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.

• Anti-Exercise for the Older and Wiser (gerontology)

• Emotional Learning (somatic psychology)

• Feldenkrais Method: Clinical Applications (physical therapy)

• Feldenkrais Method in Chronic Illness (nursing)

• Missing Link in Physical Therapy

• Sitting Pretty

• Everything you know about Feldenkrais may be dead wrong

• Falling for Feldenkrais: A Patient's Progress

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

• Brain Gym (SF Chronicle)

• Mental Reserves Keep Brains Agile (New York Times 2007)

• To Stretch or Not to Stretch? (New York Times 2008)

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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Everything you ‘know’ about Feldenkrais may be Dead Wrong

When I told her that cross-training on the exercise bike only added hip joint stiffness to my chronic shoulder pain, my Pilates instructor was incredulous. “Don't you get it?” she asked. “Your body is telling you to stretch out those aching muscles and tendons.” This made sense to me. But when Feldenkrais practitioner/physical therapist Stacy Barrows encouraged me to attend her class—which, I imagined, would be all about the stretch—I was wary. Our individual sessions were going well, but classes tend to induce peer pressure, and I worried about vigorous pulling on a still-tender area. more…

Falling for Feldenkrais: A Patient's Progress

For an obsessive swimmer who craves the endorphins, the past two years of failed therapies for a bum shoulder have been a bummer. I've been acupunctured, acupressured, cracked, Rolfed, electro-stimulated, nutritionized, lasered, therapized, osteopathed, hypnotized, rheumatologized, cortisoned, massaged, medicated, iced, heated, surgerized and more. Much more. All these treatments have yielded benefits, except for the “much pain, no gain” neck-wrenchings of a certain Dr. Hertz. Our brief relationship ended when, after waiting an hour, I was asked to reschedule an appointment because Donald Sutherland had arrived. I love Donald—he was a super doctor in M*A*S*H!—but not that much. I would happily have stepped aside for his son Kiefer, a.k.a. 24's Jack Bauer, though, so he could save civilization as we know it before the next commercial break. more…

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…

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