| Presenter | Workshop |
|---|---|
Thursday, June 27Hours: 10:00AM-12:30PM & 2:30-5:00PM |
|
 Anastasi Siotas
|
Clues to Understanding & Transforming Chronic PainOpen to Practitioners & Trainees (3rd & 4th year only)* How can the Feldenkrais Method® of somatic education offer options for people suffering from chronic pain? In this workshop, we will examine the anatomy and pathology of different pain generators and how they contribute to chronic pain. Participants will explore Functional Integration® lessons as well as Awareness Through Movement® strategies that our students can do on their own to find relief on a daily basis. |
 Carla Oswald Reed
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Making Every Moment Count: Transforming the lives of children with special needsOpen to Practitioners, Trainees, & Public Infants with special needs generate less variety of movement than typical babies, which limits their opportunities to learn to balance the weight of the head and pelvis in space or develop mature hip joints. This puts many children with cerebral palsy at risk tosublux or dislocate their hips as they grow. Carla’s workshop is a MUST for FPTP trainees and practitioners who work with children. You will experience ATM® lessons that clarify the foundations of motor development, self-perception, and cognitive learning, and learn to guide parents to synchronize their interactions, toy choices, and adaptive seating and standing devices with the themes of their lessons. |
 Barbara Young
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The Ball, the Bowl, and the Slinky: How the head, pelvis, and spine work together to move us powerfully through lifeOpen to Practitioners, Trainees, & Public Why is our skeleton designed the way it is? How do our muscles work to move us with grace, speed, and power? This workshop will bring clarity to these questions and more as we examine the three essential components needed for balance and fluid movement--the head, pelvis, and spine--and explore their integral relationship in early development. Complex material comes alive with simplicity and applications in everyday situations. Through experiential exercises, video, discussion, and ATM® lessons, participants will gain a deeper understanding of the interconnectedness of this intricate system and obstacles that hinder our growth toward thriving adulthood. |
Friday, September 28Hours: 10:00AM-12:30PM & 2:30-5:00PM |
|
 Ruthy Alon |
Solutions For Freedom From Movement Limitations
Open to Practitioners, Trainees, & Public Ruthy Alon's most recent program has 12 themes, with 10 optional coordinating strategies to approach each one. In this intro to the Solutions program, Ruthy will guide experiential examples from each theme, as time will allow.
The Solutions program provides simple and short procedures for teaching people what they can do by themselves and for themselves to transform from being a suffering victim to a person with hope who has agency over their life, not by succumbing to old age as our culture implies. Elinor Silverstein, longtime Feldenkrais Practitioner, and Movement Intelligence Trainer, will be assisting Ruthy in this full-day workshop. |
  Elizabeth Blades & Sam Nelson |
The Feldenkrais Method® & Music – Sharing WorldsOpen to Practitioners, Trainees, & Public Our experienced team of a Feldenkrais® practitioner and a voice teacher has witnessed many magical moments resulting from collaboration. In this workshop, musicians will learn how to enhance their singing/playing; practitioners will improve how they work with musicians; music teachers will learn how to use the Feldenkrais Method® of somatic education when working with their students.
