About the Feldenkrais Method®:
Feldenkrais is a practice of gentle movement explorations that can re-awaken people of all ages to the kind of neurological flexibility, bodily pleasure, ease, mobility, and discovery that is biologically inborn and alive in us when we are babies and young children.
Feldenkrais can help resolve and heal injuries and chronic pain, and make daily activity more easeful, powerful, and pleasurable.
Feldenkrais is also taught at the highest level of professional sports to help great athletes become even better athletes.
Feldenkrais can equally enhance mental, emotional and spiritual well-being by helping us move out of the cultural paradigms of “no pain no gain”, judgement, self-judgement, pushing, straining, forcing, performing, manipulating, and into a kinder, gentler paradigm of curiosity, exploration, inner referencing, enjoyment … real learning, discovery and development.
These movement exploration can made in an individual session help and hands-on facilitation of a practitioner, or exploring individually as part of a guided Feldenkrais class, or on one's own using an audio recording or simply by following the natural flow of one's own somatic curiousity and enjoyment.
The Feldenkrais Method is a form of somatic education that uses gentle movement and mindfulness to increase awareness of the body and improve physical function. It was developed by Israeli physicist and martial artist Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais in the mid-20th century and is based on principles of neuroscience, anatomy, and developmental movement.
Moshe Feldenkrais pioneered the study of neuroplasticity 70 years before mainstream science coined the term. He is the subject of two chapters in Dr. Norman Doidge’s NewYork Times bestseller on neuroplasticity, “The Brain’s Way Healing.” You can listen to a short clip of Dr. Doidge talking about Dr. Feldenkrais's amazing life and discoveries here!
The gentle movement explorations -- taught in Feldenkrais classes (called Awareness Through Movement or ATM) or explored in individual sessions with a practitioner (called Functional Integration, or FI)-- open up new neurological connections and movement possibilities. They improve flexibility, coordination, and overall well-being.
While most people find Feldenkrais in a search to recover from chronic pain or injury, Feldenkrais is also a path to proactively develop greater athletic coordination, flexibility and capability at any age.
Kevin Cassity spent four of his nine years of professional Feldenkrais training working with Jeff Haller of Seattle, who is known for his work with professional athletes in the NHL, ABL, and PGA, and in other collegiate and professional sports leagues.
More on the Feldenkrais Method:
What is the Feldenkrais Method®?
What can Feldenkrais Method do for me?
How does the Feldenkrais Method work?
What are Awareness Through Movement (ATM) classes?
What are Functional Integration sessions?
How do I make an appointment?
Where did the name come from?
What does the Feldenkrais method have to do with neuroplasticity?
Is it strenuous?
I have a lot of pain and movement limitations. Can I still study the Feldenkrais Method?
I feel great and perform at my peak. What can the Feldenkrais Method offer me?
How is the Feldenkrais Method Different from Massage?
How is the Feldenkrais Method different from yoga?
How is the Feldenkrais Method different from tai chi?
Who can benefit?
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What is the Feldenkrais Method®?
It is a form of “somatic education,” which means it uses movement and awareness of your own body sensations to guide you toward positive changes.
The Feldenkrais Method is not a treatment, adjustment, or exercise program. Instead, it is based on decades of research in physics, neuroscience, biomechanics, learning theory, and human development to give you the means to help yourself.
What can Feldenkrais Method do for me?
Although many people first discover Feldenkrais as a way to recover from injuries or chronic pain, Feldenkrais can improve any activity — from athletic and music performance to artistic and creative endeavors to getting out of bed in the morning.
Feldenkrais can improve nervous system conditions (MS, cerebral palsy, stroke, Parkinsons). It can improve nervous system regulation and assist trauma recovery, assist child development, healthy aging, mindfulness, posture and balance, .
How does the Feldenkrais Method work?
Your own body awareness and attention stimulates the brain to create new neural pathways that enable optimal movement patterns and function. This brain activity is called “neuroplasticity.” Neuroplasticity is what allows all learning to take place. As you learn better ways to move, you experience improvements in balance, breathing, coordination, flexibility, cognition, and outlook.
People usually experience Feldenkrais through an “Awareness Through Movement®” class (ATM) or an individual “Functional Integration” session (FI) with a practitioner.
What are Awareness Through Movement (ATM) classes?
Feldenkrais® group classes are known as Awareness Through Movement® lessons. Awareness Through Movement classes use slow, mindful movements to achieve powerful effects in terms of strength, flexibility, and holistic integration of body and mind. Unique to the Feldenkrais Method® of somatic education is that these lessons tie directly into functional movements of daily life, such as walking efficiently, safely lifting objects, and improving one’s posture in sitting or standing.
You can expect a class to last somewhere between 30 and 60 minutes. You might walk, stand, or sit in a chair, although usually, you will lie on the floor in a variety of comfortable positions: either on your back, front, or side. The teacher guides students through a sequence of movements, encouraging them to move with gentle attention within a comfortable range. You may become aware of unexpected and interesting connections within and between the movements. As you attend to the improving quality of movement, unnecessary muscular tensions throughout the body can reorganize and release. Students are often amazed at the quick and clear changes that occur through the neuromuscular repatterning that happens in an Awareness Through Movement lesson!
ATM classes are available in person and by zoom.
What are Functional Integration sessions?
Feldenkrais® private sessions are known as Functional Integration® lessons. In Functional Integration, the teacher guides an individual student in movement lessons using gentle, non-invasive touch as the primary means of communication.
