What is the Feldenkrais Method®?

An Introduction

The Feldenkrais Method of Somatic Education® is a radically transformative process of un-learning and re-learning. The Method uses small, gentle movements as a pathway for increased awareness of both body and mind.  Organized through functional movement patterns, these "lessons" create the conditions for learning and changing; through moving with awareness, we are able to activate our capacity for neuroplasticity and achieve big results.  As it is the nervous system that controls our muscles, posture, breath, habitual tonus, and perception of pain, working in this way allows us to achieve increases in flexibility, stability, balance, as well as comfort in one's own body, less pain, grace, and a sense of calm.  

The Method was pioneered by Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais and further developed by his students worldwide since his passing in1984.  Dr. Feldenkrais was a multi-faceted thinker; he earned his PhD in Physics at the Sorbonne, was one of the first students of judo outside of Japan, spoke seven languages, and read voraciously about a number of subjects.  As a young man, he seriously injured his knee in a game of soccer, which severely changed his ability to move through the world and have the active life he desired.  Using the experimental process he learned in the physics lab, his understanding of flowing movement from martial arts, and his readings on neuroscience and child-development, he was able to relearn his most basic movements and overcome his knee injury.  He then went on to further develop his unique method, helping many others to re-learn their most basic ways of being and function in a more easeful and authentic way. 

In the 21st century, neuroscience has caught up with Feldenkrais's intuitive experiments and offers some answers as to why The Method is effective in overcoming pain and increasing function. Essentially, Dr. Feldenkrais found a way to use movement to bring his students into a state of calm relaxation where deep learning is possible.  This focused but relaxed state promotes conditions for neuroplasticity in the brain.  Neuroplasticity is one of the great discoveries of our century; that the brain is able to change and rewire neural networks, even in adults of advanced age.  What this means is that we can change out patterns, behaviors, and perceptions on a neural level.     

The genius of Feldenkrais's discovery lies in the fact that everything we do in our lives involves movement.  He realized that if we bring more attention to how we move, there is not a part of our lives that remains unchanged, since movement, on earth, within the field of gravity, is the underlying condition through which we do everything else - including less overtly physical tasks such as working at a computer, speaking, and even thinking. Therefore, when we move with awareness through the Feldenkrais Method®, we fine-tune our neural networks to make our actions more efficient and effective.