Moon of the Week -- Limor Landau

A few weeks ago, I pledged to highlight an interesting person that I know every Wednesday. Well, due to circumstances beyond my control -- a death of a dear loved one, a stressful meeting with the Powers That Be for in-home supportive services, a raging case of chicken pox, a cancelled spring break, the reviewing of federal grants -- do you want me to go on? -- well, here's a much delayed post on one of my dearest friends, Limor Landau. 

Limor teaches yoga, using the Yoga for the Special Child technique, to many children with various special healthcare needs. I met Limor more than ten years ago, well before I became pregnant with Oliver, when I began exploring more alternative treatments for Sophie. Recreational activities for children with disabilities are very hard to find, and when I read about Limor and about how beneficial yoga can be for children with disabilities, I signed up. At the time, Sophie was going through a very difficult period, not only with seizures, but with a near-constant agitation and sleeplessness due to whatever drug she was on for her seizures. The first time Limor came into our house and worked with Sophie, she fell calmly asleep during the relaxation period, flat on her back with her hands at her sides. It seemed a miracle at the time, and I can still tear up when I think about the sweet songs that Limor sang to her through those sessions.

Limor, working with Sophie and her cousins and brothers several years ago.

Limor is a certified practitioner for the Yoga for the Special Child program and has worked with children from 7 weeks to 20 years old. She received her training from Sonia Sumar, a renowned yoga instructor and the creator of Yoga for the Special Child. Limor works with physically and mentally disadvantaged kids throughout the Los Angeles area. She is also a certified Yoga instructor and Shiatsu massage therapist, as well as a certified physical education teacher with a major in special children. She has used her extensive knowledge and experience on a personal basis after giving birth to her daughter, Tamar, who was born prematurely at 24 weeks weighing only 1 lb. 4 oz.

Here are a few questions that I've asked Limor and her responses. I hope that if you live in the southern California area, you'll contact her to see whether yoga might benefit your child.

Why is yoga for special needs children good for the children?
   Yoga for the Special Child is good for the child because it is a warmer, more soulful approach to therapy.


What sort of results do you see in children with severe disabilities?
   After some time during yoga, I have seen children improve their breathing, their flexibility and their ability to relax.


How has doing this changed your own life?
   Practicing yoga has taught me patience, compassion and appreciation for the positive aspects of life.


Your now twelve year old daughter was born prematurely, at twenty-four weeks weighing a little more than 1 lb. I know that you were able to treat her with yoga as well. How is your daughter today?
   Today Tamar is a thriving energetic 6th grader. She has some learning disabilities but is confident and a go-getter. She never gives up in face of life's challenges.

To contact Limor:


Phone: 323-965-9234
limoryoga@yahoo.com

Moon of the Week - Michelle K. Wolf

Each Wednesday I am going to feature a brief interview and/or highlight of a very interesting person in my life. I'm calling the post Moon of the Week, and today I'd like to introduce you to my friend Michelle Krotinger Wolf. I moved to Los Angeles thirteen years ago, pregnant with Henry, and Sophie nearly three years old. I took Sophie to the park several times a week and pushed her in an infant swing, generally alone, for hours. One day, I saw a dark-haired woman pushing a red-headed boy in a swing and knew immediately that there was something special about the little boy. I'm not shy, if you didn't know, and I introduced myself to the woman and so our friendship was born. Danny and Sophie have been a part of each other's lives in some way or another for nearly thirteen years and currently attend the same school. Michelle is an incredible advocate for children with special needs, a real mentor when it comes to government and community advocacy and someone with whom I can share my biggest worries and feel more positive and calm and directed after doing so. 

Here's her brief bio, and if that isn't impressive, I don't know what is!

Michelle K. Wolf is a non-profit professional and parent of a teen with CP and global developmental delays. She is the Director of Foundation and Government Relations for the Los Angeles office of the American Diabetes Association. She was formerly the Director of Serving the Vulnerable for The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, and in 2005, she co-founded HaMercaz, an innovative multi-agency collaborative one-stop model that helps Jewish families raising children with special needs with a focus on developmental disabilities. Michelle also served as Director of Public Policy/Grantwriter for the Alzheimer's Association of Los Angeles, Director of the Middle East Commission for the Los Angeles JCRC and was Press Secretary to Los Angeles City Councilmember Zev Yaroslavsky.

She is a graduate of the double master's program in Jewish Communal Service (Hebrew Union College) and Public Administration (USC) and has taught professional development classes through the Center for Non-Profit Management. She has a consulting business for non-profits who are looking for ways to innovate and collaborate.

Here's what I'm really excited about -- Michelle has just begun writing a blog about raising a child with special needs in the Jewish community on The Jewish Journal. You can read her latest post here, a wonderful story of taking her son Danny to Israel this year. I've admittedly been a bit jealous of Michelle's community and the inclusion efforts of her temple -- when my boys were going to Catholic school and we attended church regularly, the glaring differences between her spiritual community and mine were depressing. True, I might have started some sort of inclusion efforts myself or at the very least tried to lessen the isolation, but my efforts were feeble at best and I wasn't ever able to make any traction with the Powers That Be. (I wasn't cut out to attend Catholic mass, not to mention practicing Catholicism for much longer anyway.) And that's a whole other post! When I attended Michelle's son Danny's bar mitzvah a couple of years ago, I was blown away by the accommodations and efforts made by the temple to include these young adults with disabilities. It made a tremendous impact on me.

I hope you'll applaud Michelle's efforts by reading her new blog!