What is The Feldenkrais Method?
Over time, we all develop habits in the way we move and behave. These habits develop for a variety of reasons. The following are a few possible reasons: injury, illness, physical or emotional trauma , stress, pain or sometimes we are in a hurry and we lose awareness of how we are using our body. We often develop habits that prevent us from doing things in the easiest, most efficient way. The Feldenkrais Method can help you or your pet learn to have more awareness about how you organize yourself, and develop new options in your movement, thoughts, and behaviors in order to break out of unwanted patterns.
WHO CAN BENEFIT FROM THIS WORK? HUMANS AND ANIMALS....
- Anyone young or old, physically challenged or physically fit.
- Anyone with acute or chronic pain or movement limitations
- recovering from trauma, injury, or disease, including conditions related to the nervous system
- Athletes wanting to improve their performance
- Performing artists wanting to improve performance and/or reduce injuries
- Anyone wanting to better manage stress and/or tension
- Seniors who want to retain or regain their ability to move without strain or discomfort
- Anyone who wants to explore their mind/body connection
How Can the Feldenkrais Method Benefit You?
- learn to attend to your whole self
- ease chronic problems and minimize pain
- enhance your flexibility ,balance and coordination thereby decreasing stiffness
- enhance recovery
- develop greater awareness and focus
- reduce stress and fatigue in your life
- improve cognitive abilities such as thinking and problem solving
- eliminate unnecessary energy expenditure
- mobilize your intentions into more action
- for small animals in addition:
- maximize more free movement,
- decrease stress/ anxiety (during grooming or in general)
- promote calm and confidence
- increase overall body awareness/co-ordination for training and sports
- deepen rapport
What happens during a Feldenkrais Treatment Session?
The Method is taught in two ways, each reinforces the other:
- Functional Integration®
This is a one on one session that is custom-tailored to focus on your or your animal's unique configuration at treatment time relating to a desire, intention or need you have. Through rapport and respect for your abilities, qualities, and integrity, Debbie creates an environment in which you can learn comfortably. Debbie uses gentle, non-invasive touch, movement and sometimes words during an F.I. to communicate to you,the client, how you organize your body and hints at how to move in more expanded functional motor patterns. An experience of comfort, pleasure, and ease of movement is conveyed while you learn how to reorganize your body's movement patterns and behavior in new and more effective ways. In Functional Integration, Debbie’s intention is instructive and communicative. Functional Integration is performed with you fully clothed, usually lying on a table designed specifically for the work. It can also be done while you are in a sitting or standing position. At times, various props are used in an effort to support your body's con-figuration or to facilitate certain movements.
- Awareness through Movement®
As Debbie guides you through movement sequences in Functional Integration lessons with gentle non-invasive touching, she verbally guides people through movement sequences in Awareness Through Movement lessons. Debbie teaches these verbally guided movement sequences to enrich your treatment and to give you movement activities you can incorporate into your day. AT.M.s are often taught to a group. Debbie teaches A.T.M. to you individually to tailor it to your specific needs. This is sometimes used as a home program that supports and ensures carry over of these new movement patterns in your life. These movement explorations involve thinking, sensing, moving, and imagining. Many are based on developmental movements and ordinary functional activities. Some are based on more abstract explorations of joint, muscle, and postural relationships. The lessons consist of comfortable, easy movements that gradually evolve into movements of greater range and complexity. There are hundreds of Awareness Through Movement lessons contained in the Feldenkrais Method that vary, for all levels of movement ability, from simple in structure and physical demand to more difficult lessons. Awareness Through Movement lessons attempt to make you aware of your habitual neuromuscular patterns and rigidities and to expand options for new ways of moving while increasing sensitivity and improving efficiency.
Who Developed The Feldenkrais Method®?
- Dr Moshe Feldenkrais D.Sc. (1904-1984) was an internationally renowned physicist, engineer, and martial arts expert. He began the development of this innovative approach following an incapacitating knee injury. He avoided surgery and chronic pain by applying his extensive knowledge of anatomy, physiology, physics, biology, prenatal development, linguistics, and athletics to restore his own functioning. Dr. Feldenkrais' widely read books include The Elusive Obvious, Body and Mature Behavior, Awareness Through Movement, and The Potent Self.