We’ll discuss the back stories of our process with ATM® lessons, case histories, application of our Method with participants (singers, instrumentalists, and onlookers), how voice teachers can use ATM lessons to help their students and share how a Feldenkrais practitioner works with musicians. We will do pre- and post-lesson comparisons with vocalizing and playing. |
 Lavinia Plonka
|
Your Potent Self: Resilience and Joy Through MovementOpen to Practitioners, Trainees, & Public Whether your “avowed or unavowed dream” is to step into power, or simply to maintain balance, the Feldenkrais Method® offers tools for accessing both flexibility and strength. This workshop will center you, literally, by exploring the role of the pelvis in movement, spontaneity, and action. We will explore falling and recovery, standing your ground and rolling with life’s challenges through Awareness Through Movement® lessons and related activities. You are invited (but not required) to bring a life challenge or goal to the workshop – we will see how to somatically eliminate perceived limitations and embark on new adventures. |
 Allison Rapp
|
How to Stop Fixing Clients & Start Transforming ThemOpen to Practitioners, Trainees, & Somatic Professionals* For far too long, our Method has mistakenly been characterized as “bodywork.” In order to be seen for the transformation you really offer, you need to become a transformational leader (regardless of your current experience level or how you feel about yourself as a practitioner). In this workshop, you’ll explore what “transformation” really means and why it’s been so hard to sell it. You’ll articulate your own story of transformation and learn how to use it to magnetize clients who need your help. You’ll leave with concrete action steps that fit you to a “T.” |
Saturday, September 29Hours: 10:00AM-12:30PM & 2:30-5:00PM(unless otherwise noted) |
|
  Jessica Beck & Laura Bond |
Emotional Transformations: Sensing & Shifting Emotional StatesOpen to Practitioners, Trainees, & Public Emotions influence all aspects of our lives. Yet studies show most people can't clearly sense or accurately identify emotions. The Emotional Body is a somatic method for sensing emotions and physically transforming emotional states. Emotional effector patterns, discovered by scientists, are central to this method and offer the opportunity to understand the physiology of emotions through breathing, facial expressions, and postural explorations. Influenced by the teachings of Dr. Feldenkrais, Emotional Body has become a universal approach to physical emotion regulation accessible to all people. Learn about developing emotional fluency for yourself and recognizing them in your clients. |
 Candy Conino
|
Deep Dive into the Power Pose RevivalOpen to Practitioners, Trainees, & Public The Power Pose is back! How you carry yourself DOES affect the way you think and feel. The initial research was sensational; the Power Pose mania spread, then the findings were attacked and labeled pseudoscience. In March 2018, psychologist Amy Cuddy and collaborators published a resounding rebuttal: 2 minutes of power posing primes us to feel confident, grounded, engaged and persistent. We will explore far beyond the 2-minute “Wonder Woman” basics, though. Discover the line of your spine, the shape of your breath, the set of your jaw, and the easy balance that will upgrade your personal superpower. |
 Alan Fraser
|
The Transformative Power of the Feldenkrais Method® for Musical PerformanceHalf-day workshop: 10AM-12:30PM Open to Practitioners, Trainees, & Public This workshop explores the practicalities of bringing a transformative practice including Functional Integration® and Awareness Through Movement® lessons to pianists and other musicians. A structural-functional approach can transform an injury into an opportunity for growth and mastery, a neurological disorder into a well-organized, skeletally intentional musical gesture, and disparate notes, produced by segmented movements, into flowing, expressive melodic waves of color that emanate from an unbroken kinematic chain within the performer’s self.
A lecture will be presented, followed by a demonstration lesson with a performer, followed by an ATM® lesson designed around movements unique to instrumental performance. For musicians and practitioners interested in working with musicians. You are encouraged to bring an instrument! |
 Donna Giannell
|
The Art of Listening: Feldenkrais Method® & the TangoHalf-day workshop: 2:30-5:00PM Open to Practitioners, Trainees, & Public Experience Tango dance as an Awareness Through Movement® lesson to improve your Listening, Reversibility, Balance, Coordination, Posture, Strength and Relationship.
