Guild-Certified Feldenkrais Teacher®
Lavinia Plonka
Includes 7-Module Introductory Program!
Explore somatic movements, mind-body exercises, and meditations to create a loving relationship with yourself — so you can move beyond limits you’ve unknowingly placed on yourself and become who you’re meant to be.
When you heighten your awareness of the way you physically move through life, you forever change the way you see yourself and your potential...
You expand your sense of moment-by-moment emotional choice, and unlock new freedom…
To put this potential into action, you’ll first need to overcome limits you’ve unknowingly placed upon yourself.
The Feldenkrais framework — a unique, holistic approach to physical and emotional healing — empowers you to access the full potential of your inner archetypes that are waiting to awaken and strengthen you.
Like everyone, you have aspects of each of these four archetypes within you...
- The Warrior’s energy evokes courage and power — helping you ground and show up as a leader
- The Teacher’s energy inspires compassion and wisdom — showing you how to listen deeply and respond from your heart
- The Healer’s energy offers you the ability to... well, heal — focusing your attention on the power in your hands to nourish yourself and others
- The Visionary’s energy gives you insight and forethought — allowing you to see beyond literal vision to the clarity you need to understand your needs and those of others
Which aspects of the Warrior, Healer, Teacher, or Visionary archetypes do you have trouble believing are living within you, waiting to be unleashed?
Embark on this empowering 12-module advanced course from body language expert and Guild Certified Feldenkrais Teacher Lavinia Plonka's, which includes at least 10 Awareness Through Movement® lessons. You’ll discover gentle Feldenkrais movements to deeply understand the transformative archetypal energies within you.
Lavinia's course will guide you to ask yourself, What are my perceived limitations? (specifically in relationship to the archetypes).
This course will help you reach a place of balance and uncover new possibilities for how these archetypes show up in your body and your life.
You’ll learn simple, yet sophisticated movements to alleviate pain, improve your range of motion, build upon your resilience, and liberate essential parts of your personality.
You’ll discover how mindful movement can literally change your brain’s habitual patterns so you can move into the life you want.
With Lavinia's course as your guide, you’ll refine your ability to move with minimum effort and maximum efficiency — not through muscular effort, but through increased consciousness.
You’ll look closely at the powerful emotions, as well as physical and mental blocks, that are cropping up in your life. As you’ll discover, these challenges are all related to each other...
As you put your inner archetypes into action, you’ll explore the link between your inner and outer experiences — and discern how your physical movements reflect your feelings about your deepest potential and your place in this world.
In this transformational movement-based course, you’ll:
- Experience at least 10 of Lavinia’s Awareness Through Movement lessons to increase the flexibility of your body and mind, clarify your self-image, reimagine your possibilities, and more
- Learn how these Awareness Through Movement lessons will teach you to track and release your interfering habits (as well as your back pain!)
- Move through an ongoing meditative sculpting practice to envision your Warrior, Teacher, Healer, and Visionary self-images — and re-envision your life
- Release unnecessary tension in your hips, shoulders, and neck that interfere with your personal clarity
- Learn to work with your personal “kryptonite,” based on your archetypal characteristics
- Embrace yourself to free your ribs
- Improve your ability to breathe in ideas and breathe out compassion
- Create your wellbeing mantra/affirmation
- Move through an ancient meditative practice to reframe your relationship with physical and emotional suffering, heal your wounds (both visible and invisible), and more
- Re-examine your perceived limitations and understand how they impact your decisions
- Learn to turn your inner visions into outward creations with a powerful drawing exercise (no art experience required!)
- Rewrite your autobiography to reflect your new possibilities
What You’ll Discover in These 12 Modules
In this 12-module transformational intensive, Lavinia guides you through the somatic movements, mind-body exercises, and meditations you’ll need to create a more loving relationship with yourself — so you can move beyond limits you’ve unknowingly placed on yourself and become who you’re meant to be.
Meditative Sculpting for the Archetypes
During this 12-module training (which includes complete demonstrations and practice sessions), Lavinia also introduces fascinating practice, meditative sculpting for the archetypes.
