• Individual sessions, mostly hands-on, individualize the learning process and accelerate improvement. The practitioner uses gentle touch to guide the learner’s ability to sense how they may hold on and restrict their freedom of movement unintentionally. Clients range from people who want to improve their performance in their favorite sport to those who wish to minimize the impact of long hours working on a computer, to people with back pain, to those with severe neuro-motor limitations (such as cerebral palsy). Lessons are interesting, feel good, and enhance one’s ability to be present and aware.
• Workshops on the Art of Change combine Feldenkrais^® movement with exploration of issues in personal and organizational change. People are pleased and surprised by the way change in many areas of their lives becomes easy and pleasant. Our downloadable article describes these workshops.
• Workshops in Somatic Awareness apply Feldenkrais movement to improving sports performance and simply moving with greater ease and comfort.

In all of these areas, learning may overcome limitations assumed to be permanent, despite the presence of injury or physical limitation. This change can occur because each time we repeat less-than-functional movements, in a sense we re-learn them. Unintentionally, we “teach” ourselves to continue to contract muscles that are unrelated to the desired gesture. The Guild-Certified Feldenkrais teacher® helps one “un-learn” these parasitical movements.

MDs praise the Feldenkrais Method

Although some doctors are unfamiliar with the Feldenkrais Method, Andrew Weil, M.D. has stated that it is “much more useful than standard physical therapy” for patients whose range of motion has been restricted by injury, cerebral palsy, stroke, fibromyalgia or chronic pain. (Samuel Benjamin, MD, Smart Choices in Alternative Medicine, Better Homes and Gardens Books, 1999, p. 62) It is rated as one of the best methods for addressing back pain in Steven Bratman, M.D.’s The Alternative Medicine Ratings Guide, (Prima Health, 1998, pp. 262-263). The Feldenkrais Method is recommended to “eliminate the problem altogether” and is described as “a powerful approach toward a permanent cure of chronic back pain.” It is also listed in the The Alternative Medicine Ratings Guide as one of the best methods for long-term improvement with knee, shoulder, and neck pain.

The work provides a way to learn about oneself by using the way we move physically as a metaphor for the way we move through life. All of our learning is grounded in what we experience via our bodies, but western science and philosophy tend to ignore this. Increasingly, thought leaders are recognizing the implications of such theory and practice for business areas like knowledge management and product development (I. Nonaka and H. Takeuchi, The Knowledge-Creating Company, Oxford University Press, 1995). At COHERENT CHANGE, we understand this fundamental truth and seek to use it in our work, both in personal and organizational development. You may want to download a copy of our article which describes how movement-based learning contributes to transformational change.

Results

• Greater comfort
• Easier, more powerful movement
• Increased self-confidence
• More vitality
• Improved balance
• Prevents pain
• Can greatly lessen impact of trauma and neurological impairment

You can also learn about the Feldenkrais Method and its use around the world.

The terms Feldenkrais Method®, Feldenkrais^®, and Guild Certified Feldenkrais Teacher^® are registered service marks of the FELDENKRAIS GUILD^® of North America.