Learn how magical and transforming walking forwards and backwards, swaying side-to-side, and rocking can be when done to Tango music. Experience moves without music and listen to yourself. Then feel the transformation of doing them with music and how subtly your body responds. With each step, you can strengthen posture, balance, alignment, coordination, and sense of self. Then you dance with a partner. Enjoy the awareness-expanding experience of feeling, creating, listening and responding to music and to a partner. Non-dancers welcome. And a great warm-up for a party! |
The Breath of LifeOpen to Practitioners, Trainees, & Somatic Professionals* Breath is essential to life. How do we find the necessary support within ourselves and then assist others to facilitate functional breathing patterns? What are the physical holding patterns of stress that limit the possibilities? Breath quiets the brain overload. Learn the anatomical structures and how they connect to the process of inhalation and exhalation. How do we encourage balance using movement and breath as the transition to ease? "The Breath of Life" is an opportunity to savor life’s transitions. |
|
 David Zemach-Bersin
|
Discovering the Primordial Spine From the InsideOpen to Practitioners, Trainees, & Somatic Professionals* Our spine is capable of a rich variety of complex movements with deep and important roots in our evolutionary past. These fundamental movements existed long before homo sapiens, connecting us to the moving history of nearly every organism. They are essential to our personal development, ease of movement, and future well-being. By working through the spine, we can communicate with the lower, more reflexive parts of our brain and effectively re-organize movement. Experience original Awareness Through Movement® lessons that restore these fundamental, primordial and propulsive movements, profoundly affecting our abilities to move and act. We can discuss the application of these lessons to Functional Integration® lessons. |
Sunday, September 30Hours: 10:00AM-12:30PM |
|
 Stacy Barrows
|
The Art of Standing – Learn How to Stand the Test of TimeOpen to Practitioners, Trainees, & Public The habitual ways we stand say much about us. Is our static posture comfortable and fluid? Can we transition easily into movement whether we’re standing or sitting? Can we stand as long as we sometimes need to without pain? Many experts have tried to teach the best way to be in a good standing posture, but it seldom translates to an easy practice.
The art and science of the Feldenkrais Method® of somatic education can help us transform a rigid posture to find easy upright support. In this half-day seminar, you’ll cultivate movement awareness about the two most common static postures and discover new ways to avoid inefficiency and discomfort. |
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A New Country for Seniors: Effortless Golf, Tennis, and other SportsOpen to Practitioners, Trainees, & Public Discover an easier and a more satisfying way to do the things you love. Whether you want to hit a golf ball, swing a tennis racket, hike your favorite trail with greater ease, or drive a car more comfortably, Awareness through Movement® lessons can help you to create a more flexible strategy for adapting to life in a changing body. We will explore easier transitions from one movement to the next. Two simple standing lessons can give you greater freedom to rotate through the chest and to shift your weight effortlessly from one foot to another. Based on Opening the Swing and Engaging the Feet. (Total Body Golf by Jack Heggie) |
A Taste of TransFormAction – developmental movement for parents, parents-to-be, & caregiversOpen to Practitioners, Trainees, & Public Children model themselves on their parents, carrying the scars of their parents' limitations, injuries, and traumas. By turning this around and enabling parents to understand and experience the developing movement process of their children, not only does the pattern shift but parents heal themselves, therefore enriching the modeling experience of the child.
TransFormAction explores Awareness Through Movement® lessons from the perspective of Exploration, Creation and Evolution, increasing confidence, presence, self-assurance and graceful interaction with the world. Based on Barbara's 25 years of work with children and parents, it will be fun and enlightening for anyone who works with children. |
|
 Violet Van Hees
|
Fight, Flight, & Freeze: How these affect learning – and why the Feldenkrais Method® helpsOpen to Practitioners, Trainees, & Somatic Professionals* Some amount of stress in life is vital for our survival. It fires up our body's biological responses that keep us alive - including the protective fight/flight and freeze responses. But… in our students and clients, when the fight/flight and freeze responses are too much or continue too long, this blocks their capacity to learn. Since the Feldenkrais Method of somatic education is all about learning, if we as practitioners can help our students to shift into a biological state that feels safe and is open to learning, they can get more out of their experiences of the Feldenkrais Method. The Feldenkrais Method way of working already contains key features that support this biological shift – and we can strengthen that by being very intentional about it. The science behind this is broad and fascinating! In this workshop, we will look at the science (of what’s happening, what works, and why), along with more ways to apply this as a practitioner. This is powerful stuff! |
*Non-Feldenkrais Practitioners/Trainees must sign a waiver on professional use policy.
©Tiffany Sankary
Please note that FGNA holds the right to cancel a workshop due to unforeseen circumstances. In the event of a workshop cancellation, attendees will be notified accordingly and given the option to enroll in a different workshop.