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An overview of the

Feldenkrais Method

by Ralph Strauch

What is the

Feldenkrais Method?

The

Feldenkrais Method

is a way of learning —learning to move more freely and easily, to carryless stress in your body, to stop doing the thingsthat cause you pain. It is not the verbal/intellectuallearning you were used to in school. It is learningthrough, and with, your body — learning that youknew as a child but lost touch with growing up.Through gentle movement and directed attention,it enhances your self-awareness to put you back intouch with yourself, with the fluid, easy movementthat is your birthright. We call this kind of learning

somatic education

.Why should you be interested in

learning

, youmight ask, if you’re suffering from back pain, theaftereffects of a stroke, or repetitive stress injury?Conditions like this are usually thought of as

physical conditions

, requiring

physical treatment

. Butthat way of thinking is incomplete anddisempowering. It is

incomplete

because itoverlooks the role that your subconsciousresponses play in the pain and limitation youexperience. It is

disempowering

because itdisregards your power to change those responses.Pain and limitation come from two types of sources — underlying physical conditions, and thesubconscious choices you make in organizing yourbody and your movements. A stiff back, forexample, may result from a combination of inflamed muscles (a physical condition) and asubconscious tendency to hold your back tight andresist movement. This tightness may be partly aresponse to the inflamed muscles, and partly ahabit developed over a lifetime (subconsciouschoices). It prevents your back from participatingin your movement, thus increasing the stressesyour movement impose on your back. Medicaltreatment addresses the physical conditions andneglects the subconscious choices, while the

Feldenkrais Method

helps you to change thosechoices.The

Method

is taught in two formats — groupclasses and workshops in

Awareness Through Movement,

and individual lessons in

Functional Integration

.In

Awareness Through Movement

classes the

— 1 —

practitioner guides you through a sequence of gentle non-strenuous movements. Attentiverepetition helps you to discover how to movemore comfortably and efficiently. Students oftenexperience immediate improvements in posture,lightness of movement, and freedom from chronicdiscomforts.In a

Functional Integration

lesson you typicallylie on a low, padded table wearing loose,comfortable clothing. The practitioner uses gentletouch to explore your habitual patterns of organization and movement, and to suggest easierand more functional ways of being. Each lesson isadapted to your specific needs; there is no setsequence or number of lessons.Though they appear quite different,

AwarenessThrough Movement

and

Functional Integration

arevariants of the same underlying process. Byslowing down and noticing how your bodyfunctions, you gain feedback upon which yournervous system can build enhanced self-awarenessand improved functioning. In

Awareness Through Movement

you attend to and learn from thefeedback provided by your own movement, whilein

Functional Integration

that feedback is enhancedby the practitioner’s trained awareness and skilledtouch.

A short history of the

Method

The

Feldenkrais

Method

was developed by Dr.Moshe Feldenkrais, an Israeli physicist andengineer, and an active athlete and martial artist.Finding himself unable to walk when an old kneeinjury flared up, Feldenkrais wouldn’t accept hisdoctor’s recommendation for surgery. The injuryhadn’t crippled him when it occurred, hereasoned, so perhaps his current disabilitystemmed not from the injury itself but fromsomething he had done in response to the injury.Perhaps he had adapted in some way that made itworse. And if that were the case, perhaps he couldlearn to adapt differently, and reduce his pain andlimitation.Feldenkrais began to explore the way he usedhis knees, initially with small, gentle movementsbecause anything more was painful. He turned histrained analytical mind to the question of how wefunction as human beings, educating himself inanatomy, neurology, and related subjects, bringing

An overview of the

Feldenkrais Method

by Ralph Strauch

his experience with judo and other forms of movement to bear as well.He taught himself to walk again, without pain.He also developed a revolutionary understandingof how human beings learn and function thatbecame the basis for the

Feldenkrais Method

. He firstarticulated this understanding in

Body and Mature Behavior

, and later through other writing andteaching. His book,

Awareness Through Movement

,provides a good introduction to his thinking.Feldenkrais devoted himself increasingly to hiswork with movement, teaching classes in whatwould later be called

Awareness Through Movement

, as well as working individually withpeople (called

Functional Integration

). Thiseventually became his full time work. He began totrain practitioners in 1969, with a small traininggroup in Tel Aviv. He taught two trainings in theUnited States — in San Francisco (1975-77), and inAmherst, Massachusetts (1980-83). At his death in1984, he had trained approximately 300practitioners, the majority of them in the UnitedStates.The

Feldenkrais Guild

was established in 1977 tosupport and represent the practitioners thatFeldenkrais had trained. After his death the

Guild

assumed responsibility for the

Method

throughsuch actions as accrediting professional trainingsand adopting a code of ethics and standards of practice for practitioners. As practitioners weretrained and practitioner organizations establishedin other countries, the

Guild

limited its activities tothe US and Canada. The

International FeldenkraisFederation

was established in 1992 as a federation of practitioner organizations throughout the world.As of late 1996, there are almost 3000 trained

Feldenkrais

practitioners in more than 30 countriesthrough the world, (1000 of them in the U.S.), andthe number is growing rapidly.

