A b o u t t h e M e t h o d
A victim of pogrom & persecution, Moshe Feldenkrais lost his voice in fright at 11, & then taught himself, by himself, how regain its function. More than anything, the Feldenkrais Method® is a learning method. It can be applied not only to how we find ourselves within the body’s sensory experience, but also how we move through life, how we experience uncertainty, how we find support, & how we stay free of our survival circuitry, able to create elegant solutions to every unexpected twist that living in a body on this planet provides. How do we teach ourselves
what we do not know?
The Feldenkrais Method® is a doorway into that kind of freedom.
There are 2 branches of the FM: Awareness Through Movement and Functional Integration.
A victim of pogrom & persecution, Moshe Feldenkrais lost his voice in fright at 11, & then taught himself, by himself, how regain its function. More than anything, the Feldenkrais Method® is a learning method. It can be applied not only to how we find ourselves within the body’s sensory experience, but also how we move through life, how we experience uncertainty, how we find support, & how we stay free of our survival circuitry, able to create elegant solutions to every unexpected twist that living in a body on this planet provides. How do we teach ourselves
what we do not know?
The Feldenkrais Method® is a doorway into that kind of freedom.
There are 2 branches of the FM: Awareness Through Movement and Functional Integration.
A w a r e n e s s T h r o u g h M o v e m e n t®
(ATM) These are movement lessons that are done in a group setting. They are designed to put us into an unconventional pattern, relationship to gravity, or sequence of actions (similar to rubbing your stomach while patting your head.) These lessons are not to teach you to become a circus monkey, but to give you the opportunity to over and over be outside your comfort range in movement, so that you get used to negotiating uncertainty and learning something new without having to become afraid or anxious. Moving differently leads to thinking differently!
And to having increased awareness, not just of our bodies, but of ourselves in the world.
F u n c t i o n a l I n t e g r a t i o n®
While Ida Rolf called her shaping of posture through fascial manipulation ‘Structural Integration,’ Moshe called his subtle introduction of refined sensation through touch ‘Functional Integration.’ Both aim to change how a body organizes itself in gravity, one by changing tissue, one by changing the functioning of the nervous system. These two titans had an on-going argument about which comes first: form or function. An FI lesson is a one-on-one experience where through touch, the practitioner imparts to the client some new piece of sensory information that can change the way the client sits, stands, walks, turns, looks,
and ultimately sees the world.
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Watch an interview with Karen and three of her Feldenkrais Trainee classmates!