What is Feldenkrais?

Feldenkrais is a method of movement re-education. The work is gentle yet precise in the way that it stimulates change in the nervous system, improving ease of movement and coordination in the body. Feldenkrais provides a means of altering unconscious, dysfunctional patterns which cause the body to work against itself.

Who would benefit from The Feldenkrais Method? Feldenkrais would be of interest to anybody wishing to learn to use their body with greater ease and mobility, and specifically to those with posture or movement difficulties or those experiencing muscular-skeletal pain. The method can be helpful at any age. Kelly Beale has worked with clients or students aged 8 months to 80 years.

  • Feldenkrais promotes change in chronic tension patterns caused by long term stress or injury.
  • Feldenkrais is effective in relieving muscular-skeletal, and neuro-muscular pain, and in improving movement dysfunction.
  • Feldenkrais promotes relaxation and is a useful tool in stress management.
  • Feldenkrais facilitates better muscle balance and a more relaxed and aligned posture.

There are Two Approaches to The Feldenkrais Method
Functional Integration

: In these individual sessions the practitioner utilizes gentle touch, movement, verbal directions as well as support and movement of the limbs and torso in order to release restrictions and to offer the body alternatives to chronic muscle contraction, or ‘holding patterns’, which create pain and limit mobility. A session is tailored to specific needs and is about an hour long. Because these sessions `teach’ the nervous system, changes often continue to take place over a period of days.

AwarenessThrough Movement:

In this group approach the lessons are verbally directed and each class develops a different function. Through attentive repetitions of simple movements, undesirable patterns of muscle tension are ‘unlearned’. In working with one’s kinaesthetic awareness within the range of comfort, flexibility is increased, not through stretching, but through exploring alternatives and increasing one’s consciousness of how the body works. By engaging the whole organism – the nervous system, the musculature, and the skeleton – in harmonious and focused movement, the exercises become easy and pleasurable.

Feldenkrais at Kachina:

  • Kelly Beale, RMT,  Feldenkrais Practitioner, on Extended Leave