I trained to become a practitioner in Antigym 2004-2007. My trainers were the famous French physiotherapist Thérèse Bertherat herself and her co-worker, physiotherapist Marie-Louise Stagh-Lopez. You can read more about Thérèse Bertherat and Antigym at www.antigymnastique.com
When I trained to become a practitioner, we studied and analyzed movements, anatomy, psychology, voice use and how to coach groups.
Over the years, physiotherapists Marie-Louise Stagh-Lopez and Francoise Mézières, Sensory Awareness creator Charlotte Selver, psychiatrist Dorothea von Schultenkaemper, physician John Sarno, family therapist and author Jesper Juul, psychotherapist and teacher in Sensory Awareness Judyth Weaver, philosopher Hannes Nykänen and former strongman and armwrestler Jarmo Ruotsalainen have influenced my work and thinking.
But most of all I have learned from all the people who have attended my classes.
When I started to do Antigym, I suffered from a back injury that I got after years of serious strength training. I had back surgery in the late 90s. When I practised Antigym I understood that the keys to recovery were in myself. I realised that the better I got to know my body and myself, the better my back felt.
After working as a practitioner in Antigym for almost 20 years, I felt ready to move in a new direction. I no longer want to work with a particular method or technique. It just makes me and the participants follow someone else's discoveries. I want people to discover for themselves how they do movements, stand, walk, lie down, breathe, etc.
We have this ability to sense from birth, but for various reasons it becomes hidden from us as we grow up.
When I was coaching groups in Antigym, I noticed that people were often fixated on whether they were doing right or wrong.
For example, if a movement feels demanding, it may well happen that participants concentrate only on doing the movement right and become frustrated when they cannot, instead of really sensing how the movement affects them.
I noticed that the smaller and easier the movement, the better. I also noticed that the more I stay in the background and let people experiment for themselves, the better.
Increasingly, I also understood the importance of silence. I see myself as a co-sitter rather than an instructor. For some, who are used to someone constantly saying what they should do, this can be difficult at first. The questions are many. "What should I do?", "What am I suppose to feel?"
The word should is often in the way of really sensing. But when people learn to trust themselves, what they feel and sense, they calm down and begin to find their way back to their true nature.
It is always amazing when it happens.