The Feldenkrais Method is an educational system intended to give a greater functional awareness of the self. The method uses movement and awareness as the primary vehicle for learning. It is perhaps due to this focus on physical movements that the Feldenkrais Method is often classified as a complementary and alternative medicine.[1] The Feldenkrais Method attracts the attention of those who want to improve their movement repertoire (as dancers, musicians, artists), who want to reduce their pain or limitations in movement, or who want to use the method as a way to improve their well-being and personal development. Advocates claim the Feldenkrais Method often improves movement-related pain (e.g. pain in backs, knees, hips, shoulders), and leads to better functioning in cases of stroke or cerebral palsy. A central tenet of the Feldenkrais Method is that improving ability to move can improve one's overall well-being. Practitioners of the Feldenkrais Method generally refrain from diagnosis, or referring to the Feldenkrais Method as therapy. Mind-Body Intervention uses a variety of techniques designed to enhance the minds capacity to affect bodily function and symptoms. ... Autosuggestion (or autogenous training) is a process by which an individual trains the subconscious mind to believe something, or systematically schematizes the persons own mental associations, usually for a given purpose. ... Autogenic training is a term for a relaxation technique developed by the German psychiatrist Johannes Schultz first published in 1932. ... Biodanza is a system of affective integration, organic renovation and a re-education in original life functions, based on vivencias (intense experiences in the here and now) created through movement, dance, and encounter situations within a group. ... Eutony is a mind-body discipline created by Gerda Alexander based upon the experience of ones own body. ... The Feldenkrais Method is an educational system intended to give a greater functional awareness of the self. ... : Hypnotherapy is therapy that is undertaken with a subject in hypnosis. ... Terms and concepts in alternative medicine provides a glossary of quick and to the point definitions of important terms and concepts unique to alternative medicine (CAM). ... For other senses of this word, see Meditation (disambiguation). ... The Metamorphic Technique is a gentle form of foot, hand and head massage that can be carried out by anyone with a brief training in the technique. ... Rebirthing is a branch of alternative medicine which postulates that human birth is a traumatic event (see birth trauma) and that a discipline consisting of a combination of connected breathing techniques, relaxation and focused awareness can have therapeutic benefits. ... Somatic psychology, also known as body psychotherapy, is an academic and applied field involving the study of therapeutic and holistic approaches to the body, somatic experience, and the embodied self. ... Sophrologie was created by Alfonso Caycedo in the 1960s. ... Support groups exist to combat or legitimise conditions or behaviours. ... Tai Chi Chüan or Taijiquan (Traditional Chinese: 太極拳; Simplified Chinese: 太极拳; pinyin: Tàijíquán; literally supreme ultimate fist), commonly known as Tai Chi, Tai Chi, or Taiji, is an internal Chinese martial art. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Yoga whythbytvfbyjfgnuj6yfgy6gbytbythbthnbtyyhn uyuytnhunnytnjytjyhnygfhjnynjhfygnhen used as a form of alternative medicine is a combination of breathing exercises, physical postures, and meditation, practiced for over 5,000 years. ... Terms and concepts in alternative medicine provides a glossary of quick and to the point definitions of important terms and concepts unique to alternative medicine (CAM). ... Alternative medicine is defined as any of various systems of healing or treating disease (as chiropractic, homeopathy, or faith healing) not included in the traditional medical curricula taught in the United States and Britain.[1] Complementary medicine is defined as any of the practices (as acupuncture) of alternative medicine accepted... ... In philosophy, the self is the idea of a unified being which is the source of an idiosyncratic conciousness. ... Learning is the acquisition and development of memories and behaviors, including skills, knowledge, understanding, values, and wisdom. ... Alternative medicine is defined as any of various systems of healing or treating disease (as chiropractic, homeopathy, or faith healing) not included in the traditional medical curricula taught in the United States and Britain.[1] Complementary medicine is defined as any of the practices (as acupuncture) of alternative medicine accepted... Personal development (also known as self-development, self-improvement or personal growth) comprises the development of the self. ... For other uses, see Stroke (disambiguation). ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ...