In a Functional Integration lesson, the Feldenkrais teacher’s touch reflects to the student how they currently organize their body and actions. They suggest, through gentle touch and movement, expanded possibilities for new movement patterns which are more comfortable, efficient, and useful. Functional Integration lessons are flexible in their approach, determined by the student’s needs. The student may lie comfortably on a table designed specifically for the work, or do some of the lesson sitting or standing. As needed, the teacher may also use various props to support the student’s comfort, to make certain movements easier, or to clarify a movement.
Each Functional Integration lesson relates to a desire, intention, or need of the student. The learning process is carried out without the use of any invasive or forceful procedure. Through rapport and respect for the student’s abilities, qualities, and integrity, the teacher creates an environment in which the student can learn in safety and comfort. The lesson is developed, specifically for the student, custom-tailored to the unique circumstances of that particular person, at that particular moment. The student learns how to reorganize their actions in new and more effective ways through the experience of comfort, enjoyment, and ease of movement.
How do I make an appointment?
Call or email to set up and appointment.
Where did the name come from?
The Feldenkrais Method® was developed over 40 years of research by Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais. He was a scientist and an athlete, as well as one of the first Europeans to earn a black belt in Judo. He applied his rigorous scientific approach to the study of movement in order to explore how we learn and how to improve our lives.
What does the Feldenkrais method have to do with neuroplasticity?
Neuroplasticity is the capacity of the brain and nervous system to renew themselves and grow new connections. Although this ability is greatest in children, scientists in recent years have shown that neuroplasticity continues to function in adults as well. Best-selling author Dr. Norman Doidge writes that neuroplasticity represents “the most important alteration in our view of the brain since we first sketched out its basic anatomy.” We know that neuroplasticity is stimulated through precise, directed attention to a wide variety of gentle and unusual movement possibilities. The Feldenkrais Method® of somatic education thus helps people all over the world to explore their neuroplastic potential.
Is it strenuous?
No. Both Awareness Through Movement® classes, which are taught in a group setting, and Functional Integration® lessons, which are taught one-on-one, are slow, gentle explorations of movement that can be done by anyone, at any level.
I have a lot of pain and movement limitations. Can I still study the Feldenkrais method?
Absolutely. The wonderful thing about the Feldenkrais Method® is that it is about exploring learning strategies. If you have difficulty with on side, you can work with the other side. If you can’t lie down, you can sit. And even if nothing moves, you can work with your imagination, creating new neural links that can improve your quality of life.
I feel great and perform at my peak. What can the Feldenkrais Method offer me?
There is always room for improvement. You can learn to do what you already do well, more easily, with less effort, so there is energy left over to go even further. Many of Feldenkrais’ biggest adherents are professionals who strive to be their best — Yehudi Menuhin, Martina Navratilova, Dame Judi Dench, to name a few. Weight lifters find the weights seem lighter, tennis players and golfers find their swing more effortless, runners go farther, and performing artists feel they can dance or play the night away.
How is the Feldenkrais Method Different from Massage?
Massage involves soft tissue manipulation. Massage therapists work with muscles and soft tissue. The Feldenkrais Method® is an approach that seeks to affect change by working with your nervous system. Your brain directs the nervous system and is in charge of your movement patterns, so if you want to change your movements you must literally change your mind. As new neural pathways are formed in your brain, you can safely regulate and coordinate your movements, organizing yourself for effective action in the world
How is the Feldenkrais Method® different from yoga?
Unlike yoga, the Feldenkrais Method® does not require you to be flexible, nor does it involve stretching or holding any positions. It also does not involve any practice to perfect positions. Instead of repeating and holding set poses as in yoga, in a Feldenkrais® class you explore gentle and innovative movements as you learn to become aware of habits that may be causing you movement difficulties, inefficiencies, or pain. Many yoga devotees explore the Feldenkrais Method as a way to achieve postures that previously eluded them or that caused discomfort.
How is the Feldenkrais Method different from tai chi?
Unlike tai chi and most martial art disciplines, the Feldenkrais Method® does not require any practice or intensive training to receive its benefits. There are no repetitive movements, and no physical conditioning is required.
Who can benefit?
While most people discover Feldenkrais as a way to heal injuries or chronic pain, it can also greatly enhance ability and pleasure in anything involving movement — athletics, music, and the quality of every day life-- backing out of the driveway, washing dishes, or getting out of bed in the morning.
Unlike exercise routines which tend to be repetitive and mechanical, focusing on muscle, force, and goal over process, or practices like yoga, pilates, and tai chi which are based on forms, Feldenkrais helps people rediscover the biologically innate exploration and play that made us all super-learners as babies and young children. It engages curiosity, pleasure, ease, playfulness and internal-referencing rather than force and external referencing (am I doing it “right"?). It is a relaxed, fun, process oriented exploration of how to move in the most easy, coordinated, efficient and powerful ways. One could think of it as a kind of judo for everyday life.
Feldenkrais can be helpful for injury recovery of all kinds, including
• back pain or neck pain, hip and knee problems, breathing difficulties
• chronic pain
• overuse injuries (RSI, carpal tunnel, tennis elbow, etc.)
• neurological conditions (strokes, brain injury, cerebral palsy, MS)
• arthritis or whiplash injuries.
Feldenkrais can help improve athletic and musical performance and has become a standard course in many acting and theatre programs.