Explanation of The Feldenkrais Method®

The Feldenkrais Method® of somatics is an educational system which uses
movement to increase body awareness and improve the ease, balance, grace and
effectiveness of action. It does this by helping the student become aware
of his/her existing patterns of action and guiding the student in the discovery
of additional possibilities for action.

Feldenkrais lessons can take two forms, hands-on private Functional Integration®
(FI) lessons, and verbally guided group Awareness Through Movement® (ATM)
lessons.

ATM classes consist of slow, gentle exploratory movement
sequences designed around a specific human function (such as reaching, bending,
or twisting), with the goal of increasing awareness of multiple options for
organizing the action. In a lesson, the instructor talks students through
movement sequences for them to explore in a slow and delicate process of awareness.
Students repeat the movements over and over, focusing on feeling qualities
of their movements. Every few minutes, the instructor suggests a new variation
of the movement sequence, gradually taking students through an exploration
of how the body can most efficiently, economically and enjoyably perform the
movements.

Basic ATM sequences are usually done sitting or lying on the floor so that
students don't have to worry about balancing or falling or working to support
their bodies against gravity. More advanced ATM sequences can involve standing,
walking, or other complex movements. The teacher does not demonstrate the
desired movement, and the basic movements are usually done with the eyes closed.
This way students don't see and copy someone else's movement but instead focus
on experiencing and exploring their own movements. By the same token, to ensure
that students approach the movement as pure exploration, there is no externally
defined end product or "right" way of doing the movements. Staying focused
on the process of moving rather than trying to achieve some goal helps students
approach the movement with curiosity and playfulness, as an exploration of
how the body works. In this spirit of playful curiosity and gentle awareness,
the body will use its innate wisdom to find more comfortable and effective
ways of moving.

Functional Integration® lessons are hands-on lessons
for individuals. In FI, a practitioner uses words and gentle, non-invasive
touch to help an individual student become aware of how he/she habitually
moves and to suggest alternative movement patterns. The teacher uses touch
which is extraordinarily soft and delicate to guide the student's awareness
of her/his own body and to communicate new ways of breathing, using muscles,
and organizing movements.

Awareness is the key to the process underlying the Feldenkrais
Method. What students become aware of is the position and feeling of the body
itself and the efficiency and comfort of movements. Through the exercises,
students learn how to investigate their movements in a non-judgmental way.
They have the time and opportunity to feel how they habitually move and to
discover the unconscious ways in which they constrict their bodies and limit
their movements. These unconscious tensions and restrictions waste energy.
They produce strain and fatigue. Bringing these restrictions into conscious
awareness results in an almost magical transformation.

As people feel what they are doing, they will have the natural, automatic
experience of choosing easier, gentler, more relaxed and more efficient movement
alternatives. As they let go of their old movement patterns, their bodies
will become freer and more relaxed, and their movements will become more natural,
balanced, and coordinated. They will begin to move in fluid, integrated spirals
of graceful movement, and they will improve their posture, reduce stress,
and experience more comfort in everything they do.

The Feldenkrais Method works by teaching students how to bring awareness
fully into the body/self. It operates by giving people choices about how they
move and function. It helps people eliminate what Feldenkrais called "parasitical
movements," those extra efforts which do not result in any useful movement.
These parasitic movements may include such things as clenching the jaw while
walking or tensing the shoulders while talking. Eliminating parasitic movements
results in increased relaxation, greater flexibility, better balance, and
greater economy of movement.