Feldenkrais Method®

The Feldenkrais Method is a mindful practice that uses movement to make changes in your nervous system.  It combines knowledge about neurology, human anatomy, human development and learning to help you to find more balance in your movements.  I’ve organized this page in a question-and-answer format to help you learn more about it.

Who can the Feldenkrais Method help?

Most people start seeing a Feldenkrais Practitioner cm because they are motivated to improve the way they move, such as people experiencing persistent pain or a neurological disorder, or people who want to pursue excellence in athletics or the arts.

What do you mean by “movement?”

Usually, you will be lying down or sitting. The movements in a Feldenkrais lesson do not stretch the muscles or build muscle mass; instead, the movements are communicating with your nervous system to help it to learn. You do a simple movement several times to be able to learn the details of how you do it, the quality of the movement, what is the comfortable range, what happens in the rest of yourself when you make that movement.  As the lesson continues, the movements become more complicated and coordinated.  Usually the lessons eventually reach a point where the movement is unfamiliar.   When your nervous system starts to notice things that are asymmetrical or not as easy, it starts to make changes to itself as it learns to move in different ways.

How is the Feldenkrais Method different from other movement practices?

One unique aspect of the Feldenkrais Method is that rather than focusing on telling you what is “correct” alignment, we help you to become more observant of your own movement, so you can decide for yourself what the best movement will be in any given situation. The focus is more about the quality of the movement than achieving a particular form or posture.  We are looking for smooth, free, easy movement that is both functional and pleasurable.  In the end, only you can know if a particular way of organizing your body feels smooth, free, and easy; practicing the Feldenkrais Method can be very empowering, because you are encouraged to take responsibility for your own learning and healing, with the support of a good teacher.

Another major difference is the variety of lessons.  There is not a set sequence of movements repeated in every class:  Some are based on tiny movements of a very specific part of the body, and others are more focused on developing a pattern of movement throughout the body.  Some are slow and quiet for the entire session, and others develop into bigger, more vigorous movements.  You do lessons at your own pace, or even in your imagination, so there is no lesson that you cannot “do” if you approach it gently enough.

What is it like to do a lesson?

The Feldenkrais Method® is taught in two formats: Group lessons are called Awareness Through Movement®, and individual sessions are called Functional Integration®.  Click on the links for more information.

Why is it called Feldenkrais?

Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais (1904-1984) was an engineer, physicist, inventor, martial artist and student of human development. He started teaching his ideas in Israel, and taught two trainings in the United States in the 1970′s and 1980′s.  Click here for a biography of Moshe Feldenkrais.

How do you say it?

Feldenkrais rhymes (more or less) with paradise. It’s not “Feldenchrist” or “Feldenkrias.”

How does it work?
Whether in a group class or private session, here’s what I think is happening in a Feldenkrais session:

We create a safe space, so your nervous system can become calm, but still alert.

• When your nervous system is calm and alert, you are much better at noticing things, being aware of yourself, and learning.
• Safety includes keeping movements withing an easy range of motion.  The first movements in a session are often familiar and help you feel what easy movement feels like.  Your system doesn’t feel like it needs to protect itself.
• Safety includes acceptance.  Most “bad habits” were formed for a good reason: to protect you.  We look at your habitual movements in a nonjudgmental way. We talk about what you want in positive ways and acknowledge the ways you have been able to take care of yourself.

We set up ways for you to learn.

• You get “feedback” from firm surfaces to help you know what you are really doing.  When you lie on your back on a firm surface, you can bring your attention to how you contact the floor and notice that maybe one shoulder is contacting the floor more, or that one foot is turned in a little more than the other.  Once you begin to notice these things, your nervous system is beginning to learn more about itself.
• You also get “feedback” from noticing how you do simple movements.  Once you start to notice the details of how you do the movement, we add in other ways of doing it.  Doing unfamiliar, counter-intuitive movements can increase the sensations you notice about how you do things.
• An important part of learning – and creating a safe space – is the quality of how you do something.  In a lesson, you are encouraged to do movements with a smooth, attentive quality, making each repetition easier and more pleasurable.

The lessons lead you toward a more efficient and easy way of moving.

• Each lesson is based on knowledge about how the skeleton works, how the nervous system responds to input, and how humans develop movement as babies and children.
• Rather than focusing on a “problem” part, or getting more movement in a certain area, the lessons are concerned with function:  how your whole system participates in a certain movement or task.