When should you considerthe

Feldenkrais Method

The

Feldenkrais Method

does not treat medicalconditions, per se. Instead, it helps you learn tobecome more self-aware and to move in moreefficient, less painful ways. This can help youreduce limitations or discomfort caused by theway you organize your movements and your waysof being in the world. This includes a wide range

— 2 —

of limitations, so the

Method

is widely applicable.Poorly organized movement plays a significantrole in most muscular/skeletal complaints. Thepoor organization may precede the complaint, aswhen chronic unconscious tensions lead to back pain or repetitive stress injury, or it may resultfrom the complaint, as in the case of protectivemuscular “splinting” around an injured shoulderthat is not released after the shoulder is treated, orboth. The

Feldenkrais Method

can help you reduceexcessive tension and move more easily andfluidly.Even when a clearly defined physical conditionis present, poorly organized movement may be amajor component of the resulting pain andlimitation. Back pain may be caused by a herniateddisk pressing against a nerve, for example, becauseof excessive compressive forces resulting fromchronically tensed muscles. While the

Feldenkrais Method

does nothing to treat the herniated disk directly, it can help you learn to move with lesstension — thus reducing that compressive forceand the resulting pressure on the nerve.Chronic tension and the immobility itproduces play a significant role in some chronicpain; reduced tension and enhanced mobility canlead to reduction of that pain. The

Method

can alsobenefit people with conditions such asfibromyalgia, and can be used to enhance self-awareness and mobility for people withneurological limitations such as stroke or cerebralpalsy.Emotional stresses are held in the body aspatterns of tension and lack of awareness. The

Feldenkrais Method

can provide a gentle, safe way tounlock those stresses and restore self-awareness,whether they are the stresses of everyday life orresult from trauma such as sexual abuse or combatexperience.The benefits are not limited to those who areinjured or ill. Lack of awareness imposessignificant unconscious limitations on all of us.The

Feldenkrais Method

provides a tool for self-exploration and self-improvement that can benefiteveryone, from the seriously impaired to thenormally functioning, and even to high-functioning people who want to function at a stillhigher level. World class athletes and performershave enhanced their performance using the

Method

.You can experience the

Feldenkrais

Method

through different avenues, including individualwork in

Functional Integration

, classes or workshops

An overview of the

Feldenkrais Method

by Ralph Strauch

Awareness Through Movement

, by working with

Awareness Through Movement

tapes at home, orvarious combinations of these. All these avenuesare experiential. You cannot benefit from the

Method

by reading or thinking about it; you mustparticipate. The benefits come from directexperiential involvement; the

Method

is simply atool for shaping and directing that involvement.The particular combination that works best foryou will depend on your individualcircumstances. Classes must accommodate theneeds of a number of people simultaneously, whileindividual sessions can focus more directly onyour particular needs. Individual sessions areoften best for someone who has a significantimpairment, or who wants to explore a particularproblem in depth. Classes are less expensive thanindividual sessions, and provide a different kindof involvement. Some people start with individualsessions and move to classes as they feel more atease with their movements. Others begin withclasses, possibly supplementing them withindividual sessions when they encounter an issuethat seems better addressed in that way.Tapes are inexpensive and easy to use. You canlisten to them at your convenience, and you canexplore the same lesson in different ways. Tapesare most valuable after you have gained someunderstanding of the process by working with alive practitioner, but can be used by themselves if you are unable to work with a practitioner.How long you spend with the

Feldenkrais Method

is up to you. Some people come for a shorttime to deal with a particular problem and leavewhen that problem is solved. Others find deeperlevels of themselves to explore, and stay with the

Method

for an extended period or return to it fromtime to time for new inspiration.The process of growth and self-exploration is alife-long process. The

Feldenkrais Method

is a tool touse in that process, which different people willfind useful in different ways. Decisions about howyou can best utilize that tool are ultimately yours,they are not decisions that a practitioner can makefor you.

Contraindications, caveats, and cautions

The

Feldenkrais Method

is gentle and non-invasive, and has no contraindications in themedical sense of that term. There are, nonetheless,

— 3 —

some cautions and caveats that should be noted.The

Feldenkrais Method

should be thought of asa tool for long term change and not as a treatmentfor acute conditions. Working directly withinflamed areas should generally be avoided, eitherby working indirectly through other areas of thebody, or by waiting until the inflammationsubsides,Pain is a signal of something wrong; it shouldnot be ignored.

Feldenkrais

practitioners have nomedical training and are not qualified to diagnoseor treat medical conditions. If you have persistentpain or other symptoms you should seek theadvice of a competent physician to determine if any condition requiring medical treatment ispresent. Once you understand the situationmedically, you can then decide intelligently howto utilize the

Feldenkrais Method

, by itself or incombination with other modalities.“No pain, no gain” is

NOT

Feldenkrais

motto.If you feel discomfort during a

Functional Integration

session you should bring this to yourpractitioner’s attention. In

Awareness Through Movement

, you should be easy and gentle withyourself. If you experience discomfort, you shoulddo less — even if this means imagining themovement, or stopping temporarily. The process isabout learning, not exercise, and you do not gainfrom effort or stress.These cautions are particularly important whenyou work with tapes, because you’re on your ownwith no one to monitor you. Lessons may involvemany repetitions of the same movement. Donegently and with awareness, those repetitions canhelp you learn to move more easily. Done roughlyand with effort, the same repetitions can createinjury.