This course will show you how to create a clay sculpture that brings you a tangible experience of yourself… to bypass your thinking mind and lead you to a deeper understanding of who you are.
No art experience is needed — there’s no such thing as a “good” or “bad” sculpture. The felt experience and expression are what’s important.
You’ll only need some white modeling clay (the kind that doesn’t harden) so you can creatively express whatever you feel reflects you in that moment. you'll be guided to create your sculpture, and to revisit it regularly throughout the course. As you work through each archetype, you’ll gain a deeper understanding of yourself — and glean more insight to add to your sculpture.
The Beauty of On-Demand Video
This course features step-by-step teachings and experiential practices from Lavinia Plonka. Each session builds harmoniously upon the previous ones, so you’ll develop a complete holistic understanding of the practices, tools, and principles you’ll need to explore the archetypes and gentle Feldenkrais movements for personal empowerment and body-mind-spirit transformation.
You'll experience Lavinia's teachings through on-demand video. The beauty of on-demand is that you get to take the course at your own pace. Rewind and replay any section as many times as you wish. Immerse yourself into each of the modules. Let the information, practices, and wisdom really soak in. Your purchase includes 24/7 ongoing access to your course content, allowing you time to review the materials at your own pace and integration.
Note: If you have not experienced Lavinia’s archetype teachings before, you’re welcome in this advanced training but we ask you to complete the included foundational Unlock Your Archetypal Strengths With the Feldenkrais Method 7-module program on your own as a prerequisite, which will be included in your registration and can be completed before or in tandem with this advanced intensive.
Module 1: The Threshold of Possibility
How do you perceive yourself, your possibilities, and your limitations? With every passing moment, you’re making choices according to the way you view yourself.
To see more options of who you really are, you need to have a clear self-image — a deep understanding of what you’re capable of and what you want most.
Your thoughts, emotions, and sensations all participate in every action you take.
In this opening module, you’ll:
- Tune in to your own body map
- Expand your attention to include your whole self
- Release unnecessary tensions in your hips, shoulders, and neck that interfere with your personal clarity
- Begin a process of meditatively sculpting your self-image
- Experience an Awareness Through Movement lesson to clarify your self-image
Module 2: Losing the Battle, Winning the War
When your power has been shaken, when you’ve lost your center, how do you feel? What happens when the rug has been pulled out from under you?
In this module, Lavinia explains how the Warrior’s kryptonite destabilizes, weakens, and disempowers.
Fear comes in many guises. As you’ll discover, your first step is to say hello to fear and learn how your awareness can become your ally.
In this module, you’ll:
- Identify the many types of fear that diminish you
- Learn to work with your personal kryptonite
- Discover an alternative to feeling the fear but doing it anywa y
- Reconnect with “zero breath” and the “bell hand” to allay anxiety
- Experience an Awareness Through Movement lesson that grounds from the feet through the pelvic floor to the spine
Module 3: Intentions, Actions & Power
A warrior acts with intent.
In this session, Lavinia explains how in Carlos Castaneda’s books, his teacher, don Juan, taught the art of “stalking.” Not stalking others, but stalking oneself.
For your intentions to become the actions you want, you need to pay attention, stop getting lost in habitual reactions, or turn away from your experience...
As Lavnia shares, developing this superpower is also the secret to success.
In this module, you’ll:
- Receive a meditation for building your attention
- Enjoy a game for sharpening your ability to pay attention
- Learn to track and release your interfering habits (and your back pain) through an Awareness Through Movement lesson
- Clarify your own intentions
- Use your clay sculpture to envision your Warrior self-image
Module 4: Investing in Failure
Ask any successful person to talk about their greatest learning experience, and it’s likely they’ll talk about their biggest mistakes.
Yet, so many of us are afraid to admit when we don’t know something. No one likes a know-it-all — and thinking we know everything prevents us from learning and growing.
In this module, Lavnia explains how the Teacher’s kryptonite is fear of being wrong, of looking bad, of failing. In contrast, in the Tarot, the Fool trusts the unknown.
