January is a good time to: Get better organized. Catch up on fling, organize your office supplies, bring order to your desk drawers and storage shelves, wash your towels (again), clear out items you no longer use, dust, mop, vacuum – whatever is needed so that YOU KNOW everything is clean and welcoming. For some clients, clutter can be such …
The Power of Video to Promote Your Practice
People love video! Most of us have a pretty good video camera with us most of the day, in our smartphones. Yet few in our community have taken advantage of this tool to promote their practices. What are the benefits of creating short videos? Be more visible. In order for you, your practice, or the Feldenkrais Method® of somatic education …
New Beginnings: The Evolution of FeldyForum and the Transition to Feldenkrais® Community Forum
From 1994 to 2019, Ralph Strauch hosted, initiated, and moderated lively online conversations about the Feldenkrais Method® of somatic education. Our community pioneer in the digital world, Ralph’s motivation was simple and direct. He just wanted to find a way to get us talking to each other. The result, after a few iterations, was the Yahoo group known as Feldy …
How do you welcome beginners and newcomers to your classes?
Any successful enterprise needs a steady stream of new clients to be sustainable. Your Feldenkrais® practice is no different. We were curious about how successful colleagues create this pipeline stream for themselves, and so wondered about how they foster and nurture those relationships. After all, the old adage says “You never have a second chance to make a first impression.” …
One Big Question (and three little ones) to ask yourself so you can help more people in 2020
The last of the latkes are fried, the concluding candy canes have crunched. It’s time to relax with a cup of cheer and dream a bit about the coming year. Here’s the big question: What would you like for your practice to look like 12 months from now? It’s one thing to have an idea, and quite another to have …
How do WE Deal With Holiday Stress?
The holidays are stressful for many of our clients. They take time to attend our classes despite over-packed schedules, overspent budgets; the demands of travel, decorating, and house guests; awkward conversations around the dinner table, and SO. MUCH. FESTIVITY. Sometimes we might imagine a subtle expectation to show that we “have it all together,” since we tout the benefits of …
Marketing Outreach to Yoga Studios
by Lavinia Plonka and MaryBeth Smith Marketing the Feldenkrais Method® offers unique challenges. A Feldenkrais® teacher could go into any environment: dance studio, tennis clinic, dental office, or a yoga studio — and offer ATM® lessons that would help improve a person’s performance. Conversely, trying to attract people to a workshop you are creating and marketing, without having the “cred” …
Ideas for Teaching Yoga Students
Sheri Cohen and Buffy Owens practice and teach both yoga and Feldenkrais® classes. We asked each of them for their best tips and guidelines for Feldenkrais teachers who want to create interesting and useful lessons for yoga students. They also suggested some lessons for you to study so you can engage and intrigue this audience. Buffy Owens suggests these lesson-starter …
Constructive Disobedience: The Feldenkrais Method® of somatic education in the Yoga Classroom
By Sheri Cohen, GCFT This article originally appeared on the shericohenmovement.com blog. There is a delicate duet we dance in the yoga classroom. How do I, as a teacher, lead without stepping on my partner’s (my students’) feet? If it is my goal—and it is—to encourage my students’ personal development along each one’s own path, how do I do that …
In Search of Buried Treasure
by Lavinia Plonka Imagine a world without the Alexander Yanai lessons, or the FI® videos of Moshe Feldenkrais. These precious resources became available because volunteers from all over the world selected, translated, proofread, and helped digitize this extraordinary material. IFF has revealed another trove from the archives and is inviting members to be part of a team that goes through …