Feldenkrais Method®

When you know what you’re doing, you can do what you want – Moshe Feldenkrais.

Nothing is permanent about our behaviour patterns except our belief that they are so - Moshe Feldenkrais.

 

What is the Feldenkrais Method®?

Learning

First of all, the Feldenkrais Method® is learning not therapy.  It rests on the premise that human beings, by their very nature are predisposed to life-long learning.  We learn well when every aspect of who we are is engaged – experiential, intellectual, physical, social, spiritual – and when that learning is pleasurable.

Recovery from Injury

So, just as we learn as a unified being, we recover from injury, physical, emotional or psychological when we are able to recover as a whole being. 

The Method does not usually address medical conditions directly.  Rather the Feldenkrais® teacher works with you to address pain and limitation by addressing the underlying physical conditions and the choices, whether conscious or unconscious we have made about how we organise our movement and our bodies.  Often when we have pain, we develop patterns of movement to protect the painful area, these patterns, in turn, create other limitations.

Flexibility, Physical and Emotional Health

However it would be a mistake to look to the Feldenkrais Method® only for recovery from injury.  The more integrated our movements are, the greater sense of well-being we will have.  It is about developing and maintaining flexibility of body and mind.

Maintaining flexibility reduces injury, sharpens skills, whether physical or mental, and frees our minds and imaginations for creativity.  If we maintain our flexibility as we age, we are more likely to keep our independence and our health.

Curiosity

Feldenkrais Method® helps develop that great learning gift of curiosity.  By allowing ourselves to become curious about how and why we move in a particular way, we learn to suspend self-judgment and so learn to exercise that great gift in all aspects of life.

The Method provides a safe environment for us to make mistakes, not do everything right the first time and so be playful, aware and curious in order to explore possibilities.  All this is done through gentle movement.

The body reflects the attitudes of the mind.  Improve the function of the body and you must improve the state of the mind… What I‘m after isn’t flexible bodies but flexible brains.  What I’m after is to restore each person to their human dignity.

Movement is life.  Life is a process, improve the quality of the process and you improve the quality of life itself -  (Moshe Feldenkrais).

                                                                         

Two Aspects to the Feldenkrais Method®

The Feldenkrais Method® is taught in two different ways.  As with all aspects of the Method your physical and emotional safety is paramount.  Often students experience an immediate sense of well-being.

Functional Integration®

Functional Integration®  is a one-to-one session with a Feldenkrais® practitioner.  Usually you lay on a low, padded table.  However your position will depend on your particular needs.  The practitioner uses gentle touch and movement to help you explore your habitual patterns of movement.  You remain fully clothed (except for shoes and belt) so it is best to wear comfortable clothing.

Awareness Through Movement®

In Awareness Through Movement® classes the practitioner verbally guides you through a sequence of movements which are focused around a particular function e.g. walking, sitting, coming from sitting to standing.  The movements are gentle, usually small, repetitive and done with awareness and curiosity.

Daily Life:

Taking the principles of Feldenkrais® into daily life could almost be called a third aspect of the Method.  What you learn in Functional Integration® and Awareness Through Movement® - whether it is a more efficient way to move, an easier way to do something or an attitude you have to yourself – the value of Feldenkrais® is that it applies to every aspect of your life to improve the quality of everything you do as well as how you look at life.

Feldenkrais® Principles of Learning:

    Do not do more than is within your present capacity but be aware of what you do

    You are in control of your own learning

    Nervous system learns well when we stay within our range with attention

    Personal comfort and safety are paramount

    Approach movements with curiosity, non-judgmentally, gently

    Attention and awareness of how, what and why of a process is often more important for learning than achieving a goal

    Suspend self-judgment so you can explore options of movement and attitude

    At all times stay within personal range of movement, comfort and safety

    Rest when you need to

What does Feldenkrais® do?

     Improves movement

     Improves how we function in daily living

     Improves self-esteem

     Assists in integrating emotional trauma

     Relieves pain

     Increases flexibility and co-ordination

     Helps prevent health problems arising from inefficient movement

     Develops curiosity

     Relieves stress and emotional trauma

     Helps us achieve our goals

     Helps healthy ageing

     Improves breathing

     Develops curiosity, an attitude of enquiry and respect for oneself

Who will benefit?

     People who want to improve a particular function e.g. sports people, musicians

     People who want recovery from injury – physical or psychological

     People who want to become more flexible in their movement and maintain health

     Those with the desire to learn something new about themselves

     Those who wish to develop stronger self-esteem

 

History of the Feldenkrais Method®

Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais (1904-1984) was a Russian-born Israeli physicist and engineer.  Not only was he a renowned scientist, he was an athlete and martial artist.  An old knee injury requiring surgery inspired him to think about human movement in a different way.  He realised that the pain and immobility he suffered was not so much from the injury itself as movement he had developed in response to the injury.  He began to explore how he used his knees.  The result was that he learned the power of aware, small, gentle movement to heal. 

Over time, he brought together his scientific and martial art skills as well as other movement theories of the time and educated himself in neurology and anatomy.  This led him to a revolutionary understanding of human learning and movement.  He began teaching movement classes later called Awareness Through Movement as well as working individually with people – Functional Integration.

In 1977 the Feldenkrais Guild was established and after Feldenkrais’ death assumed responsibility for the Method through training, ethics and standards.

The Feldenkrais Method® is now taught world-wide.

 

Some Good Quotes:

Maturity is the ability to live your vowed and unavowed dreams  - Moshe Feldenkrais, The Potent Self.

In creating this kind of learning situation, Feldenkrais has also created a new kind of learning.  A learning that is non-cerebral and non-coercive, in which there is no ‘correct’ way of doing things, no competitive striving, no ‘perfect’ or ‘imperfect’.  A learning that is as much play as it is work.  A process in fact, in which the mind/body play/works -  Layna Verin, The Teaching of Moshe Feldenkrais.

I believe that the unity of mind and body is an objective reality.  They are not just parts somehow related to each other, but an inseparable whole while functioning.  A brain without a body could not think. …There is little doubt in my mind that the motor function, and perhaps the muscles themselves, are part and parcel of our higher functions.  This is true not only for those higher functions like singing, painting and loving, which are impossible without muscular activity, but also of thinking, recalling, remembering and feeling.

Let us consider feeling in more detail:  I may feel joyful, angry, afraid, disgusted….Which comes first the motor pattern or the feeling?.... I stress that they form a single function.

A person is made of three entities:  the nervous system, which is the core; the body – skeleton, viscera and muscles – which are the envelope of the core; and the environment, which is space, gravitation and society.  These three aspects together give a working picture of the human being.

Self-knowledge through awareness is the goal…As we become aware of what we are doing in fact, and not what we say or think we are doing, the way to improvement is wide open to us -  Moshe Feldenkrais, Mind and Body.

In behaviour, however, what matters in individual cases is not what most people do, nor the statistical average, but the individual personal experience. And in any case, our analysis has left out one of the most important factors—the integrative power of the nervous system. This power enables the individual to control the impact of environmental influences, to discard the ones she has not learned to cope with and does not intend to learn, and to select among the multitude of possible spontaneous or automatic responses the ones to be enacted.

This process is maturation. And if it has been interfered with so that it never ripened sufficiently to enable the person to assume entire responsibility for her own direction, then infantile behaviour is paramount and compulsiveness is the rule -  Moshe Feldenkrais, The Potent Self.

Don’t let images of perfection prevent you from learning -  Russell Delman (Feldenkrais Method teacher).

 

  If you would like to make an appointment for a Feldenkrais session, please contact me on contactrh@optusnet.com.au or 0412 645 847