What they are saying…
Way beyond his time, thousands believe Moshe Feldenkrais can stretch the mind – as well as the body.
“I have long been intrigued by this subtle form of retraining the nervous system, which I recommend to patients whose movement has been restricted by injury, cerebral palsy, stroke, fibromyalgia, or chronic pain. I find it to be much more useful than standard physical therapy. I also believe that the Feldenkrais Method can help older people achieve greater range of motion and flexibility, and help all of us feel more comfortable in our bodies.” — Andrew Weil, M.D., Author of ‘Spontaneous Healing’ and ‘Natural Health, Natural Medicine’
“After just a few moments of the Feldenkrais exercises, people often find themselves, as if by magic, easily doing things with their bodies that they never thought possible.” — New Age Magazine
“Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais has developed a system that is many years ahead of conventional medical understanding. Following the program with Feldenkrais, patients showed significant improvement in their levels of pain, decreased numbers of medications, and increased quality of life.” — Martin Rossman, M.D., Author. American Journal of Pain Management (January 1999)
The Feldenkrais® Methods
The Feldenkrais® Methods invoke a broader base of understanding of human development and consciousness. Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais combined the fields of neurology, education, development, and physics to develop methods that enhance the biological nature of learning and growth. His two approaches are “Functional Integration (FI)” and “Awareness Through Movement ( ATM).”
Of the two methods, one is a hands-on method, “Functional Integration® (FI®),” and the other is movement lessons, Awareness Through Movement (ATM®). Both methods are often used in conjunction.
There is a wisdom from the body to the brain explained in ancient times, and now in neuroscience. We can see it in the Hebrew language, the word for “Awareness” is: “Moodah-oot.” The root of which is Dah-at or knowledge. So “Moodah-oot atsmit” means self-knowledge. “Moodah-oot be-emtsah-oot Tnoo-ah” means awareness through movement – but note that while awareness in English is subject to much vagueness, awareness/consciousness, and so on, the Hebrew is more precise. “The Lubavitch hassidic” core teachings use the acronym “Chabad” i.e., CHochma, Bina, dah-at — which means: Intelligence, wisdom, knowledge. The “movement” is the experience of living in a physical body and how that plays a role in the development of the mind. “Awareness” is a physical experience; a sense, and in ancient times they used the word “sacred sense” or hakima. Wellness Through Movement combines neuroscience and ancient wisdom and changed the word to the Sensory Body (SB). The SB is different than proprioception. The SB falls more in the lines of what is hidden from the mind, or as “Body Ownership” research explains. To teach about this sense, physical sensations and motion develop a sense of the physical nature of consciousness. In this context, awareness, or what will be called the SB, comes from a type of sixth sense, a unity with the self, motion, and brain through a body sense.
The physicality of action and attention sets up the carriage for mental behavior to form. In the muscular-skeletal systems there is a feedback loop reflecting behavior. This “carriage” is easy to feel in chronic conditions or cognitive disorders. The movement of the carriage forms the sense of “I” or perception. Therefore, action and perception become foundational to the development of cognition. Sensations link thinking, feeling, sensing, and movement. Within the links of one’s internal environment (the body) and external environment (circumstances), impulses search for order, some type of organization into a pattern. Sculpt away a pattern in the nervous system and the mind finds a filter-like screen of motion to paint the picture of perception.
Here, learning is looked at more from the biological nature of the body to the brain. “Nature versus Nurture,” not because motor development is primary but because it categorizes action as being not merely a motor development. Motion shows the brain how to measure qualities donating to perception, cognition, and learning.
Here is an example of Nature versus Nurture: an 11 months old boy was beginning to walk. Then at 12 months of age, he gets a hernia operation from a birth defect. After the surgery, for a year, the child became emotionally insecure and would not be left without a parent near by. The structure in the pelvis was altered causing him to feel off-balance after the surgery. After three sessions of Functional Integration® (the Feldenkrais® method), within 48 hours, the child’s behavior returned to himself. His self-confidence improved from balance improving and the problem disappeared.
Feldenkrais Resources
International Feldenkrais® Federation
http://www.feldenkrais-method.org/
Feldenkrais® Guild
http://www.feldenkrais.com/
Articles from the Feldenkrais® Guild
http://www.feldenkrais.com/method/articles.html
Additional Readings
User’s Guide to the Brain by John Ratey
Awareness Through Movement by Moshe Feldenkrais
Body and Mature Behavior by Moshe Feldenkrais
Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor
The Brain in Mind by Eric Jensen
Smart Moves by Carla Hannaford