Methodology
Refining the self through awareness.
What is Feldenkrais®?
The Feldenkrais Method® of somatic education uses gentle movement and directed attention to help people learn new and more effective ways of living the life they want. You can increase your ease and range of motion, improve your flexibility and coordination, and rediscover your innate capacity for graceful, efficient movement. Since how you move is how you move through life, these improvements will often enhance your thinking, emotional regulation, and problem-solving capabilities.
The Feldenkrais Method is based on principles of physics, biomechanics, and an empirical understanding of learning and human development. Moshe Feldenkrais said, “We move according to our perceived self-image.” By expanding your perception and increasing awareness, you will become more aware of your habits and tensions and develop new ways of moving. By increasing sensitivity, the Feldenkrais Method assists you to live your life more fully, efficiently, and comfortably.
“The aim of the Feldenkrais Method is a person who is organized to move with minimum effort and maximum efficiency, not through muscular strength, but through increased consciousness of how movement works.”
- Moshe Feldenkrais
BIOGRAPHY:
Who is Moshe Feldenkrais?
The Feldenkrais Method® of somatic education was developed by Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais. Born in Russia, Feldenkrais immigrated to Israel at the age of thirteen. After receiving degrees in mechanical and electrical engineering, he earned his D.Sc. in Physics at the Sorbonne in Paris. He subsequently worked for a number of years in the French nuclear research program with Joliet Curie.
Physically active, Feldenkrais played soccer and practiced the martial arts. He studied with Jigoro Kano, the originator of Judo, and in 1936 became one of the first Europeans to earn a black belt in that discipline.
A chronic knee injury prompted him to apply his knowledge of physics, body mechanics, neurology, learning theory and psychology to a new understanding of human function and maturation. His investigations resulted in the formulation of a unique synthesis of science and aesthetics, known as the Feldenkrais Method. Today, there is a thriving community of over 10,000 Feldenkrais practitioners worldwide.
You can experience the Feldenkrais Method in two ways. Awareness Through Movement® lessons are taught in a group setting, with students following the verbal instructions of the teacher. Functional Integration® sessions are one on one lessons where the fully clothed student is guided through touch, movement and verbal instruction.
Reconnecting to Natural Movement
It begins in the womb, where we develop sensation and inaugurate a relationship with moving ourselves. As infants, we explore gravity, pleasure, comfort and ease. We establish a connection with our environment and caregiver that forms our self-image and guide us toward a place of confidence.
Later, as we develop into bipedal adolescents and adults, our movement habits become hardwired. Unconsciously, we have adopted a particular set of patterns, a self-image that now dictates our limited sense of understanding. We have become conditioned, and we default into auto-pilot mode, forgetting to integrate the symphony of bones, tissues, nerves and breath of which we are made. This habituated state becomes our sole pathway and we feel stuck, unaware that the pleasure and infinite possibility of our infancy remains within us.
Through the lessons of Moshe Feldekrais we learn to integrate and move with our whole self. We find ways to restore ease. Most of all, we rediscover the resilience we need to affirm our human dignity.
Our developmental process (from infant to child, from child to adult) fundamentally informs the way we move, feel, sense and think. If we bypass any of the stages of this process, our movement repertoire suffers from untapped potential. However, as adults we have the ability to relearn these lost, natural functions in order to utilize our whole self.
