Lavinia Plonka
Enjoy less pain, more confidence, and clear intentions by changing your physical posture — and rewiring your brain, musculoskeletal system & nervous system.
Release trapped trauma & anxiety that contribute to your physical pain and emotional suffering through the Feldenkrais Method.
What if you could transform negative emotions, improve your self-esteem, and heighten your wellbeing — mind, body, and spirit — by changing the way you move your body?
Can you imagine the possibility of expanding your sense of choice and freedom... and significantly altering the direction of your life... simply by heightening your awareness of the way you physically move through life?
The truth is, the way you move tells a story — to other people and to your own nervous system...
The way you carry yourself triggers hormonal responses that become part of the chemistry of your self-image.
For instance, slouching and hunching your shoulders signals to others that you’re tired or sad — but did you know it also causes your nervous system to produce the very hormones that then lead to you feeling depressed?
It can be surprising to learn that It’s NOT actually your muscles or joints that are causing your pain or discomfort — it’s the mixed messages your brain is giving and receiving as it tries to navigate old wounds and new fears as you move through the world...
What if, by simply changing the way you carry yourself, you could break free of chronic pain, self-sabotaging habits, unhealthy emotional patterns, and more?
In an exciting online course, celebrated body language expert and certified Feldenkrais Teacher Lavinia Plonka will introduce you to the Feldenkrais Method...
The revolutionary practices Lavinia teaches harness the power of safe, subtle, sophisticated movements to teach you how to reorganize yourself — resulting in improved range of motion, reduced pain, and an opportunity to live a fuller life.
As you’ll discover, your thoughts, feelings, perceptions, and movements are closely interrelated — and influence each other in powerful ways.
Lavinia will guide you to move with minimum effort and maximum efficiency — not through muscular effort, but through increased conscious awareness of how movement actually works.
You’ll become more aware of the link between your inner and outer worlds... and how your physical movements mirror your feelings about your sense of self-worth and your place in the world.
Gain a Whole New Understanding of Your Brain & Nervous System
We’re stepping into a new way of understanding the brain and nervous system — and it starts with awareness of the habitual postures and holding patterns in the body and the way you carry yourself...
Stories continue to emerge about patients who, for example, have undergone surgeries and assumed they were perfectly healthy afterward. Yet they were unknowingly carrying the trauma of the surgery within their nervous systems, causing unexplained physical and emotional symptoms.
Although they had been under anesthesia during the surgery, their systems remembered the trauma...
When they realized they were holding onto the fear or pain stemming from the trauma of the surgery and worked through it using the Feldenkrais Method, they were able to release that trauma — and the pain they had been carrying disappeared.
Through subtle movements, you can transform YOUR story, coming into heightened self-awareness, an expansion of your repertoire of movement, and improved functioning — bringing your life into alignment not just physically, but emotionally and spiritually, too.
When your whole body moves cooperatively, and when maximum efficiency is achieved — with minimum effort — you’ll unleash your powers of creativity, intuition, healthy sexuality, and more...
Welcome to the relationship you’ve been waiting for — your relationship with yourself.
During this experiential course, you’ll:
- Discover subtle, yet powerful somatic practices to help you heal emotional patterns, trauma, and chronic pain
- Leave behind “emotional postures” that reinforce physical and emotional pain and negative self-image
- Discover how to rewire your brain, musculoskeletal system, and nervous system so you can move through life with less pain and more confidence
- Receive movement and visualization practices that are powerful alternatives to Kegel exercises
- Recognize the direct link between your inner and outer worlds — and that the way you move your physical body mirrors your feelings of self-worth, creative capacities, and worldview
- Develop awareness through movement to align your pelvis, rib cage, lungs, and heart for optimal health and healthy relationships
- Learn how trapped trauma and anxiety holding patterns contribute to hypermobility, poor sleep, compromised breathing, and chronic pain
- Begin to apply the Feldenkrais Motto: Less Pain, More Gain, moving with self-compassion and effortlessness
- Master simple strategies for better sleep and stress reduction to facilitate relaxation and healing
- Explore how sedentary habits compress the spine — and how injuries can lead to back pain
- Perform your first complete body scan, diving into experiential anatomy — your sense of your inner self
- Embody the physical postures and breathing patterns of tenderness and compassion
- And much more...