Overview

The Feldenkrais Method was originated by Dr Moshé Feldenkrais (1904-1984), a Ukrainian Jewish physicist and judo practitioner of Eastern European descent. Among his many published books was Awareness Through Movement where he presented a view that good health is a matter of positive functioning. Feldenkrais asserted that his method of body/mind exploration resulted in better functioning individuals and helped to develop healthier and more emotionally mature people. He was more interested in the goal of holistic functioning rather than merely physical treatment, typified by his statement "What I am after is more flexible minds, not just more flexible bodies". Dr. Moshé Pinhas Feldenkrais (May 6, 1904 - July 1, 1984) was the founder of the Feldenkrais method of movement education designed to improve human functioning by increasing self-awareness in movement. ... 1904 (MCMIV) was a leap year starting on a Friday (see link for calendar). ... This article is about the year. ... This article is about the martial art and sport. ... Health can be defined negatively, as the absence of illness, functionally as the ability to cope with everyday activities, or positively, as fitness and well-being (Blaxter 1990). ...

This goal is reflected in the code of ethics of the Feldenkrais Guild of North America which states that practitioners of the method do not undertake to diagnose or treat illness of any kind. Most proponents of the Method consider it to be a form of self-education and mind-body development, rather than a manipulative therapy. Terms and concepts in alternative medicine provides a glossary of quick and to the point definitions of important terms and concepts unique to alternative medicine (CAM). ... Manipulative therapy involves the use of body work or massage therapy and other physical manipulation of the body for healing, such as those techniques used in osteopathy, chiropractic, and physical therapy. ...

Feldenkrais himself was a friend of Ida Pauline Rolf, who established the Rolfing method of bodywork. Feldenkrais' approach was more experiential, using self-discovery rather than manipulation. Some of the influences on Feldenkrais' work include Gustav Fechner, F. Matthias Alexander, Gerda Alexander, Elsa Gindler, Jigoro Kano, G. I. Gurdjieff, Emile Coué, Milton Erickson, William Bates, Heinrich Jacoby and Mabel Todd, all of whom were more concerned with awareness than with simple physical exercises. Dr Ida Pauline Rolf (1896 - 1979) was a biochemist and the creator of Structural Integration or Rolfing. // Dr. Rolf was born in New York. ... Rolfing, also known as Structural Integration, is a codified series of soft tissue manipulation, which purports to organize soft tissue relationships, with the objectives of realigning the body structurally and harmonizing its fundamental movement patterns. ... Gustav Fechner Gustav Theodor Fechner (April 19, 1801 – November 28, 1887), was a German experimentle psychologist. ... Frederick Matthias Alexander (January 20, 1869–October 10, 1955) was an actor who developed the educational process that is today called the Alexander Technique—a method of helping people learn to free habitual reactions of moving, learned by improving ones kinesthetic judgment. ... Gerda Alexander, a Danish teacher who devised a method of self- development called Eutonie. ... Dr. Jigorō Kanō (嘉納 治五郎 Kanō Jigorō, 1860 in Kobe, Japan - 1938) is the founder of Judo. ... Georges Ivanovich Gurdjieff (Георгий Иванович Гюрджиев, Georgiy Ivanovich Gyurdzhiev (or Gurdjiev); (January 13, 1866? – October 29, 1949), was a Greek-Armenian mystic, a teacher of sacred dances, and a spiritual teacher, most notable for introducing the Fourth Way. ... Émile Coué (born in Troyes, France, 26 February 1857 of old noble Breton stock; died 2 July 1926 in Nancy, France) was a French psychologist and pharmacist who introduced a method of psychotherapy, healing, and self-improvement, based on autosuggestion or self-hypnosis. ... Milton Hyland Erickson, MD (1901 - 1980) was a psychiatrist specializing in medical hypnosis. ... William Horatio Bates (December 23, 1860 - July 10, 1931) was an American physician and ophthalmologist who developed what is now known as the Bates Method of natural vision improvement [1], a collection of techniques and exercises intended to improve vision. ... Heinrich Jacoby (1889–1964), originally a musician, was a German educator whose teaching was based on developing sensitivity and awareness. ... Mabel Elsworth Todd is known as a major contributor to Idiokinesis, a field of bodywork and personal development that first came to prominence in the 1930s amongst dancers and health professionals. ...

Techniques

The Feldenkrais Method is applied in two forms by practitioners, who generally receive more than 800 hours of formal training over the course of four years:

Awareness through movement

In an Awareness Through Movement (ATM) lesson, the teacher verbally directs students through movement sequences. Usually this occurs in a group setting, although ATM lessons can also be given to individuals. There are more than a thousand ATM lessons in existence. Most of them are organized around a specific movement function, and teachers lend their particular style to each lesson.

