Feldenkrais Method

Are you experiencing back pains? Are you having “focused attention” difficulties? Or have you discontinued doing activities you once enjoyed? The Feldenkrais Method will be helpful to anybody who wants a reconnection to his or her natural abilities to think, feel, and move. Whether one wants to be more at ease when sitting at the computer, playing with the kids or grandchildren, or doing favorite pastimes, the gentle lessons of Feldenkrais Method can better the overall health.

Developed by Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais, this method blends features of physical therapy, martial arts, and exercise in an exceptional technique that maintains the nervous system, releasing rigidities, expanding one’s range of motion, creating improved movement patterns, developing maximum skeletal alignment, and living a “pain-free” life.

Knowing how to move with reduced effort makes everyday life easier. Since the Feldenkrais Method centers on the connection between thought and movement, one experiences boosted creativity and mental awareness accompanied with physical improvements. Anyone, from artists to athletes to attorneys to administrators, will benefit from Feldenkrais Method.

he Lessons

The classes for Feldenkrais Method are presented in two similar forms: the “Awareness Through Movement” and the “Functional Integration”.

wareness Through Movement

This Feldenkrais class contains “verbally directed movement sequences” that’s presented mainly to groups. Awareness Through Movement classes have some hundred hours, and one lesson usually lasts for thirty to sixty minutes. Every lesson is generally organized around specific function.

In these Feldenkrais lessons, the participants engage in “precisely structured movement explorations” involving sensing, moving, imagining, and thinking. Numerous lessons are based on normal functional activities and developmental movements. A number are founded on more abstract explorations of muscle, postural, and muscle relationships.

The classes have easy and comfortable movements that slowly progress into movements of higher range and complexity. The Feldenkrais Method contains hundreds of “Awareness Through Movement” classes that vary for every level of movement capability, from uncomplicated physical demand and structure to the more challenging lessons.

Moreover, the lessons try to create awareness in one’s “habitual neuromuscular patterns and rigidities”, as well as widen the options for newer methods of moving while escalating sensitivity and enhancing efficiency.

The main objective of these lessons is for the participant to know how their most basic functions are organized. Through experiencing details of how one does any action, participants will have the opportunity to attend to their whole self, get rid of unneeded energy expenditure, mobilize their intentions towards actions, and learn.

unctional Integration

These lessons are another form of Feldenkrais Method, which guides participants through movement that uses non-evasive and gentle touching. The lesson is a “hands-on” type of kinesthetic and tactile communication. The practitioner of Feldenkrais communicates to students how they organize their body and suggests how to move the body in more long-drawn-out functional motor patterns, by way of gentle movement and touching.

The lesson must relate to an intention, need, or desire of students. Its learning process is performed without utilizing any forceful or invasive procedure. By respect and rapport for a student’s qualities, integrity, and abilities, the teacher or practitioner creates a setting wherein a student learns comfortably.

Moreover, the practitioner creates a lesson for a student, customized to the “unique” configuration of a specific person at that specific moment. The teacher expresses the experience of pleasure, movement ease, and comfort while a student learns to reorganize their behavior and body in newer and more effectual manners. The intention of the practitioner in these lessons is communicative and instructive.

Functional Integration is typically done with students lying on a table that’s especially designed for the job. It may also be performed with students in standing or sitting positions. Sometimes, different props are utilized in an attempt to support one’s body configuration or for facilitating particular movements.

Feldenkrais Method teaches one to move more effectively and efficiently through the use of gentle stretches, motions, and mental focus, resulting in improved human functioning. The method teaches one to move “smarter” and not stronger.