Receive Guidance From a Celebrated Body Language Expert
Lavinia Plonka has helped people improve their movement, behavior, relationships, and careers for over 35 years. Her unique expertise connects the dots between posture/movement, emotions, and the mind. Lavinia’s training and professional career have included theater, dance, yoga, and the martial arts.
Her popular workshops explore the intersection between movement, emotions, and the mind. She’s currently the director of Asheville Movement Center, offering a complete movement curriculum that includes workshops and private lessons.
What You’ll Discover in These 7 Modules
In this 7-module transformational intensive, Lavinia will share her wisdom on the mind-body relationship and guide you through Feldenkrais movements to help you heal emotional challenges as you change your physical movement patterns. As a result, you’ll unleash your powers of creativity, intuition, healthy sexuality, and more.
Module 1 Transform Trauma & Chronic Pain - Finding Freedom to Make New Choices & Fully Engage In Life
In this opening week, Lavinia will welcome you to the relationship you’ve been waiting for: your relationship with yourself.
She’ll share why and how trauma, stress, and illness so often create chronic pain that defies medical support.
Lavinia will walk you through how the Feldenkrais Method uses movement to dialog with your nervous system through the language of movement and sensation.
You’ll start by looking at all the ways your body “keeps score” of all the different insults you've suffered — and the baggage that literally constricts your muscles... creating patterns of pain on a cellular level.
Often, your breathing and sleep can become compromised, contributing to more inflammation and discomfort. Your breath feeds your cells. Your sleep literally helps flush toxins out...
In this first lesson on moving out of pain, you’ll:
- Learn how trapped trauma and anxiety holding patterns contribute to hypermobility, poor sleep, compromised breathing, and chronic pain
- Discover how to enlist the parasympathetic nervous system to promote healing and relaxation
- Begin to apply the Feldenkrais motto: Less Pain, More Gain — moving effortlessly and with self-compassion
- Master simple strategies for better sleep and stress reduction to facilitate relaxation and healing
- Practice a visualization exercise using “inner eyes” to soften away pain
- Experience a movement meditation for creating inner spaciousness, releasing tension, and literally giving your cells room to breathe
Module 2 Free Yourself From Back Pain & Move Freely in the World
Back pain has become a multi-billion dollar industry. The statistics of the number of people suffering from back pain are staggering.
How did this happen?
In this week’s class, Lavinia will explain how the perfect storm of too much sitting — at desks, in cars, on couches, and more — combined with the constant stress of contemporary life — has literally imprisoned our backs. In fact, sitting is now considered the new smoking.
Stress, fear, and anxiety also march up and down our spines.
There’s a reason for the popular saying, “I’ve got your back.” It evokes the feeling of knowing you’re taken care of...
And when you don’t feel as though anyone has your back, it can become a vicious cycle: your back hurts from work, you protect your back, your nervous system interprets it as a lack of safety — and makes your back pain even worse.
In this module, you’ll:
- Uncover the true meaning of the metaphors and emotions connected to back pain
- Explore how sedentary habits compress the spine — and how injuries can lead to back pain
- Master your first complete body scan, diving into experiential anatomy — your sense of your inner self
- Explore how the gentle, careful movements of the Feldenkrais Method improve movement without unnecessary effort
- Receive actionable tips for relieving back pain — which you can implement when you’re sitting or lying down!
- Pinpoint the places in your back that are contributing to your pain
- Free your back with a powerful, yet safe, Awareness Through Movement® lesson
Module 3 Discover Your Power Center - Finding Dynamic Stability in Your Pelvis
Despite the fact that the word sacrum (the lowest part of your spine that connects your pelvic bones) comes from the Latin word for sacred, the pelvis has gotten a bad rap for the last 200 years.
Many of us were (at least implicitly) raised with inhibition and shame around this part of our bodies — resulting in physical and emotional inner conflict.
This week, you’ll discover how the all-important pelvis is literally your geographic center. .. your legs and spine are actually moving along with it!