Moshé Feldenkrais gave the name to a series of demonstrations he devised when some of his scientific colleagues wanted to know how he was learning to walk normally with a seriously damaged knee. Being an experimental scientist himself, he gave them concrete directions on how to move to discover for themselves what he was learning. Walking is the main form of animal locomotion on land, distinguished from running and crawling. ... For other uses, see Knee (disambiguation). ...

Here is a small example: Cup your hands so you could drink from them and bring them to your mouth. Observe how you place your fingers. Which set of fingers lies inside the other? Perhaps the edge of this palm is also a bit inside the other. Now cup your hands again but reverse the way you place your fingers. Put the fingers that were inside to the outside now. Bring your hands to your mouth with the fingers reversed and observe how different it feels to do it this way.

This simple observation could become the first step in a lesson that would lead to a marked difference in your overall ability to move.

In ATM lessons, students temporarily set aside habitual patterns, thereby enjoying freer, easier movement, and gaining more accurate and complete perception of the body and movement in general.

Feldenkrais understood these changes to be improvements of the self image, which can be conceived in one sense as an arrangement of areas of the motor cortex relative to the body. The body image was depicted by Dr. Wilder Penfield in the form of a homunculus. Since activity in the motor cortex plays a key role in proprioception Feldenkrais realized that changes in our ability to move are inseparable from changes in our conscious perception of ourselves as embodied. This relationship is clear and open to introspection. Make a quick list of body parts you know you have but which you cannot feel consciously and compare it with a list of those you can feel. Which list contains the members you can move? A persons self image is the mental picture, generally of a kind that is quite resistant to change, that depicts not only details that are potentially available to objective investigation by others (height, weight, hair color, nature of external genitalia, I.Q. score, is this person double-jointed, etc. ... Dr Wilder Graves Penfield, CC, OM, CMG, MD, FRS (January 25/26, 1891 – April 5, 1976) was a American-born Canadian neurosurgeon. ... The concept of a homunculus (Latin for little man, sometimes spelled homonculus, plural homunculi) is often used to illustrate the functioning of a system. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... // Proprioception (PRO-pree-o-SEP-shun (IPA pronunciation: ); from Latin proprius, meaning ones own and perception) is the sense of the relative position of neighbouring parts of the body. ... Consciousness is a quality of the mind generally regarded to comprise qualities such as subjectivity, self-awareness, sentience, sapience, and the ability to perceive the relationship between oneself and ones environment. ... In psychology and the cognitive sciences, perception is the process of acquiring, interpreting, selecting, and organizing sensory information. ...

Thus Awareness Through Movement lessons are intended to do just what their name says. They improve awareness by using and improving the student's ability to move, and they do this by way of demonstration. Beyond the specifics of a lesson, students learn to simply explore, as children do in play.

Functional integration

In a Functional Integration lesson, the practitioner uses his hands to guide the movement of the student, while the student lies on a padded table or floor. All of the movements are done in a range and at a speed that is comfortable for the student. This allows the student to feel safe, and gives the student the opportunity to observe the movement in detail. Through precise touch and movement, the student learns how to eliminate excess effort and strain and thus move more freely and easily. Lessons may be very specific in addressing particular issues brought by the student, or can be more global in scope. A lesson is a structured period of time where learning is intended to occur. ...

History

Feldenkrais first taught the method in Tel Aviv to 13 students. He later came to the United States in the early 1970s, where he taught at Esalen. He subsequently gave two professional trainings in the US, in San Francisco (1975-77) and Amherst, Massachusetts (1980-83). The Esalen Institute is a workshop and retreat center in Big Sur, California. ... This page is a candidate for speedy deletion. ... Location in Massachusetts Coordinates: Country United States State Massachusetts County Hampshire County Settled 1703 Incorporated 1775 Government  - Type Representative town meeting Area  - Town  27. ...

Relationship of client to practitioner

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One vital element of the Feldenkrais Method that is not often described is the relationship of the practitioner to the client. Simply asking a client to move, or physically manipulating a client, will not generally bring about the kind of change Feldenkrais envisioned. In his book, The Elusive Obvious, Feldenkrais likened his work more to "dancing with someone" than to "healing him". By this he meant that in the interaction between practitioner and client, the two are interrelated in a fundamental way. Image File history File links Emblem-important. ...

