The process of acquiring skill begins at birth and continues throughout life, yet even in the most sophisticated learning environments, the teaching of skill is largely based on crude methods of drilling and repetition that overlook the most basic elements of learning, leading to the development of basic problems that remain undiagnosed throughout life. In this course, Dr. Dimon explores the process of mastering skills based on an understanding of the functioning mind and body as "the central instrumentality upon which all learning depends.” He argues that the most important element in skilled performance is neither practice nor mechanical drilling but an understanding of one’s habitual ways of doing and thinking, and clearly describes principles that can help children and adults alike overcome learning difficulties and to achieve their full potential by breaking skills down into manageable elements, removing harmful habits, and gaining mastery over the central element of learning: oneself.

The workshop will focus on identifying basic learning problems and developing strategies for addressing them. Topics will include: how to structure the learning process; how to help children to experiment intelligently; how to address learning problems that are often misdiagnosed as emotional problems; and tension and anxiety in learning. Dr. Dimon will then illustrate these concepts by describing simple case studies of practical problems and how to address them.

Course fee: $85.00

Limited to 15 participants

Learning disabilities in recent years have increased at an alarming rate, leading to increased demand for new ways of addressing these symptoms. Many learning problems, however, emerge not from clinical abnormalities but a lack of understanding of how children function normally and how to develop their potential based on a positive understanding of learning and development. In this course, Dr. Dimon addresses how learning takes place as a psychophysical—not just a cognitive—process, how to restore improved functioning, and how to assess methods that focus on results at the expense of the child’s general functioning. The course will provide practical new perspectives on how to assist children in overcoming learning problems and how to identify problems before they develop, as well as ways of assessing functioning, attention, and behavior.

The workshop will focus on three areas. First, Dr. Dimon will describe basic elements of what constitutes healthful functioning in the child, giving examples of how children diverge from this norm and what signs to look for. Second, the workshop will present ways of developing methods that focus not on results but on long-term development. Finally, the workshop will examine practical ways that we, as teachers, can help children to achieve improved functioning without resorting to drugs or clinical intervention.

Course fee: $85.00

Limited to 15 participants

Although many musicians are able to master skills without experiencing difficulties, the vast majority develop tensions that limit and sometimes cripple performance. At the root of this apparently physical problem is a lack of knowledge and awareness of the basic instrument central to all performance: the use of the self. In this class, Dr. Dimon will focus on awareness and control over oneself as the basic foundation on which all performance should be based. Basic concepts will be demonstrated in practice, giving participants the practical tools for enhancing awareness and control.

Designed for teachers and performers of all levels, this experiential, hands-on master class will cover basic problems of tension in performance; observing and identifying problems in performance; basic principles of vocal use and movement; the role of thinking in performance; and paying attention to oneself as a fundamental element in skilled performance.

Course fee: $65.00

Limited to 15 participants

This intensive course on functional anatomy will look at the remarkable design of the human body and how it is constructed to permit a wide range of activities. Traditional courses on anatomy break the body down into pieces without explaining the logic behind this design. In this course, Dr. Dimon makes sense of our unique anatomical design by systematically examining the various systems in the human body, showing how they developed, and demonstrating how this design enables us to move and function.

The workshop will cover: the extensor muscles on the back of the body; the flexors on the front of the body; the shoulder girdle and upper limb; pelvic girdle and lower limb; breathing and the voice; anatomical terminology, and much more.

Course fee: $250.00

Limited to 40 participants

Available upon request

There is in all human movement a basic organizing principle, an active force that ensures effortlessness, vitality, and optimal control in everything we do. Although we are born with this system intact, over time it becomes compromised until eventually we resort to forms of exercise and relaxation in an effort to regain the vitality and health of youth. But no method can reinstate this inborn system unless we understand its inherent design, as well as the basic conditions under which it works properly.

In this workshop Dr. Dimon explores the basic principles governing the movement system, how to reinstate it, and how to enjoy the full fruits of our inborn ability to move and function normally. Topics will include: muscles and bones and how they form a natural support system; the evolution of movement; stretch reflexes and their central role in movement; principles of developmental movement; the central role of head/neck reflexes in organizing movement; the fallacy of strengthening and relaxing muscles, and much more.

Course fee: $250.00

Limited to 40 participants

Available upon request

The human voice is a miracle of nature, a marvel of engineering and design. Although traditional methods for training and “freeing” the voice sometimes produce dramatic improvements in vocal quality and control, they are aimed at exercising specific vocal muscles and fail to address the natural design of the voice and what we do to interfere with it.

In this workshop, Dr. Dimon explains how the voice works, how it will automatically activate when we understand its inherent design, and how the muscular system supports the voice. The workshop will explain the mechanics of breathing; how the larynx works; how the throat can naturally open; how producing a controlled exhalation serves as the basis for natural and effortless vocal support, and much more.

Course fee: $140.00

Limited to 20 participants

Available upon request

Although theories of cognition and learning have advanced in recent decades, many children continue to struggle in school because the teaching of skills is based on crude ideas of drilling and correctness that remain much the same today as they were two hundred years ago. Since the attitudes and habits the child brings to the learning process ultimately determine whether the teacher’s efforts are successful, such methods often compound problems in learning by eliciting harmful tendencies and circumventing the child’s innate capacity to learn. More importantly, they fail to address the most fundamental factor in the learning process: the central role of the self in learning.

As Dr. Dimon explains, learning should focus not on external action and accomplishment but on mastery of oneself as "the central instrumentality upon which all learning depends.” In addition to being eminently practical in helping children to overcome basic learning problems, such an approach leads to the fullest development of potential because blind habit is replaced with intelligent self-awareness, giving the child command over the self as the basis of all learning processes and as the foundation for a completely new and intelligent approach to learning.

Psychology during the 20th century produced two models of development that became central to educational theory—one describing emotional stages of development, the other cognitive. But while these theories provided useful frameworks for studying intelligence and for clinically diagnosing abnormal development, they failed to establish a standard of optimal development that applies to the vast majority of children who are clinically normal but often fail to function up to their ability.

In this lecture, Dr. Dimon proposes a new model of educational development based on a working knowledge of mind and body as the biological foundation on which all learning and accomplishment take place. As Dr. Dimon explains, understanding how this marvelous instrument works is the basis not only for decreased stress and increased awareness in living; it also provides a standard of psychophysical health and functioning that constitutes a much-needed foundation for an educational, as opposed to clinical, model of child development.

In recent decades, the study of mind and body has provided fertile ground for the development of an array of alternative methods that promise heightened awareness, the ability to overcome stress, and improved performance based on the ability of the individual to tap into the connection between mind and body. But although virtually all these methods appeal to the concept of mind/body unity, in practice they treat the two separately by training the mind or passively treating the body, providing temporary relief without giving the individual any real increase in awareness or command over the behaviors and attitudes that lead to the stress in the first place.

In this talk, Dr. Dimon describes a new aspect of mind/body psychology that goes beyond relaxation and stress-reduction techniques and describes an educational approach to the self based on the awareness and control of reaction. Mind and body, Dimon explains, are not interactive systems but part of an integral whole that operates to produce behavior at a largely unconscious or habitual level. Understanding how this system works—and how to gain heightened awareness of it in activity—makes it possible not simply to reverse harmful states of stress but to realize one’s full potential for becoming conscious in thought and action as the basis for understanding the causes of tension and stress in living.