preparation for starting work professionally as an Educational Kinesiology Consultant majors on the integration of the previous training and package of skills so that participants have these skills readily and confidently to hand as needed. Trainees are encouraged to take the time and space offered by the course to engage in personal In Depth progress towards the step ahead. The course also offers a valuable opportunity to review and practise anything previously learnt, identifying areas where skills and knowledge need some further familiarity, with the very experienced support of a Faculty Instructor.

Advanced students practise checking muscle tone, gathering information about how the body is affected by a challenge so that this can be rechecked after using Educational Kinesiology activities.

The combination of In Depth personal development and professional skills refinement at this final stage is intended to create Consultants with a motivated and positive outlook, competent to use all the Brain Gym tools.

Course dates: click here

Booking: Contact the Educational Kinesiology Foundation office on 020 8202 3141 or complete the Booking Form

The aim of this part of the training is to provide a high level of confidence and competence in those wishing to present Brain Gym to the wider public through insets, seminars, talks and the Brain Gym® 101 course. The course syllabus is internationally set and involves practical sessions of presenting and co-presenting aspects of Brain Gym® 101.

Participants will be well familiar with the 26 Brain Gym activities by this point, so the emphasis is on learning to present these in an accurate, safe, engaging and informed way. Students will add to their knowledge both from the experience of the Faculty Instructor and their fellow trainees, who by this time will have considerable experience of using Brain Gym and Educational Kinesiology in consultations.

Explanations of the observed effects of the programme and the individual activities on learning and life issues will be reviewed and discussed with a view to these being presented in an appropriate, context-related, professional way. There will be practice in languaging the programme to adults and children. Peer evaluation is built into this training and all students are encouraged to take a constructively active role in feedback as members of the group present every aspect of the techniques, concepts and activities involved in the Brain Gym® 101 course.

A trainee on the Brain Gym Instructor Training Course presents Alphabet 8s (to help writing skills) to the group. Students prepare to deliver the unique blend of physical, observational and procedural tools that comprise the programme.

The objective is that this training provides a comprehensive preparation - in a supportive and responsive environment - to the final mentoring stage of the programme to gain Brain Gym Instructor status.

Mentoring programme: This stage of the training involves teaching observation followed by co-teaching practice with an experienced Instructor. Upon mentor agreement that the applicant for Instructor status is ready, the trainee organises a Brain Gym® 101 accreditation course on which there is a final evaluation and feedback on presentation skills and knowledge. Satisfactory completion of this results in qualifying as a Brain Gym Instructor.

Course dates: click here

Booking: Contact the Educational Kinesiology Foundation office on 020 8202 3141 or complete the Booking Form

Advanced courses available for further development

A set of three advanced courses, available to those who have completed Step 3 (7 Dimensions of Intelligence course), or a prior relevant professional training, offer a fascinating expansion of processes and tools already learnt for facilitated, one-to-one work.

The courses are taught by Faculty Instructors and comprise:

• Creative Vision – to improve vision and visual processing.

• Movement Re-Education – to release tension in the tendon system affected by injury, pain and stress, allowing the person to move forward more naturally in life.

A muscle release technique from Movement Re-Education to help restore natural movement where survival responses may be held in the body and muscles.

• Total Core Repatterning – to help with co-ordination and cognitive development by repatterning primary postural reflexes and establish integrity in the core muscles of the body.

People attending these courses regularly report profound changes on physical, emotional and intellectual levels, as they work with the body to restore balanced function and release stress or trauma-related patterns. The tools used in this more advanced work are an organic evolution from those learnt in earlier modules.

 Booking and dates: Booking details and dates are advertised periodically on the website. Course descriptions are available from Faculty Instructor David Hubbard for Creative Vision and from the Foundation office for the other two courses.