Frequently Asked Questions
- What should I expect on my first visit?
- What is the Feldenkrais Method?
- What happens in a Feldenkrais therapy session?
- How does the Feldenkrais Method differ from massage and chiropractic therapies?
- How are Feldenkrais practitioners trained?
What should I expect on my first visit?
Your first session at the Center will last about 90 minutes. Bring or wear comfortable clothes. Parking is free, ample, and wheel-chair accessible. After completing your initial information form, a complete history of your problem will be discussed. A biomechanical assessment will be done to assess your pain and body’s level of function. Your particular pain will be the focus as we decide on the best course of action.
Your therapy session will last about 45 minutes. You will receive both hands-on work and perform gentle exercises. You will likely receive guidelines in the form of CD’s or a handout so that you can continue your progress at home.
What is the Feldenkrais Method?
The Feldenkrais Method is based on our current understanding of the processes involved in learning movement skills. It is a systematic approach to improving human movement and general functioning. The Feldenkrais Method uses simple, gentle movements to reorganize posture, flexibility, strength and coordination.
Named after Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais, an Israeli physicist who developed the method to treat his own sports injuries, the method offers a novel approach to pain management. By integrating mind and body, and harnessing the power of brain plasticity, Feldenkrais helps the body function more efficiently. This creates environments in which chronic pain and injuries can heal.
Pain, especially chronic pain, is directly related to the way people use themselves as they move, how they are organized for movement.
Functionally organized movement allows you to get the most work from the body with the least amount of effort. Can your body move properly, effortlessly? Distributing larger efforts to large muscles and bones, and finer smaller efforts to small muscles and bones is an example of good organization and efficient functioning. Note that organized movement has nothing to do with strength or fitness. These define capacities for work, not how efficiently the work is done.
Good functional organization implies that the body has learned to move in biomechanically efficient ways. Inefficient movements develop in response to pain, misuse, and overuse. Inefficient movements also develop from disease and from disuse. Once disorganized, the body learns to avoid pain by using compensated, inefficient movement patterns to perform everyday tasks. Ultimately, pain and other disabilities develop because of the body’s poor organization for movement. Pain is the message that something is wrong.
The Feldenkrais Method re-educates the body to use more effective action patterns. Effective actions relieve pain by promoting environments for recovery.
What happens in a Feldenkrais therapy session?
The Feldenkrais work is done in two formats. Functional Integration is performed with the student fully clothed, usually lying on a table. It is a hands-on form of therapy using gentle movement and touch. In Functional Integration the practitioner develops a lesson tailored to your unique organization, and relating to a desire, intention or need you have.
Awareness Through Movement leads you verbally through an active movement process with the goal of learning to move more comfortably. Unlike other kinds of exercise or therapy, you explore at your own pace, according to your unique needs and abilities. The “lessons” are not exercises; the emphasis is on moving easily, without pain.
A session generally lasts 45 minutes. Most sessions are based on developmental movements and routine functional activities (reaching, standing, lying to sitting, looking behind yourself). Other lessons are based on more abstract explorations of joint, muscle, and postural relationships. There are hundreds of lessons, varying in difficulty and complexity, for all levels of movement ability.
How does the Feldenkrais Method differ from massage and chiropractic therapies?
All are hands-on therapies. In massage, the practitioner is working directly with the muscles and soft tissues; in chiropractic, the focus is on the bones. These structural approaches are aimed at changing structure (muscles and spine). The Feldenkrais Method works directly with your nervous system to improve your ability to move and live more comfortably. This functionalist approach allows you to improve despite any structural issues you may have.
How are Feldenkrais practitioners trained?
All Feldenkrais practitioners must complete 740-800 hours of training over a 3 to 4 year period. Trainees participate in Awareness Through Movement and Functional Integration lessons, lectures, discussions and group process. Trainees are taught how movement and function are learned and organized. Eventually students teach Awareness Through Movement and Functional Integration under supervision. After accreditation from the Feldenkrais Guild® of North America and the International Feldenkrais Federation, practitioners are prepared to work with the public.