Feldenfrais® Movement Institute

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The following articles by Frank Wildman, PhD are provided to help identify key relationships among the mind and body. Whether you are a health professional or a lay person, an athlete or a couch potato, these are offered to aquaint you with the potential for a healthier and more intelligent body using the Feldenkrais Method.

Feldenkrais has far-ranging applications in biomechanics and neuromuscular function. It addresses the goal to achieve more efficient movement as well as the desire to alleviate pain. Therapeutic uses include many common disorders, recovery from injury and problems associated with aging. In this regard, it is as much about improving the condition of one's life as it is the body. Changing the way we think about these subjects is the first step toward unlocking the benefits of healthier movement.

 The Feldenkrais Method®

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Excerpts from The Busy Person's Guide to Easier Movement
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Applications

A simple ranking of conditions responsive to this form of therapy is as follows. As with all alternative therapies, use of the Feldenkrais Method does not preclude the use of mainstream medical therapies in addition. more…

Barriers and Key Issues

As physicians increasingly recognize the brain-body relationship, the importance of learning how to move is becoming more essential. Therefore, interest in Feldenkrais as a scientifically based system of neuromuscular control and biomechanics will continue to grow. more…

Biologic Mechanisms of Action

Personal experience reduces the initially unlimited number of possible combinations of nervous interconnections to a few preferred and active patterns of moving and acting. more…

Credentialing

The Guild of Certified Feldenkrais Practitioners sets standards for training programs and certification. more…

Demographics

Feldenkrais practitioners can be found worldwide. more…

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Forms of Therapy

The Feldenkrais Method® uses two approaches in working with patients: Awareness Through Movement (ATM) lessons and Functional Integration (FI). more…

Indications for Referral

The Feldenkrais Method is indicated to restore functions lost through accident or degenerative diseases, as well as to improve function in people who want to enhance high-level skills. more…

Origins and History

In our society, we do, by the promise of great reward or intense punishment, so distort the even development of the system, that many acts become excluded or restricted. The result is that we have to provide special conditions for furthering adult maturation of many arrested functions. The majority of people need to re-form patterns of motions and attitudes that should never have been excluded or neglected. more…

Research Base

The first research study involving Feldenkrais Method® (FM) was published in 1977 with several more appearing in the next decade. Since 1988 there has been an increasing amount of research done and recently this has been increasing each year. Because FM has such a wide range of effects, a wide range of outcomes has been looked at and reported. more…

Theory for Mechanisms of Action

Unlike other animals, which are preprogrammed to survive, human children must learn to move. Although a cat is born with the knowledge of how to move gracefully, it takes years for humans to learn movement well enough to function independently in the world. The necessity and ability to learn individual patterns of movement leads to a variety in human movement and posture unknown in other species and can be considered the most distinguishing feature of mankind. more…

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Visiting a Practitioner

Awareness Through Movement® classes are taught on a floor with carpet or mats, on chairs, or in a standing position. Students pay attention to their own sensations and movements as the teacher more…

What to Look for in a Practitioner

As with any art or craft, the longer practitioners work, the more mastery their hands develop and the greater their level of expertise grows. more…


Anti-exercise for the Older and Wiser

The older we get, the more clever we must become. As we age, it is more important to use our bodies more efficiently. We must improve our quality and ease of motion, our coordination, our sense of balance, control and comfort. After a certain age, our bodily wisdom tells us it's too difficult to slam our bones, strain our muscles, and do the things we used to do with will power and brute strength. However, there is little available in our culture to help us learn to reduce stress while increasing muscular efficiency in a pleasurable and comfortable manner. Because of this, it is not natural for people in their 50's, 60's, 70's and older to explore new ways of moving. more…

Emotional Learning

Whenever we contact another person we are in contact with their emotional self. It is unavoidable. When we touch someone's flesh, we enter their mind, and we are in contact with the wellsprings of their personality. more…

Clinical Applications

Many physical therapists are now familiar with the Feldenkrais® Method. Yet, there remains some uncertainty about the place of this controversial method in physical therapy due to a lack of familiarity about what the method involves. What is the Feldenkrais Method® and what are some of the major differences and similarities with techniques already familiar to physical therapists? more…

Chronic Illness

One of the most revolutionary discussions of the last few years has been about the relationship between posture, muscles, and the inner workings of our minds. Most people, including medical professionals, tend to isolate the mechanics of their bodies from emotional and other physical responses. This is only natural since Western science traditionally focuses upon isolating what is particular and separated from the whole. more…

Missing Link in Physical Therapy

In examining the field of physical therapy today, I am reminded of the situation of the pre-evolutionists who began investigating biology, geology, paleontology, and other natural sciences in the 19th century. Their situation was remarkably similar. There was a wealth of newly observed phenomena, and a profusion of methods to observe more. more…

Sitting Pretty

Many people have overly rigid ideas about how they should sit in a chair. Think about all the different ways children move their bodies in relationship to a chair. In this exercise, you will learn to develop more flexible ideas about how to relate to a chair, which will create a much more flexible body. more…

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The Golden Years? Try Go-Go Years (Business Week 2004)

People used to work for 40 years, then abrupty head out to pasture. today retirement is a more active pursuit, combining work, self-improvement, and fun, says Ken Dychtwald, co-founder of Age Wave, a San Francisco research firm that focuses on the graying worrkforce. more…

Brain Gym (San Francisco Chronicle 2007)

Marathon-happy Baby Boomers, those 78 million Americans born from 1946 to '64, were the first generation to make a religion of physical fitness. Now, they are investing time and money to maintain what's above their six-pack abs and rippling biceps: their brains. more…

Mental Reserves Keep Brains Agile (New York Times 2007)

The brain, like every other part of the body, changes with age, and those changes can impede clear thinking and memory. Yet many older people seem to remain sharp as a tack well into their 80s and beyond. Although their pace may have slowed, they continue to work, travel, attend plays and concerts, play cards and board games, study foreign languages, design buildings, work with computers, write books, do puzzles, knit or perform other mentally challenging tasks that can befuddle people much younger. more…

To Stretch or Not to Stretch? The Answer is Elastic
News about stretching seems to com in waves. Stretch as part of your warm-up. No, stretch after your workout. No, don't even bother stretching. Or the doozy: Even if you think you like it,it's been oversold as a way to prvent injury or improve performance. more…


© Frank Wildman Ph.D., 2006, 2007 • The Feldenkrais Movement Institute is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation