I was born in 1963, and from an early age my life revolved around movement, creativity, and music. At the same time, I lived with chronic back pain, shyness, and a constant feeling that my body was somehow holding me back.
For many years I searched for answers.
I visited orthopedic specialists, physiotherapists, chiropractors, and countless other practitioners. I read books, attended workshops, and explored different approaches to physical and personal development. Although each offered something valuable, none gave me a lasting understanding of why my body continued to create pain.

For thirty years I was also part of a community devoted to personal and spiritual growth. I believed that somewhere there had to be a path that could transform both my life and my relationship with my body. Eventually I realized that, despite years of searching, I was still living with the same physical limitations and many unanswered questions.
Leaving the community I had helped build, became one of the most difficult decisions of my life.

Starting over required courage I did not know I possessed, but it also taught me something that has stayed with me ever since: meaningful change begins when we are willing to question what we have always believed and become curious about new possibilities.

Several years later, another turning point arrived.

Following an injury, I once again found myself living with persistent pain. Walking and standing became difficult, and I returned to the familiar cycle of searching for treatments and hoping someone else could solve the problem.

Then I discovered a short video demonstrating a simple somatic pandiculation. I practiced the movement every day for three weeks.
To my surprise, the pain almost disappeared.
What fascinated me even more than the improvement itself was the question it raised:
How could such a small, gentle movement produce changes that years of treatment had not?
That question changed the direction of my life.

I traveled to northern England to study with Martha Peterson, becoming the first Israeli to complete her professional training in Clinical Somatic Education, based on the pioneering work of Thomas Hanna.
For more than four years I immersed myself in understanding how the brain and nervous system influence muscular tension, posture, movement, pain, and the remarkable capacity for change that exists throughout life.
In recent years, my professional journey has continued through advanced training in Somatic Experiencing® (SE™), developed by Dr. Peter Levine. This work has deepened my understanding of how the nervous system responds not only to injury and chronic muscular tension, but also to stress, overwhelm, and traumatic experiences. It has reinforced my appreciation that lasting change is not achieved by forcing the body to perform differently, but by creating the conditions in which the nervous system can reorganize itself naturally and safely.

What transformed my own life was not simply learning a collection of exercises.
It was discovering a completely different way of understanding the human body.
I came to see that many forms of chronic muscular pain are not simply the result of aging or structural damage. They are often expressions of learned neuromuscular patterns that can be recognized, understood, and gradually changed through awareness and movement.
This insight became the foundation of my work.

Today I teach Educational Somatic Movement© because I believe people deserve more than temporary relief.
They deserve to understand their own bodies.

Rather than encouraging dependence on ongoing treatment, my wish is to help people develop the awareness and skills to participate actively in their own recovery. As they learn to sense unnecessary muscular effort, regulate habitual tension, and move with greater ease, they often discover abilities they believed had been permanently lost.

Over the years I have worked with people living with chronic pain, movement limitations, injuries, and many of the physical changes commonly associated with aging. Again and again I have witnessed the nervous system’s extraordinary ability to learn, adapt, and restore more efficient movement when given the right conditions.

Today, in my sixties, I move with greater freedom, strength, and comfort than I did through much of my younger life. That experience continually reminds me that improvement is not reserved for the young. The nervous system remains capable of learning throughout our lives.

Educational Somatic Movement© has changed far more than the way I move.
It has changed the way I understand learning, resilience, and human potential.
This is the perspective I bring to every lesson, every workshop, and every conversation with my students.

My role is not to fix people.
My role is to help them understand their own nervous system, reconnect with the wisdom of their bodies, and develop the confidence to become increasingly independent in caring for themselves.
That, to me, is the true purpose of somatic education.