Feldenkrais Method and My Teaching Practice

Part I-My Self-discovery Process

Last summer, I began utilizing Feldenkrais lessons learned during 

my August 2010 Teacher as Artist fellowship in New York City.

Feldenkrais is a somatic practice that allows the body to work more 

effectively and is proven to reduce stress and relieve pain.  It also is a way 

to open up new ways of thinking and creating.  Moshe Feldenkrais is quoted as saying, 

"I am not after flexible bodies, I am after flexible brains.” 

As a teaching artist, I am exploring the possibility 

of using this practice as a way of helping struggling students.  

I will explore this practice later.

Philosophy behind Feldenkrais practice 

Feldenkrais’ philosophy is in direct opposition to our Western way 

of thinking concerning fitness and skeletal-muscular health.  

Feldenkrais emphasizes becoming aware of how the skeleton, 

joints, fascia, muscles and tendons work together.  Many times 

our repetitive movement patterns are the very factors, which create and 

exacerbate chronic injuries.  In Feldenkrais, we learn that 

“we must feel, not strain” 

that is, our effort can sometimes be more effective when we don’t work too hard.

Make no mistake; Feldenkrais exercises are not fuzzy science. 

Moshe Feldenkrais was an engineer, physicist, inventor, martial

 artist and student of human development. Born in Eastern Europe, 

he emigrated to Palestine as a young man. Later he studied at 

the Sorbonne and worked in the Joliot Curie laboratory in Paris 

during the 1930s. During this time he worked as a research assistant 

to nuclear chemist and Nobel Prize laureate Frédéric Joliot-Curie 

at the Radium Institute.

Personal discovery of awareness through movement

The first time I experienced these awareness through movement 

exercises, a licensed practitioner led me.  The results seemed 

nothing short of miraculous.  But I attributed the power of the 

work to the training and skill of my teacher.

Last summer I jumped into reading everything that Moshe Feldenkrais 

wrote during his life, and trying out exercises on my own.  

Attempting these lessons without benefit of training was a daunting task.  

Due in part to Feldenkrais’ reassuring words1, I began trying 

the exercises one by one, listening and following the instructions 

carefully.  His philosophy, based on the science of the method, 

rested on the premise that endless possibilities exist when the effort

is minimized and self-awareness is heightened.  

My experience was, that I began to notice remarkable 

changes in my body, which were only surpassed by shifts in thinking.  

Suddenly creativity, which had been lying dormant for many months, 

returned. Beginning the new school year my primary concern has been 

how to make this fragile new practice part of my life.

A recent realization is that one of the ways I will integrate these exercises into my 

life is by leading students at the Curley in this exploration of mind and bodywork.  

While my ultimate goal remains becoming a licensed practitioner, 

in my heart I know students will benefit from being guided through 

some of the fundamental lessons, with what I have learned through 

my self-guided practice.