Erin Ferguson, MA, GCFP, Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner®
720.284.4306 | erin@ boulderfeldenkrais.com
The Feldenkrais Method continues the education that was begun by every individual as a newborn infant by challenging the brain to relearn existing movement skills. How did you lose those skills? Through long-term habits. As you develop habits, you often block yourself from doing things in the simplest and most efficient way. Your habits may stem from any number of causes, including: - injury
 - pain
- disease
- stress
- fatigue
- insomnia
- poor self-use
- emotional trauma
- surviving
- not knowing what the skeleton is capable of
- lack of awareness of possibilities for movement
- blocking kinesthetic information from entering the nervous system
Relearning to move with spontaneity, efficiency, and ease is the primary aim of the Feldenkrais Method.
To do this, Feldenkrais invites you to distribute the work throughout the musculoskeletal system so that no one part is overworking.
The Method is based on the application of:
- The mechanics and dynamics of the body in the gravitational field.
- The neurological and kinesthetic processes underlying the learning of movement skills.
Although the Feldenkrais Method has proven to be an effective approach to reducing pain which stems from poorly organized movement, the Method is, nevertheless, an educational modality, not a medical one.
How is it taught?
- Group classes in Awareness Through Movement® (ATM)
- Private lessons in Functional Integration® (FI)
In an Awareness Through Movement lesson, the teacher verbally guides the students through a sequence of movements based on the sensory motor processes in the brain. Through these lessons, one can dramatically improve one's own quality of movement and acquire new coordination and skill. More about group classes
In a Functional Integration lesson, the teacher's precise touch guides the student through gentle, safe movements. These movements provide new information directly to the neuro-muscular system, enabling it to change one's organization in gravity and enhance efficiency, coordination, and ease of movement. Regardless of which learning style you choose, the Feldenkrais Method can help you overcome limitations brought on by stress, misuse, accident, or illness. More about private sessions
 Who was Moshe Feldenkrais?
Moshe Feldenkrais, D.Sc. (1904-1984), was born in present-day Ukraine and received his doctorate from the Sorbonne in engineering. An internationally-known scientist and judo expert (one of the first Westerners to receive a black belt), he developed this innovative approach to movement re-education when he was incapacitated by a sports-related injury and given little chance of ever walking without pain.
Dr. Feldenkrais applied his extensive knowledge of anatomy, physiology, physics, and engineering, as well as his mastery of martial arts, to restore his own functioning and, later, the functioning of many others. In developing his work, Moshe Feldenkrais studied, among other things, anatomy, physiology, child development, movement science, evolution, psychology, a number of Eastern awareness practices and other somatic approaches.
Dr. Feldenkrais taught in Israel and many countries in Europe through the 1960s and 1970s and in North America through the 1970s and 1980s. He trained his first group of teachers in Tel Aviv in the early 1970s. This was followed by two groups in the USA - one group in San Francisco and another in Amherst NY.
In his life Dr. Feldenkrais worked with people who had an enormous range of learning needs -from many infants with Cerebral Palsy to leading performers such as the violinist, the late Yehudi Menuhin. He taught over a number of years for the dramatist Peter Brook and his Theatre Bouffes du Nord. He was a collaborator with thinkers such as anthropologist Margaret Mead and the neuroscientist Karl Pribram. He also famously taught David Ben Gurion to stand on his head.
The breadth, vitality and precision of Dr. Feldenkrais' work has seen it applied in diverse fields including neurology, psychology, performing arts, sports and rehabilitation. Dr. Feldenkrais's books include The Elusive Obvious, Awareness Through Movement, The Potent Self, and Master Moves. (Biography in part from the International Feldenkrais Federation)
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