The Feldenkrais Method

What is the Feldenkrais Method? 

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Moshe Feldenkrais believed that health is founded on good function. He asserted that his method of body/mind exploration improved a person’s functioning (and therefore health) by making them more aware: "What I am after is more flexible minds, not just more flexible bodies".  The Feldenkrais Method tends towards being a form of self-education as opposed to manipulative therapy.  Those who qualify are known as “Feldenkrais Teachers” rather than therapist or practitioner. Feldenkrais' approach was essentially experiential, grounded in tools of self-discovery and movement enquiry.

The Awareness Through Movement (ATM) Classes

Awareness Through Movement classes are precisely structured movement explorations that involve thinking, sensing, moving, and imagining. Each lesson (and there are hundreds) consists of comfortable, easy movements that gradually evolve into movements of greater range and complexity. The difference between this and other “fitness” classes is that the focus is not on the end result but how you get there! The classes assist in making each individual aware of his/her habitual neuromuscular patterns and rigidities and to expand options for choosing new ways of moving while increasing sensitivity and improving efficiency.

One-to-One sessions – known as Functional Integration (FI) lessons

In a Functional Integration lesson, the teacher uses his/her hands to guide the movement of a single client, who may be sitting/lying on a Feldenkrais table or standing (fully clothed). The practitioner uses this "hands-on" technique to help the student experience the connections among various parts of the body (with or without movement). Through precision of touch and movement, a person learns how to eliminate excess effort and thus move more freely and easily. Although the Method does not specifically aim to eliminate pain or "cure" physical complaints, such issues may inform the lesson. Pain may often be resolved as an individual learns a more integrated, free, and easy way to move.