From reclaiming your sexuality to feeling confident that you have control over your bladder, reconnecting with your pelvic power will ground and empower you.
In this module, you’ll:
- Connect to your diaphragm and your pelvic floor, and, by extension, your breath and your power
- Discover how your pelvic power center helps you maintain inner and outer balance
- Explore the surprising connection between your pelvis and TMJ pain in your jaw
- Improve your stability and balance by understanding the six planes of pelvic movement
- Learn how to maintain the mobility of your pelvic floor as you age
- Discover the holy and holistic elements of your pelvis — and how your organs, the first two chakras, and the root of the spinal energy (also known collectively as Kundalini energy) affect the whole of you
- Explore movement and visualization practices that are powerful alternatives to Kegel exercises
Module 4 Standing Your Ground - Moving From Habitual to Healthy Postures
Your posture tells a story... to other people, and to your own nervous system. This week, you’ll discover how to effortlessly improve your stance to support and even embolden you.
Your posture triggers hormonal responses that become the chemistry of your self-image. For example, slumping, looking down, or even turning down the corners of your mouth signal to others that you’re tired or sad... and causes your nervous system to produce the corresponding hormones that lead to feeling fatigued and depressed.
Many of us have struggled since childhood to “straighten up!” as our parents admonished, but not being unable to sustain it. In this session, Lavinia will share why it’s not your fault.
In this module, you’ll discover:
- The difference between superficial “power posing” and actually embodying courage
- How your vagus nerve (a cranial nerve that supports the heart, lungs, upper digestive tract, and other organs of the chest and abdomen) affects your emotions — and your posture
- How your seventh cranial nerve controls the muscles of facial expression
- The relationship between tension and relaxation in your face — and how it connects to your posture and emotions
- Why caving in your chest, pitching your head forward, and rolling your shoulders up, limits your ability to respond to life’s challenges
- Why maintaining a posture that defies the human design impacts your ability to breathe, the functioning of your heart, your sense of balance, and even your vision
- How to check in with your attitude anytime with a posture body scan
- An Awareness Through Movement lesson that equips you to actually improve your posture by rounding your back
Module 5 Open Your Heart - Healing Anxiety, Giving & Receiving Love
Put your right hand on your heart, and say, “I promise you...” Now put your hand on your belly and say the same words. Different, right?
This week, you’ll discover how your heart center is the place for your heartfelt feelings, which are often completely different from your reactive “gut" feelings.
For example, if you’ve been hurt, rejected, or criticized, you may have noticed your tendency to try to protect your vulnerable heart...
You may have experienced your ribs tightening, your thoracic spine stiffening, or your breath becoming more shallow — all of which can lead to feelings of anxiety, sadness, and tension in your shoulders and a tightening in your heart.
In this module, you’ll:
- Identify which emotions are held in your heart center
- Sense the difference between giving and receiving with an open heart, rather than a defended heart
- Learn to embody the physical postures and breathing patterns of tenderness and compassion
- Experience a breathing meditation to expand your lungs and release tension in your ribs
- Enjoy a beautiful seated movement lesson that uses self-compassion to soften your ribs
Module 6 Clarify Who You Truly Are - Aligning Intention With Action
Many of us have a tendency to distract or even sabotage ourselves from achieving our goals. If your intention, for example, is to write a novel, you may find that you’re avoiding it by busying yourself with anything but working on it. Or, if you know you want to end a problematic relationship, you might instead stay in it, despite your unhappiness...
What does this avoidance have to do with the way you physically move?
In this class session, you’ll learn how listening to the information from your nervous system creates both pleasure and pain in your life choices. By recognizing how you get in your own way and gaining clarity about the internal blind spots that sabotage your intentions, you’ll learn to hone in on what you really want — whether it’s pain-free movement, or the person of your dreams.