You will be guided to give yourself permission to admit that you don’t know...
In this module, you’ll:
- Embrace the wisdom of the Fool and the importance of failure
- Experience an Awareness Through Movement lesson that increases flexibility of both mind and body
- Use movement to learn how YOU learn
- Turn your liabilities into assets
- Discover the core principles of learning
- Create your clay sculpture to envision your Teacher self-image
Module 5: Embracing Your Wisdom Self
As you learn to listen to yourself, you’ll begin to distinguish between the wisdom of your higher self and the chatter of negative self-talk.
In this session, you’ll discover the Teacher’s superpower — listening, discriminating between useful and toxic information, and responding with compassion.
As you'll learn, you teach in order to learn — and as you learn, you teach.
In this module, you’ll:
- Embrace yourself to free your ribs
- Improve your ability to breathe in ideas and breathe out compassion
- Experience how random words can inform your creative side
- Create your clay sculpture to bring your Wisdom Self to life
- Experience an Awareness Through Movement lesson that teaches both body and brain how to differentiate thoughts and actions
Module 6: Accessing Power & Wisdom
As you move through this empowering work, it’s essential to take time to integrate, connect the dots, and find new “ahas” after a period of somatic learning.
This advanced course features two mentorship modules, pre-recorded from previous live sessions— an opportunity to witness Lavinia engage in meaningful dialogue and deeper questions.
In this first mentorship module, Lavinia responds to questions from former course participants.
She also guides a movement and/or meditation to expand the newfound wisdom that’s emerging from the first half of the course.
Module 7: Pain Is Inevitable, Suffering Is Optional
The Healer’s kryptonite can lead to self-pity, despair, and an endless, often fruitless search for its opposite.
Your nervous system communicates with you through the power of sensation. Your brain then turns sensation into perception.
In this session, Lavinia shares how you can turn what you perceive as pain into pleasure(!).
In this module, you’ll:
- Learn to distinguish between sensation and perception
- Create your wellbeing mantra/affirmation
- Experience how accessing your parasympathetic response can reduce pain
- Use an Awareness Through Movement lesson to reduce neck and shoulder pain
- Move through an ancient meditative process to reframe your relationship with suffering — whether it’s mental, physical, or emotional
Module 8: The Way of the Healer
What are we made of, really?
A collection of atoms, energy, or as the great astrophysicist David Bohm once said, “crystallized light.”
In this session, Lavinia shares how the Healer can access that energy, that light — and send it to self and others.
This light flows through your body and out of your hands. Lavinia will explain how it can empower us to heal the world, together.
In this module you’ll:
- Verify how emotions affect the healing power of your hands
- Release tension in your shoulders and ribs
- Discover the connection between healing and learning
- Use your hands to energize your healer self-image
- Add elements of the Healer to your clay sculpture
- Awaken the spiraling energy within with an Awareness Through Movement lesson that moves from your center out through your hands
- Receive a meditation for moving energy to heal your wounds — both visible and invisible
Module 9: Eyes Wide Shut
O, wad some Power the giftie gie us/To see oursels as others see us!
— Robert Burns
Robert Burns penned this poem over 200 years ago, and we’re still blind to what we don’t want to see.
You may have heard that not being clear on how others view us is actually an evolutionary survival strategy. However, the Visionary’s kryptonite is tunnel vision, seeing only what you want to see, at the expense of possibility.
In this session, Lavinia explains how you can begin to see parts of yourself more clearly.
In this module, you’ll:
- Take a new look at your perceived limitations
- See how your perceptions impact your decisions
- Relax your whole body by using inner vision
- Learn to turn your inner visions into outward creations with a powerful drawing exercise (no art experience required!)
- Reimagine your possibilities with an Awareness Through Movement lesson
Module 10: I Can See Clearly Now
Joseph Campbell once said, “If the path before you is clear, you’re probably on someone else’s.”
Yet, you have the power to see what’s necessary, to see the truth, to envision the future. This clarity is the Visionary’s great gift.
