Method improves movement through awareness

Move Freely: The Feldenkrais Method improves movement through awareness.

Authors:

VanZanten, Virginia

Source:

Psychology Today. Nov/Dec2010, Vol. 43 Issue 6, p41-41. 1p.

Document Type:

Article

Subject Terms:

FELDENKRAIS method
BODY movement

Abstract:

The article discusses the Feldenkrais method of improving movement for maximum efficiency. Such method is composed of a series of verbal directives and kinetic lessons that increases range of motion and relieves stress. The article also offers information on the results of a study on the impact of Feldenkrais on patients with chronic pain. INSET: Gaze Anatomy.

Full Text Word Count:

492

ISSN:

0033-3107

Accession Number:

54655764

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Move Freely: The Feldenkrais Method improves movement through awareness

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Section:

Health

(MIND YOUR BODY)

THE FELDENKRAIS method may not have yoga’s ubiquity or Tai Chi’s foreign flare, but a loyal group of about 6,000 practitioners worldwide credit this system of somatic education with everything from increasing range of motion to easing stress.

Feldenkrais is a series of simple kinetic lessons and verbal directives that help students pay attention to their movements and, if necessary, modify them for maximum efficiency. Developed by Israeli physicist Moshe Feldenkrais in the 1950s, the approach has long been in the canon of mind-body medicine.

The goal of Feldenkrais is to retrain the muscles that slip into detrimental patterns, like tensing your shoulders when you’re frazzled, says Erin Ferguson, a practitioner in Boulder, Colorado. When you break the physical cycle, the theory goes, often the underlying emotional cycle–in this case, of stress–lessens, too.

Ferguson believes the method has remained relatively under-the-radar because of our society’s penchant for results rather than process. “People don’t want to slow down and become aware of what they’re doing,” she says. “They want quick fixes, which Feldenkrais is not.”