Some final thoughts

After their first

Functional Integration

session,clients sometimes ask “How can something sogentle and non-invasive be so powerful?” Theanswer lies in the nature of the interaction betweenpractitioner and client.A clients asks that question, I believe, becauseof prior experience with some modality where thepractitioner’s aim was to produce some physicalchange — to realign her spine, perhaps, orrestructure her connective tissue. To do this, thatpractitioner needed to exert enough physical forceto bring that change about, so the client came toequate force with efficacy.

An overview of the

Feldenkrais Method

by Ralph Strauch

Functional Integration

, no physical change isintended, so no requirement for force exists. Yourinteraction with the practitioner is an exchange of information. The practitioner explores andmonitors your organization and your response totouch and movement, and feeds back informationabout what you are doing and possiblealternatives. This exchange requires little effort, soyou experience it as gentle and non-invasive.Another question I’m asked is “What makes the

Feldenkrais Method

different from othermodalities?” I’ve covered parts of the answer —that the

Method

is a learning process and not atreatment, and that it is gentle and non-invasive. Iwant to look now at one more difference which Ibelieve lies at the heart of the

Method

— theultimate source of knowledge on which itdepends.For most modalities, their ultimate source isexternal. In medicine, for example, it resides in thebody of scientific medical knowledge — aboutpathology, the effects of treatment, etc. Themedical practitioner is assumed to know moreabout that knowledge than you do, and so takes onthe role of an authority figure. His job is todetermine how you deviate from some idealdictated by that knowledge, then move you back into better alignment with it.The ultimate source of knowledge on which the

Feldenkrais Method

draws is

your

innate organicsense of rightness and comfort. The

Feldenkrais

practitioner is not an authority who will teach youthe “right” way to move, or do anything else.Instead, his or her job is to help you uncover andremove the unconscious blocks that keep you fromaccessing your organic sense of rightness andcomfort, so you can draw upon it more freely andeffectively. This allows you to become more of theperson you were really meant to be.What I find most personally appealing aboutthe

Feldenkrais Method

is the opportunity it offersus for greater control over our lives. This isn’tsomething that someone else

does to

you; it’s a wayof getting in touch with knowledge and capabilityyou didn’t know you possessed, and using that tomake your life better. This aspect of my work isimmensely satisfying as to me as a practitioner. Notonly do I help my clients in the short term; Iempower them and give them tools they canbenefit from for the rest of their lives.

— 4 —

I also find the underlying ideas deeplysatisfying intellectually. In my earlier career as amathematician, my research focused on the use of information to improve decisionmaking. This iswhat the

Feldenkrais Method

is about. It helps youlearn to make better use of information availablefrom your body — to improve your movementsand your interactions with the world around you.When I met Moshe Feldenkrais, part of what drewme to him was the way his work applied principlesand concepts in which I believed, to improve theway we function as individual human beings.

References

Feldenkrais, Moshe.

Body and Mature Behavior

,International Universities Press, New York, 1979Feldenkrais, Moshe.

Awareness Through Movement

,Harper and Row, New York, 1972.

Ralph

Strauch, Ph.D.,

has a private practice in the

Feldenkrais Method

in Pacific Palisades, California, asuburb of Los Angeles. He was trained by Dr.Moshe Feldenkrais, and brings to his work awide-ranging background and experience. Hereceived his Ph.D. in Statistics from the Universityof California and was formerly a SeniorMathematician with the Rand Corporation, wherehis research focused on human and organizationaldecisionmaking processes. He began exploring therelationship between mind and body through T'aiChi and related disciplines in the late 1960s. Ralphis the author of

THE REALITY ILLUSION: How youmake the world you experience

, and

LOW-STRESSCOMPUTING: Using Awareness to Avoid RSI

Ralph Strauch, Ph.D.

Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner

P.O. Box 194Pacific Palisades, CA 90272(310)454-8322rstrauch@somatic.comwww.somatic.comThis article was prepared for inclusion in

Choices in Health Care: A Resource Guide to Contemporary Medicineand Therapy

., Adriana Elmes, Ed., in press.

This article is copyright 1996 by Ralph Strauch; all rights are reserved.You may reproduce and distribute it freely, so long as you do notcharge for it and this notice and my contact information are retainedin tact with the article. Please let me know when you reprint or postit. To obtain permission for commercial distribution, contact theauthor.The terms

Feldenkrais Method

Awareness Through Movement

, and

Functional Integration

are registered service marks of the

FeldenkraisGuild

.For more information or a list of practitioners near you, please contactthe author (address above) or the Feldenkrais Guild at 800/775-2118 or<feldngld@peak.org>.