In this session, Lavinia explains how to take action based on what you see — so you’re able to take what you see, enact your vision, and follow your path!
In this module, you’ll:
- Learn how your eyes receive information and create your reality
- Understand why the eyes are the “windows of the soul”
- Experience a powerful lesson that connects the movement of your eyes to action
- Connect the movements of your eyes with safety and danger
- Use your eyes to resculpt how you see yourself
Module 11: Giving & Receiving Energy
During this second pre-recorded mentorship module, you’ll have the opportunity to investigate your relationship with the Healer and Visionary archetypes.
This is your opportunity to witness Lavinia engage in meaningful dialogue and deeper questions.
Module 12: You Are a Star
When you access your superpowers, acknowledge your kryptonite, and travel down the path of your personal journey to wholeness, you come full circle.
In this closing session, Lavinia guides you to celebrate your new power, insight, wisdom, and healing.
In this final module, you’ll:
- Rewrite your autobiography to reflect your new possibilities
- Experience the sublime connection among the 4 Archetypal centers
- Recognize your stellar relationships
- Enjoy an Awareness Through Movement lesson that ties everything together
- Create the sculpture that sums up your experience
Unlock Your Archetypal Strengths With the Feldenkrais Method Introductory Training Is Included!
This intensive builds upon the core teachings from the Unlock Your Archetypal Strengths With the Feldenkrais Method 7-module course. When you purchase the full 12-module intensive, you get access to this powerful resource as well! You can complete this material at your leisure, but it’s better to begin before the new sessions start.
In this 7-module introductory training, Lavinia will guide you through somatic movements and mind-body exercises to elevate your self-concept, vision, physical and emotional wellbeing, and potential.
Module 1: Your Somatic Story — A Personal Adventure Into the Lessons of the Archetypes
Module 2: The Warrior — Unleash Your Courage & Feel Your Power
Module 3: The Teacher — Lead With Embodied Wisdom & Compassion
Module 4: The Healer — Give & Receive Needed Healing
Module 5: The Visionary — The Art of Seeing With Insight & Forethought
Module 6: The Shadows — Find Freedom From Fear & Replace It With Love
Module 7: The Power of Choice — Integrating & Enacting the Person You’re Meant to Be
PLUS, you’ll get the Unlock Your Archetypal Strengths With the Feldenkrais Method Bonus Collection
Bonus #1
Move Better, Feel Better!
Audio Teaching of 2 Awareness Through Movement Lessons From Lavinia Plonka
Enjoy this teaching in which Lavinia guides you through two Awareness Through Movement lessons designed to improve your freedom of choice, both in movement and in your life. One of the lessons offers you a wonderful way to begin experiencing the relationship of your head to your spine and the rest of your Self. The second lesson, which you can do while sitting in a chair, explores flexion and extension and how developing freedom in your spine can support your ideal posture.
Bonus #2
Enacting the Archetypes Within Us
Video Dialogue With Lavinia Plonka and Zoran Kovich
We all embody archetypes, but how do we enact them in our daily lives? In this interview, Lavinia and Zoran Kovich (Educational Director at Feldenkrais Institute of Australia) explore Zoran’s years of combining inner arts with the Feldenkrais Method. In Zoran’s private practice in Sydney, he combines the Feldenkrais Method with somatic education systems, martial arts, performing arts, and cognitive and social sciences. He and Lavinia discuss the powerful somatic stories we carry, and offer insights from the life of Moshé Feldenkrais... who exemplified the archetypes of the Warrior, Teacher, Healer, and Visionary throughout his life.
Bonus #3
The Creative Body: Move to the Life You Want
Video Dialogue With Lavinia Plonka and Alison Palmer
“There is no connection between the mind and the body. The body is the mind and the mind is the body.” This bold statement was mind-blowing at the time that Moshé Feldenkrais made it! Join Lavinia as she shares her insight into these famous words with Alison Palmer (founder of Full Circle Women) in an interview from the 2020 Future of Energy Medicine and Body Wisdom Summit. Lavinia also discusses the healing applications of the Feldenkrais Method, and guides you through a Feldenkrais exercise to show you how your mind and body are inextricably one.
