In Touch is a quarterly e-newsletter about developing one’s competence as a Feldenkrais® teacher.
Issues contain articles about teaching the Feldenkrais Method® of somatic education, running your own business, and more.
Moshe Feldenkrais’s gave his first training in the United States in 1975, in San Francisco. During his lifetime the process of training new practitioners was continuously evolving and that evolution has continued even after his passing, with experienced practitioners becoming trainers and training directors.
Professional trainings organised after his passing initially followed the structure of his Amherst training very closely; as it was the most recent and most comprehensively catalogued. Now, 50 years after his first training, the process of teaching new teachers is continuing to develop and new ideas are starting to be implemented as this generation of trainers develop their own abilities in teaching the Feldenkrais Method® of somatic education to new practitioners.
As practitioners we constantly tap into the source material that Feldenkrais generously provided during his lifetime, and we have an amazing community that has created forums for discussions around how we interpret, practice and teach this material.
We also find ourselves at an interesting time, where the digital world means we are more connected and informed than ever. However, the digital world also has some draw backs, it can remove us from the rich sense of shared experience that we gain from learning the Feldenkrais Method of somatic education in person, together.
As a community it’s important that we come together, in person and online, to look back at where we have come from, seeing what lessons we have learned in the process and deciding together how we move in the future.
In this month’s edition we are fortunate to speak with three long time practitioners who have been pioneers in the teaching and training sphere.
Roger Russell, who since his first interaction with the Feldenkrais in 1975 has made it his mission to try and understand the intellectual framework that helped form the Feldenkrais Method of somatic education. He has also tried to increase awareness of the academic basis behind the method within the teaching community, so that the experiential learning process is supported and grounded by a good understanding of how the method works scientifically.
Larry Goldfarb, who has pioneered a variety of advanced trainings for practitioners to help them deepen their existing skills and approach the method from interesting and novel directions, leading to increased understanding of the method and a greater sense of resilience as teachers.
And finally educational director, Elizabeth Beringer, shares her ideas around how professional trainings are currently being run and what scope there is for improving it as we move into the future. Elizabeth has taught in, and directed multiple trainings, and has seen first hand how the training process has evolved over the years. Her insight into this subject offers guidance about we can keep improving the training process, and what steps we need to take as a community to making a more accessible pathway from practitioner to assistant trainer.
If you would like the opportunity to discuss some of the topics raised in this edition of InTouch please register your interest by emailing: [email protected].
We hope you enjoy it!
Joe, Jane & Michelle