An collection of short descriptions of the Feldenkrais Method provided by practitioners from around the world!
In this month’s Senseability newsletter (sign up here) we reached out to practitioners from around the world to share their 100 word descriptions of ‘What the Feldenkrais Method® is?’ with us.
It’s a fantastic short collection and we think it has something for everyone. It also serves to highlight that while we all went through the same 4 year professional training process, we are all unique, in terms of our life experiences, what we have learned over time and how we express it. This is something that we think Moshe Feldenkrais would have been proud of, diversity in the expression of the Feldenkrais Method.
If you are inspired by any of the descriptions, please reach out to the practitioner for more information. We have included their website details, and where they are based.
What is the Feldenkrais Method of Somatic Education?
The Feldenkrais Method is a way of learning about yourself so that major and minor things in your life improve.
One client spent 70+ years believing that there was only one way to stand up. The discovery that a rigid body actually moved less effectively for him than a loose relaxed one was a delight, and helped eliminate pain in standing and walking.
Finding that her usual way of coming to standing was a minor form of whiplash allowed a young woman to drastically reduce her near continuous headaches.
An open, curious mind is often a result for my students: and that’s a big benefit for them and the world.
Gillian Franks – Shelburne, VT. USA – GillianFranks.com
The Feldenkrais Method is a way of restoring unity, even during pain or challenges.
The movement lessons invite playful exploration, yielding quality information about safety and function. This makes the method particularly valuable in harnessing the power of neuroplasticity and bio-plasticity–releasing old limitations and uncovering new possibilities.
We learn to listen to our bodies, honor our experiences, and choose ease over effort.
Because effortless movement is a high priority for the nervous system, new possibilities often become available without conscious thought. It is a transformative practice for reducing pain, relieving tension, and opening pathways to healing and untapped potential.
Cynthia Allen – Cincinatti, OH. USA – FutureLifeNow.com
Feldenkrais helps you feel better in your body. It aids in easing tensions and pain. Working with a practitioner allows you to be gently guided and to connect into your body’s movements in new ways. It will help you relearn how to feel better in your body.
Jodi Freedman – Bay Area, SF. USA – [email protected]
The autonomic nervous system regulates the vegetative functions of the body. Movement in this system is organic, simple, smooth and effortless. Our voluntary movements can be jerky and uncoordinated by comparison. The Feldenkrais Method aims to bring the organic, well-organized quality of autonomic movement to our conscious actions, by ingeniously heightening the sensation of our skeletal alignments in our brain, helping it to better operate the muscles which animate us. Actors, dancers, musicians, and athletes use it to hone their skills, while lay people use its to address a host of aches and pains, and even serious movement disorders such as Parkinson’s and cerebral palsy.
Alan Fraser – Belgrade, Serbia – www.alanfraserinstitute.com
When I was introduced to the Feldenkrais Method it was the first time I experienced the sensation of being connected to my body and that my existence, if that’s not too broad a word, was not just confined to the processes of my mind. It brought me beyond my thoughts and helped me include my physicality in my sense of self which I had until then, been completely disconnected from. I think that is still a relatively large challenge for most people, to be fully embodied and connected in thought and deed and I believe the Feldenkrais Method is an invaluable resource for all in achieving that.
Carol Brophy – Tipperary, Ireland – Feldenkrais-Tipperary
The answer may be found in the original Hebrew title of the “Awareness Through Movement Book”: Refining (or Improving) Abilities. The Feldenkrais Method is a process that enables one to learn how to use themselves in the most productive manner to realize an intention. Or more simply, knowing how to do something, so you can do what you want.
The Feldenkrais Method utilizes movement to develop the skill of self awareness and enhance one’s self image. This enables better performance in sports, arts, education, work and life in general.
Tom Rankin – Cupertino, CA. USA – s3nse.org
Feldenkrais is an invitation to peek under the hood of the elusive “body mind” connection.
Do we even have one?
What’s happening behind the curtain? Who’s pulling the strings?
How do our thoughts, sensations, feelings and movements combine to move us through life?
Is this even your life?
Are we choosing well or are we allowing external forces to exhaust, drain, force or push us away from our purpose?
How do we gently guide students back home to a clearer, lighter, less habitual sense of Self?
And what difference would it make?
5 simple words… “Please lie on your back”
Michelle Westlaken – Cupertino, CA. USA – s3nse.org
The Feldenkrais Method is a way of breaking up habitual patterns with small and gentle movements. Whether through hands-on with a practitioner, or guided by verbal cues in a class or recording, the lessons increase body awareness and help the student to move with greater ease.
Beverly Adkins – Los Angeles, CA. USA – www.pauseture.com
The Feldenkrais Method® is where your nervous system meets your skeleton and vice versa.
The Method re-educates and reconnects your nervous system back to neural pathways of movement that it already knows but has forgotten so more efficient, easier and freer movement is restored. In the process of sensing and feeling tiny movements, emotional and psychological traumas can also be healed along with physical aches and pains. It’s a profound Method that everyone can benefit from because once the skeletal organisation is balanced your relationship with gravity becomes harmonious once again making “the impossible possible, the possible easy and the easy elegant – ‘Moshe Feldenkrais’.”
Ismini Poaros – Tonbridge, UK – www.isministudios.com
Feldenkrais® is a movement-based method that aims to improve the body’s function and increase awareness of movement patterns. The essence of the method is to help people explore and improve their own movements through gentle, conscious movement exercises. Rather than focusing on strength o, Feldenkrais® emphasizes learning and reorganizing the nervous system to create more efficient and comfortable ways to move. The method is used both to relieve pain, improve mobility and increase body awareness.
Ulrika Felländer – Stokholm, Sweden – medveten.nu
Feldenkrais is for me a serious play, as a student or as a teacher. The play invites curiosity, to find out how your body relates to the ground, and also to change your own movement where you always have your habitual way of moving in the background. The “goal” of moving is to enjoy and feel the openness and the curiosity of yourself and the world.
In my research, Feldenkrais is connected to phenomenology and Merleau-Ponty, where the habitual way of being is always there in the background of playing. As a philosopher, and as a Feldenkrais teacher, you can find this meeting point between the habitual way of doing something, and the new way that has not yet begun.
Helena Dahlberg – Gothenburg, Sweden – www.gu.se/en/about/find-staff/helenadahlberg
Are you struggling with nagging injuries, stiff joints, or feel like your body is slowing down with age?
There’s a simple, overlooked solution that doesn’t require special equipment or effort. And it all starts with awareness.
Feldenkrais leverages neuroplasticity through gentle, mindful movements, helping your brain create new neural pathways to improve how you move and feel. By increasing body awareness, you can refine coordination and break free from patterns that limit you.
What sets this method apart is its focus on functional, biomechanically efficient movement—rooted in everyday actions—to help you move with greater ease, reduce pain, and regain vitality at any age. So move smarter not harder!
Sonja Johansson – New York, USA – honestexercise.me
In Feldenkrais, we harness the brain’s neuroplasticity; using functional movement exploration with emphasis on sensation to look at your habits. Aiming to improve awareness, optimise the nervous system, to develop your self-image.
By finding more “pixels” in the image of yourself, you can improve pain, efficiency, flexibility, posture, and balance. It allows people to rediscover an ease and grace in movement that they may have lost.
With musicians I use it to not only to recover from injury, but improve skill, artistry, and stage presence.
Emma Alter – London, UK – themovingbrain.com