What is Feldenkrais

Feldenkrais is a tool for learning through movement. It provides you with strategies for learning how to move better - more easily, more fluidly, more efficiently, thereby developing skills for life long learning. It facilitates your own learning about how you move, about what you do that helps you to move well, about the habitual patterns of movement you have that may limit or constrain graceful, efficient movement.

The way the Feldenkrais Method® achieves this is by gentle instruction via the hands and/or voice. It is taught in two ways, through individual sessions, called Functional Integration, and through group classes, called Awareness Through Movement. In both forms, the client goes through a series of gentle, non-invasive and sometimes intriguing movements, exploring how s/he moves, the movements that are easy, those that are not so easy, and discovers new ways to move that are easier, freer, more efficient and graceful.

About Moshe Feldenkrais
Dr Moshe Feldenkrais developed the Feldenkrais Method®. He was a man of many talents, being a physicist, engineer, martial artist and a fine soccer player. He injured his knees during his soccer years, and due to increasing aggravation as he became older, he was tempted to have knee surgery. However, he didn't, as the surgeon's prognosis was grim.

Instead, because he was restricted in what he could do and in considerable discomfort at the time, he slowly and systematically worked out how his body worked. He discovered that many of the movements he made actually increased the pain in his knees, and that he was neglecting, through years of habit, to move many parts of himself that could help him move more easily. He explored and experimented with movements and after some time, realised that the pain in his knees was virtually gone.

Dr Feldenkrais realised that these discoveries from exploring his own movement patterns and habits were important. He began to teach the work to others, and over the years, the work developed into what we know as the Feldenkrais Method®. Now the work is known around the world.

Who can benefit?
Everyone! No matter what your age, you have developed habitual ways of moving. You may have had to protect an injury, or you may habitually use your right side for some actions, your left for others, for no other reason than……that is the way you move. Feldenkrais assists you to find easier ways to move, by noticing those very habits, and by showing you that there are other parts of you that can help you move more easily.

People who use the Feldenkrais Method® include those who are involved in repetitive tasks; performers, such as dancers, musicians, athletes and actors, who want to enhance their performance and prevent new and/or recurring injury; people with degenerative issues such as arthritis; people with neurological and physiological conditions including strokes, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis; people who want a better "posture", and people who are interested in developing skills for living through movement.