What is The Feldenkrais Method®?

The Feldenkrais Method® is a powerful and revolutionary approach to bring new awareness into every aspect of your life. It has helped millions world wide with posture & balance, pain relief, movement difficulties, athletics and performance.

The Feldenkrais Method® is about working with people around the issues of the acquisition of skill, efficiency, simplicity and other improvements in movement and ability.

The method is also about "freeing up" people's ability to express themselves.

We think of it as integrating "feeling" or "spirit" or "emotion" with our primary vehicles for self-expression: our muscles and bones!

How is The Feldenkrais Method® taught/applied?

There are two forms of the work:

Functional Integration® (FI)- private lesson

Awareness Through Movement® (ATM)- group lesson

Functional Integration®:

In private lessons the teacher gives sensory cues primarily by moving the student with very gentle touch.

The process is one of generating sensation (perception of physical change) which is received and used by the human nervous system as information. We generate information of a kind and quality which acts to modify the way in which that particular individual will organize movement or "use themselves."

Awareness Through Movement®:

These are easy-paced, verbally guided movement practices.

Each student is given ample time and space to develop their ability to sense themselves and learn easier, more graceful ways of moving.

The idea, however, is very similar (to Functional Integration): the movement generates sensation which is used by the nervous system to reorganize itself.

What does the term Somatic/Somatic Education mean?

Thomas Hanna, a student of Dr. Feldenkrais, is often credited with coining the term “somatic” by building on the Greek word sō-mă, meaning the body. Encompassed in the idea of somatic education is the personal living experience of learning through one's own body.

Other forms of Somatic Education can include Rolfing, Alexander Technique, Somatic Experiencing and Idiokinesis just to name a few.

What does Shamanic Therapy/Mentoring entail?

Shamanic Therapy in this case, is a self-referenced and spiritual approach to health and wellness more than it is a modality. It is a way of being and acting that includes embodiment, self-empowerment, devotional action and a reverence towards Mother Earth and the forces greater than mankind. Ancient cultures, the world over believed that each person was/is their own Shaman. The term Shaman denotes many things, most of which pertain to healing but are not limited to it. A shaman can be a story-teller, an herbalist, a bone-setter, a musician and so on.

The mentoring piece in this context consists of guidance in life and “La Dieta” or the contents of a persons mind, body and spiritual diet. Mentoring is the sharing of knowledge, skills and experience with another person to help themselves to progress. The goal is to help others gain perspective on how they think, eat, act and feel. Because, “ if we know what we are doing than we can do what we want.” - Moshe Feldenkrais.

Who was Moshe Feldenkrais?

Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais, (1904-1984), physicist, engineer, martial artist, educator, and researcher. He earned his doctorate in physics at the Sorbonne in Paris, where he assisted Nobel Prize Laureate Frederic Joliot-Curie at the Curie Institute. During his university years he met Kano, the originator of judo. Feldenkrais studied judo intensively and became a well-known judo teacher. However, it was in the relationship between movement and the ways we think, feel, sense and learn that Dr. Feldenkrais made revolutionary discoveries. Feldenkrais® lessons explore the biological as well as cultural aspects of attention, intention and cognition. The singular genius of Feldenkrais lessons is how they use bodily movement, actual and imagined, to focus learning at the juncture of thought and action.

How do I learn more about The Feldenkrais Method® on my own?

Resources

Books:

Awareness Through Movement; by Moshe Feldenkrais

The Potent Self; by Moshe Feldenkrais

Feldenkrais Illustrated; by Tiffany Sankary

Moshe Feldenkrais: A life In Movement; by Mark Reese

Online Resources

The Feldenkrais Guild of North America:

www.feldenkrais.com

ISSE: Institute for the Study of Somatic Education

feldnet.com/articles

Movement and Creativity, curated by Tiffany Sankary:

www.movementandcreativity.com