The original price of Unlock Your Archetypal Strengths With the Feldenkrais Method on its own was $297.00, but it’s INCLUDED in your registration for the advanced course!
The Archetypes Into Action Bonus Collection
In addition to Lavinia’s introductory course and transformative 12-module virtual training, you’ll receive these powerful bonuses to take your understanding and practice to an even deeper level.
Back Relief
5-Part Audio Teaching From Lavinia Plonka
By now you’ve heard the news. Surgery doesn’t help most back pain, and painkillers are addictive and destructive. And most back pain seems to benefit from exercise. But what most of these observations leave out is that your back is connected to the rest of you. Often, back pain is the result of something else, not the cause. It could be posture, an old injury, bad work habits, emotional trauma, or another factor. That said, it’s not always important to find the “smoking gun.” In this audio, Lavinia shares five Awareness Through Movement lessons to help you find a better relationship with your back — and a movement approach that leads you toward a pain-free life.
Going Deep
Video Dialogue With Lavinia Plonka and Francine Bonjour Carter
Explore a lush discussion on how myths, archetypes, and embodiment can help us develop our potential to lead grounded and creative lives. Francine is a Feldenkrais practitioner who has integrated her somatic practice with a study of the psyche — including Earth Medicine teachings and practice, ancestral connection and Family Constellations, and archetypes and Jungian psychotherapy. As you’ll discover, she helps people combine writing with somatic practices to reconnect with their mythic selves and create their own origin stories.
Breathe In, Breathe Out
PDF Article From Lavinia Plonka
The ability to breathe freely, comfortably, and fully is connected to a state of equanimity, organization, and wellbeing. In this fascinating article, Lavinia shares how her personal search for wellbeing led her to the revelation that her definition of “deep breathing” was actually compromising her oxygen/carbon dioxide ratio and contributing to her tension and back pain. As you’ll discover, Moshé Feldenkrais taught that while breathing is certainly automatic, by studying the function of the breath, you can improve everything.
What Graduates of Lavinia’s Courses Are Saying...
— Lisa Stanley: “I’m 60 Years Old, and I Feel Stronger and More Balanced and More Capable Than I Did in My Thirties”
— Brenna Wilcox: “I Can Stand Up Long Enough Now to Cook Dinner”
— Chrish Kregse: “Lavinia Is a Patient, Understanding, and Very Wise Witness to Your Process”
— Marianna Hodel: “Lavinia Is a Very Compassionate, Gentle, and Understanding Teacher”
— Marsha Novak: “Lavinia Is an Amazing Role Model”
— Hilary Chiz: “Lavinia Plonka Is the Best Practitioner and Teacher of Feldenkrais”
“I would take any course Lavinia is a part of, without question.”
“I can’t thank and recommend Lavinia and her course enough, it’s a life changer!”
“Wonderful, accessible, experiential introduction to the Feldenkrais Method.”
“I feel more confidence in my ability to find my own path.”
“It was a great introduction to the method, and I’m hooked now!”
“... I feel more awakened to who I am, what I am feeling, where I am going...”
Who knew such gentle, subtle movements could make such a measurable difference...”
“... I am thrilled to say that this class has given me such significant relief and flexibility...”
“This course has been such a worthwhile investment for my wellbeing on so many levels...”
“Feldenkrais is a pain-free and loving way to learn awareness about your body...”
“... experience a deeper and richer sense of embodiment…”
Here’s What You’ll Receive
Twelve Pre-Recorded 90-Minute Modules
Experience a unique opportunity to learn from Guild-Certified Feldenkrais Teacher Lavinia Plonka from the comfort of your own home. Each session includes a streaming video and guides you to discover specific skills and abilities to create a more loving relationship with yourself.
Twelve Transcripts of Sessions
In addition to the high-quality videos and MP3 audios, you’ll also receive session transcriptions. You can then review, print, and highlight the most important insights and practices you were given.