Changes in movement generalize to all areas of your nervous system.

• As you increase the ability to sense your own body, your movement becomes more responsive, efficient and confident.  These qualities infuse your whole nervous system.
• Because your nervous system includes your emotions and thoughts, you may also experience changes in these areas – you may feel more relaxed, clear, purposeful, or efficient.
• You develop a more resilient system that has a healthier response to stress and trauma.

What do Feldenkrais Practitioners learn in the training?

Trainings include 800 classroom hours of classroom time, spread out over three or four years.  The training is very experiential; students do hundreds of Awareness Through Movement and receive many Functional Integration lessons.  This helps to develop a more intuitive, non-verbal understanding of human movement.  Students are encouraged to analyze the lessons and develop a deeper understanding of how they are designed and how they work.  We develop a solid understanding of the human skeleton and the physics of how force is transferred through the skeleton to carry weight.  We learn about human development and the movements of babies as they learn to suck, roll, crawl, and walk.  We learn about the ethics of touch and how to use touch in a helpful, respectful way.  We learn about how movement can have a profound effect on the nervous system.  Additionally, students are expected to further their learning in directions that interest them.

Some Central Themes of the Feldenkrais Method®

Physiology and functional anatomy

Your skeleton is an amazing work of architecture – if it is well-organized.  If you are not in alignment, each movement you make creates stress on the muscles, ligaments and tendons.  Feldenkrais lessons help you to develop your own “felt sense” of what movements are well-coordinated and skeletally supported.

Moshe Feldenkrais related proper movement with the ability to survive: to be able to move in any direction without hesitation or preparation, to be simultaneously aware of your inner experience and your surroundings, to be able to recover from injury and regain function.  In a group or private lesson, you gradually develop a sense of when you are using efficient movement.

“The aim is a body that is organized to move with minimum effort and maximum efficiency, not through muscular strength, but increased consciousness of how it works.”

“Health is measured not by the capacity to stay standing, but by the ability to get knocked down and then return to standing.”

- Moshe Feldenkrais

Neurology

Your nervous system is spread throughout your entire body – there really is no separation between body and mind. The formation of “habits” is simply the strengthening of some neurological pathways so that they become easier and automatic.  That is why you don’t have to think about how to bring a fork to your mouth:  you have created a pathway and you do it automatically.  These strengthened neurological pathways are like “ruts” and it can become difficult to move out of them.  However, habits are not permanent.  You continue to build and re-wire neurological connections throughout your life; this is called neuroplasticity. Feldenkrais lessons work with your kinesthetic sense – your sense of your own movement – to help you move out of your habitual ruts of movement and behavior and create new possibilities.

Coordinated movement begins with the ability to feel your own body with a high level of sensitivity. You may have experienced a very low level of sensitivity if you have had Novocain for dental work. When you can’t feel your mouth, you can’t move it. Our day to day experience isn’t usually so dramatic, but when you start doing Feldenkrais lessons, you start to realize that there are many places in your body that are practically numb; it can be a strange and exciting experience to suddenly have more sensation available from a part of you that had gone unnoticed.

The Feldenkrais Method® is a powerful way to access your nervous system and encourage the formation of new patterns. The lessons are slow and quiet enough that your system gets the chance to notice small changes in perception, and begins to create new connections.

“If you know what you are doing, you can do what you want.”

- Moshe Feldenkrais

Philosophy
Moshe Feldenkrais studied a wide range of subjects, including child development, psychology, philosophy, and how we learn. He knew or was influenced by some of the great thinkers of his time, including Milton Erickson, Margaret Mead, Ida Rolf, and G.I. Gurdjieff. He was descended from a long line of Rabbis, and although he was not a religious man himself, a great deal of his thinking reflects his experience growing up in a Hasidic culture (see Making Connections for more information).

An example of his thinking is his interest in the development of self-image: how individuals are influenced by society and develop “masks” to please the outside world; how judging children by their achievements robs them of their spontaneity; and how self-acceptance, rather than self-criticism, is the only way to improve oneself.

A good introduction to Feldenkrais’ philosophy is his book titled Awareness Through Movement.

“What I’m after isn’t flexible bodies, but flexible brains. What I’m after is to restore each person to their human dignity.”

-Moshe Feldenkrais