"Studying with Babette Lightner freed me of chronic neck and back pain I had experienced for 16 years. I was given the means to help myself with no dependence on a practioner. Babette inspired absolute trust and confidence. My decision to work with her was one of the most important of my life."
"I noticed a change in my neck and shoulders right away, a loosening of the muscles. In about a month the migraines began to stop. During the next month I had only one migraine. That's the best I've done in twenty years. Babette took an overachieving workaholic like me and made me more centered in what I was doing now. Made me enjoy the present."
"My work with Babette has allowed me to perform with ease at my fullest potential. Her lessons have proved invaluable in my own teaching and have enabled me to move more freely through my daily life."
"I work in heavy construction and would periodically be treated for numbness in my arms. Through the work with Babette I've eliminated a lot of aches and pains associated with my work. This is like someone showing me how to use a tool, in this case the tool is my own body."
David Eldridge
From a letter after a workshop:
"You have a gift for challenging and inspiring those around you to a beautiful new level of wholeness, awareness, new-ness, thinking, questioning, engaging and letting go. Even from one short week the impact of you and your work on my musical & personal self has been so vital for my growth & learning. "
Music Educator-Music Therapist
Even a brief study with Babette has opened my basic sounds, helped free my articulation and technique, promoted a healthier, less stressful approach to oboe, and helped me to become thoughtful and efficient in my practice and performance work. "
Mark Seerup,Oboe Player & Reed Maker
"Babette's work has been the ultimate solution for many of my patients with chronic pain problems."
Don Habermas-Scher, DC
"It's a joy to work with someone who has such a positive, profound, light and loving touch."
Freya Manfred, poet
"Babette brings a unique and special blend of dedication, enthusiasm, senstivity, curiosity and clarity to her superb work. She has a rare gift for working with singer-actors that I find indespensible in my Institute for singer-actors."
Wesley Balk, former artistic director Minnesota Opera, professor of Theater, author
A letter after and Anatomy of Wholeness for Singers workshop:
Babette, I attended the workshop in Rhode Island and I have to say, my teaching has been revolutionized by what I learned from you. The following was written by one of my best and most hard-working students who is a senior in High School this year. I copied the hand-outs from the workshop for her because she had severe problem with performance anxiety and negative thinking. At her last lesson, I was teaching a new person.
From Caroline her student:
I've read the hand-out at least 20 times since voice lesson. You're right, it is so...revolutionary! I wish I had known this not only when I started with you, but when I started singing in elementary school!...My personal approach to singing has always been not to get confident, becaue then I won't improve. My mantra's have been "You're not perfect yet" and "You're not trying hard enough", approaching singingfrom the theory that once I had "perfected" one aspect, I would stop thinking about it and find another flaw. Because of that mentality, I developed a number of destructive habits that tore me apart both mentally and physically. And to top it off, it never helped me grow as a singer because I just fixated on what I lacked.
This new approach is AMAZING. I keep repeating to myself "Intend, Do, Assess,Clarify". I worked on 'Goria' tonight using that approach, and the difference was unbelievable. Instead of just constantly berating myself until I reached my breaking point, I sang it with a certain goal in mind, attempted it, looked back to see if the goal was achieved, and decided whether or not it worked.
Although it'll be a long while until I can fully adapt this method, since my vocal pessimism also affects many other aspects of my life, this has really helped me a lot. Thank you so much for respecting me enough to share this information with me and having faith in my potential and ability. I can't wait to learn more.
-end Caroline
Again, Babette Thank you for what you are doing. Jody Haas, Voice Educator
Knee Pain/Injury Story:
This story comes from a participant in a summer voice workshop-
voicecare network. We had worked all week as a group with Anatomy of Wholeness material. His 'ah ha' comes from 10 minutes we worked together on his running after he mentioned his knee pain and his passion for running. He had a strong foundation from the week to allow the 'ah ha" to occur in that 10 minutes.
Tom's story:
" I have been an avid runner for 30 years. I used to do fairly competitive running in 10K and longer races, finishing well for my age group. I've had a handful of marathons, some prettier than others. I know I feel the best when I am training for one of these runs. We used to say "Just get the next race on your calendar." That kept my training consistent.
In recent years I have had an increase in knee pain. While I do have a slight tear in the meniscus of my right knee, it is tolerable compared to the tendinitis in my left knee. Over the past five years I have had MRIs, X-rays and seen several levels of sports medicine professional to try and get some relief. Last January I got the information that my hamstring muscles were very tight. The therapist gave me some stretches to do before running. This series of therapy visits billed out over $1000.00. I gave this a really good trial but after weeks the running pain had not subsided. I had relegated myself to the fact that my body had seen too many miles and my running days were over. Runners know this is easier said than done. It seemed no matter how awkward or painful it was, I was treating myself to a 5 mile run once or twice a week. I just needed it for my mental health.
So here is my Ah Ha moment.
After working with Babette for about 10 minutes I discovered some things. I was running in what I called "present posture". I do this when I am in a public situation or a situation when I percieve I want to be "strong". The posture is a raised sternum, high ribcage, length to the back of the neck. I think I thought that this strength position was helping me breath deeper and be more efficient in my stride. (It was doing just the opposite) What was I up to? ....
Here was the experiment: Run in "present posture" - yep - there was the knee pain. Switch to a more even distribution (balance), look up, pointing to a spot in my path, let go of the posture, just run. Now here was the amazing part. As soon as I did this the knee pain dusappeared. Ten strides in the posture-pain. Ten strides without it - no pain. In the past two weeks I have had some of the best runs in years. The great part is I no longer pay for them with days of painful swollen knees.
The medical input did diagnose the injury. Their idea was to treat it but not the root cause, the way I went about running. Now I ponder: Maybe my older, heavily used body is still just perfect for running. Let's drop any "technique" I was trying to impose and just run. Pay attention to any lifting in my torso I may want to do and see if there is a correlation with the pain.
This for me is a profound inroad to the human coordination point of view.
PS-thinking about a half marathon in October. Thomas Mielke, High School Choral Director, runner