Exercises and Questions for Each Lesson
Between sessions, you’ll have the option of completing related exercises, practicing new tools, and answering questions to accelerate your learning and integrate each lesson.
Unlock Your Archetypal Strengths With the Feldenkrais Method 7-Module Course and Bonuses
When you sign up for this 12-module journey, you’ll get instant access to Lavinia’s introductory 7-module online course, taking you through her reliable system of using archetypes and somatic movements to expand your ability to access your inner guidance. You’ll also receive the bonus collection, which includes audio teachings and video dialogues from Lavinia.
The Archetypes Into Action Bonus Collection
- Back Relief
5-Part Audio Teaching From Lavinia Plonka - Going Deep
Video Dialogue With Lavinia Plonka and Francine Bonjour Carter - Breathe In, Breathe Out
PDF Article From Lavinia Plonka
An Unprecedented Opportunity to Join the Put Your Inner Archetypes Into Action With the Feldenkrais Method Online Training
We feel honored that Lavinia Plonka has chosen to partner with The Shift Network to offer this exclusive on-demand training. This is a unique opportunity to learn from a body language expert and Guild-Certified Feldenkrais Teacher whose powerful insights and pioneering work are helping us heal and awaken ourselves and our world.
If you’re serious about creating a more loving relationship with yourself, then you owe it to yourself, your loved ones, and our world to take this one-of-a-kind training.
If you’re ready to take the next step in evolving yourself, click the register button below to reserve your space now.
Note: If you have not experienced Lavinia’s archetype teachings before, you’re welcome in this advanced training but we ask you to complete the included foundational Unlock Your Archetypal Strengths With the Feldenkrais Method 7-module program on your own as a prerequisite, which will be included in your registration and can be completed before or in tandem with this advanced intensive.
Your Satisfaction Is 100% Guaranteed!
Your satisfaction is 100% guaranteed! If you don’t absolutely LOVE Put Your Inner Archetypes Into Action With the Feldenkrais Method — or don’t feel that it meets your needs — please submit your refund request form 2 weeks from your date of purchase and we’ll happily issue qualifying customers a refund.
More Praise for Lavinia Plonka...
“... feeling taller, stronger, pain-free, and awakened...”
“... free up our bodies, relax our minds, and open our hearts.”
“... unlocking the power of the Feldenkrais Method to free attention and create greater ease...”
“Lavinia... helps you know your body in easy and accessible ways that lead to transformation.”
About Lavinia Plonka
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. She has taught the Feldenkrais Method for over 25 years and is also a certified Assistant Trainer. She is a level CL4 teacher of the Alba Method and an Emotional Body instructor. She was an artist in residence for the Guggenheim Museum, and a movement consultant for theater and television companies around the world, from the Irish National Folk Theater to Nickelodeon.
From Esalen to the Council on Aging, from Beijing to Mexico, Lavinia’s popular workshops explore the intersection between movement, emotions, and the mind. She is currently the director of Asheville Movement Center in Asheville, North Carolina. Lavinia’s writing includes several books and audio programs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is your refund policy?
A: Your satisfaction with The Shift Network and this course is our highest priority! We offer a satisfaction guarantee for a full two weeks so that you can try out the course risk free. The deadline to receive a refund is two weeks from your date of purchase. To request a refund, please click here to submit your Refund Application Form. Your refund will be processed within five business days and we will send you an email confirmation when your refund has been completed. However, we’d love to have a chance to address and resolve your concerns first. If there’s something we can assist you with, please email us at support@theshiftnetwork.com, and we’ll be happy to help!
Q: How long will I have access to my Course Homepage and materials?
A: Your purchase includes 24/7 ongoing access to your course content — online via your Homepage — unless refunded or otherwise specified. We currently don't have an expiration date for our online materials. This will allow you time to review the materials at your own pace and integration.
Q: How can I reach Customer Support?
A: Please visit our Customer Support Center, where you should be able to find the answer to your question or the solution to your problem. And if you can’t, you can submit an online request form and we’ll get right back to you.