A practitioner must be prepared to undergo the same level of change as that which will occur in the client. When the practitioner makes verbal or physical contact with the client, the two become a single system, in the same way that two dancers are moving as one. With a genuine connection between practitioner and client, the client notices more. For example, if a practitioner moves a client's shoulder in a circle and begins to notice what quality circle the client can comfortably make, then the client may also notice; in fact, if a practitioner notices how his own body moves in relation to the client as she moves his shoulder, the client is likely to notice even more. The two experience a quality of movement which is fundamentally satisfying to the nervous system, a nonjudgmental, purely curious type of attending, where the system receives neutral information and can use it to improve upon itself. This kind of neutral information gathering most approximates the quiet exploration of a baby lying on its back learning how it will roll to its side for the first time.

The kind of connection necessary for true change is usually more difficult in a verbal Awareness Through Movement(R) lesson because of the nature of human language, which is far less exact and more prone to misinterpretation than pure movement. Nevertheless, it is possible to speak to a client in a way which creates a more profound connection; generally, the best practitioners give less in the way of direction, preferring instead to suggest questions that the client may ask themselves as they move. "When you lie upon your back, do the two sides feel the same, or is one side different? How is it different?"

The fundamental necessity of a genuine interaction between client and practitioner is an elusive aspect of the work and makes the training of the practitioners difficult. Because one is essentially learning how to open a client to self-understanding, practitioners spend a great deal of time pursuing this process in themselves.

Yet, this does not mean that the Feldenkrais Method lacks hard-and-fast principles. The Feldenkrais Method, especially as exemplified by the thousands of Feldenkrais’ lessons available in published form, takes advantage of the body’s mechanical aspect to create the greatest possible sense of change and improvement. Clients are led over time to be able to sense how best to align themselves so that they can take maximum advantage of the structural power of their bones to stand or to lift things; they are taught how to move from a lying position to a sitting position using the minimum of strain and effort, generally by relying on the use of spiral movements that take advantage of the body’s design. The important thing is that clients learn these things through a process of internal discovery, rather than by emulation. The relationship of client to practitioner is what makes the internal discovery possible for a person who has little experience thinking in this way.

Sources

• Feldenkrais, Moshé (1981). The Elusive Obvious. Cupertino, Calif.: Meta Publications, pp. 7-9. ISBN 0-916990-09-5. 

Dr. Moshé Pinhas Feldenkrais (May 6, 1904 - July 1, 1984) was the founder of the Feldenkrais method of movement education designed to improve human functioning by increasing self-awareness in movement. ...

Influence on somatics

Somatic disciplines influenced by Feldenkrais include: Hanna Somatics, Rubenfeld Synergy, Tellington Touch (for animals), Anat Baniel Method, Sounder Sleep System, Bones for Life, Liberation Through Movement, and others. Somatic disciplines are often referred to as bodywork, body therapies, hands-on work, body-mind integration, body-mind disciplines, movement therapy, somatic therapy, movement awareness or movement education or somatic education. ...

See also

• Moshé Feldenkrais
• Somatic education
• Judo
• Aikido
• Alexander Technique

Dr. Moshé Pinhas Feldenkrais (May 6, 1904 - July 1, 1984) was the founder of the Feldenkrais method of movement education designed to improve human functioning by increasing self-awareness in movement. ... The term somatic refers to the body, as distinct from some other entity, such as the mind. ... This article is about the martial art and sport. ... Aikido ), is a Japanese martial art developed by Morihei Ueshiba as a synthesis of his martial studies, philosophy, and religious beliefs. ... ‹ The template below is being considered for deletion. ...

Resources and external links

• International Feldenkrais Federation (official organisation for coordinating the Feldenkrais Method internationally)
• Feldenkrais Guild of North America (online lessons, background of the Feldenkrais Method, and practitioner listings)
• Australian Feldenkrais Guild (practitioner listing, professional training, and general information on the Feldenkrais Method in Australia)
• The Feldenkrais Guild UK (practitioner list, classes and workshops in the UK)
• Feldenkrais Resources (clearing house for books, audio-programs, and other materials related to the Feldenkrais Method)
• Feldenkrais Movement Institute (article introducing the Feldenkrais Method)
• Institute for the Study of Somatic Education(a variety of articles on the Feldenkrais Method including some rare)