In this module, you’ll:
- Heighten your awareness of how you move, think, sense, and feel
- Explore your personal blind spot
- Experience a body scan that identifies physical patterns that may be holding you back
- Practice a movement to help identify your “parasitic habits” — such as self-sabotage and self-criticism — and receive insights for improving your movements and your intentions
Module 7 Activating Your Visionary Capabilities - Intuition, Manifesting & Enacting Your Vision
By this time in the course, you know what your holding patterns are and what’s been in your way. You’ve unlocked innumerable possibilities. In this session, you’ll discover how to listen to yourself and envision what you want. Moshe Feldenkrais said that his method is intended to help people “realize their avowed and unavowed dreams, to restore each person to their human dignity.”
We tend to put our dreams aside for so long... we even forget we had them. It’s time, right now, to re-envision your dreams... to see what’s necessary to achieve them… and to understand how to elegantly overcome the obstacles in our path...
In this final module, you’ll:
- See your goals, and the path to manifest them in a new light
- Create your own mandala of intention, to help you towards clarifying your dreams
- Receive a movement lesson — culminating all that you’ve learned in this course — linking joyful movement with your ability to see with your mind and heart
- Interrupt your habitual way of “trying” by intentionally failing
- Delight in the experience of “pandiculation” (imagine a cat waking up)
SPECIAL BONUS OFFER
In addition to Lavinia’s transformative 7-module course, you’ll receive this special bonus offering to complement the course and take your understanding and practice to an even deeper level.
Self Hug
Less Pain More Gain
The Little Book of Falling and Getting Up
What People Are Saying About Lavinia Plonka…
Rancher, environmentalist
interior designer
Owner, JW Builders
Feldenkrais Center of the Florida Keys
Here’s What You’ll Receive
Seven 90-Minute Class Video Modules With Lavinia Plonka
Experience a rare opportunity to be mentored by body language expert and Certified Feldenkrais Method® teacher Lavinia Plonka — from the comfort of your own home. Each module includes an on-demand video and guides you to discover specific skills and abilities to transform habitual physical and emotional challenges, and experience a pain-free life of joy, purpose, and freedom. You’ll never have to worry about missing a session, and you can watch anytime and anywhere — on any connected device and at your convenience.
Seven Audio Recordings of Modules
An audio version of each module will be available for you to download in high-quality MP3 format. You’ll never have to worry about missing a session, and you can listen anytime and anywhere — on any connected device and at your convenience.
Seven PDF Transcripts of Modules
In addition to the high-quality videos and MP3 audios, you’ll also receive the entire class transcription in PDF format. You can then review, print, and highlight the most important insights and practices you were given.
Interactive Exercises and Questions for Each Lesson
Between class sessions, you’ll have the option of completing related exercises, practicing new tools, and answering questions to accelerate your learning and integrate each lesson.
An Unprecedented Opportunity to Join the Online Course, Experience the Feldenkrais Method
Your Satisfaction Is 100% Guaranteed!
If you don’t absolutely LOVE Experience the Feldenkrais Method — or don’t feel that it meets your needs — please submit your refund request form 14 days from your date of purchase and we’ll happily issue qualifying customers a refund.
More Praise for Lavinia Plonka
Founder of Body Brain Freedom
Cofounder of ReWilder and collaborating author with Richard Rohr on The Divine Dance
President of Shine Like the Sun and author of Live Light: Simple Steps
Musician
Guild-Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner, acquiring editor at Shambhala Publications, and co-director of the Boulder Zen Center
Radio producer, BBC
About Lavinia Plonka
Body language expert Lavinia Plonka has helped people improve their movement, behavior, health, and careers for over 35 years. Her unique expertise connects the dots between posture, movement, emotions, and the mind. Lavinia is the founder of Kinēsa®, an educational process that integrates movement, science, and ancient wisdom traditions.
Lavinia’s training and professional career have included theater, dance, yoga, and martial arts. A former vice president of the Feldenkrais Guild of North America, she has taught the Feldenkrais Method® for over 30 years, is a lead instructor of the Emotional Body® and an ISMETA Master Somatic Movement Educator. Her theater credits include the Guggenheim Museum’s Learning Through Art program, international tours, commercials for Nickelodeon, and more.
Lavinia has written several books exploring the intersection of movement, awareness, and wellbeing, including What Are You Afraid Of? which has been translated into seven languages. She is director of the Asheville Movement Center in North Carolina, where she maintains a busy private practice.