First impressions
I first came across the Feldenkrais Method® in 2019 while I was training to be a yoga teacher, and a visiting practitioner came to my local yoga studio offering a workshop in Awareness Through Movement®. The advertising promised improved posture, increased self-awareness and reduced pain amongst other things. I had no idea what to expect but it sounded too good to be true and so I had to give it a try. The workshop began with an introductory talk about somatic movement and embodiment – terms I’d heard of but didn’t really understand – followed by roughly an hour of paying attention to myself while moving very slowly and gently. By the end of the class I was a little confused about what had just happened and a little sceptical as to whether it would have any benefit, but a seed had been planted deep within my nervous system that began to take root and slowly find its way into every corner of my life.
My personal journey
I soon became obsessed with Feldenkrais and after experiencing a week-long immersion I started remote one-to-one lessons with my teacher, Tara Eden. I soon began to notice more and more of my movement habits and became curious about why I did things a certain way. My sessions with Tara became like a game of exploration where a question about my own movement patterns opened the door to a deeper understanding of what makes me uniquely me and how I was getting in my own way.
Tara encouraged me to enroll in a professional training course, and in 2022 I found the Feldenkrais International Training Centre and enrolled on their next intake. The training is unlike anything I’ve ever done before, as it is purely experiential. Instead of learning through books and lectures, we learn to be Feldenkrais practitioners by doing so many Feldenkrais lessons that we begin to embody the principles of the method, enabling it to live through us.
During the second year of my training I received a diagnosis of breast cancer, for which I had to undergo surgery, radiotherapy and hormone treatment. All of this had a drastic effect on my physical ability and self-image, leaving me with chronic pain and fatigue, which I am still dealing with today. Far from getting in the way of my training, I found that continuing to attend the training during this period of my life helped me to recover physically and also allowed me to find better ways of taking care of myself, working within my limitations rather than struggling to push through them.
What is the Feldenkrais Method®?
Make the impossible possible, the possible easy, the easy elegant.
Dr Moshe Feldenkrais
There are two approaches to delivering the Feldenkrais Method®, created by Dr Moshe Feldenkrais: Awareness Through Movement®, which takes place in a group class setting; and Functional Integration®, which is the one-to-one hands-on approach.
In an Awareness Through Movement® class you will generally be lying on the floor, although many lessons can also be adapted to sitting in a chair. You will be directed to move through a series of slow, gentle movements, while paying attention to certain aspects of how you move.
In a Functional Integration® lesson you will be lying fully clothed on a low table. The practitioner will take over the work of moving you, allowing you to be free to notice what’s happening in yourself while being moved.
Applications for the Feldenkrais Method®
If you know what you are doing you can do what you want.
Dr Moshe Feldenkrais
The Feldenkrais Method® has many applications aside from being useful in enhancing your own self-awareness, aiding recovery from injury and surgery and helping to manage and ease chronic pain. It has also been used to help dancers, sportspeople and musicians enhance their performance by clarifying their movements; to help people with neurological conditions to find ways to sense and move with more ease; and to help everyone feel more at ease in their bodies and find more joy in movement.
How to find out for yourself
Susie will be bringing Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement® classes to Wight Wellbeing Collective in Cowes from Tuesday 10th June. If this article has made you curious about the Feldenkrais Method® and you would like to know more, you can check out Susie’s class schedule on her website at welcomeomyoga.co.uk, or contact her via email on [email protected] or via Facebook and Instagram @welcomeomyogaiow.
Article written by Susie Kelly
Images by Tara Eden, Roswitha Chesher and Maya Yoncali
