I have been meaning to write something about my experience of sustainable training and working with injury for some time, as working with this has taught me a great deal about the Feldenkrais Method. I came out of physical theatre aged 40 and since then I have been supplementing my feldenkrais practice with barefoot running and, for the last 8 years, a demanding form of traditional Okinawan karate. At my age especially I have had to pay a lot of attention not to end up injured and out of both activities quite quickly and it is important for many of my clients too. Continue reading “FELDENKRAIS + SUSTAINABLE TRAINING”
Getting Closer to Moshe Feldenkrais
A wonderful resource. Many very well known practitioners of the Feldenkrais Method in this video, some of whom talk about Moshe and their experiences of him on a celebratory tour of the places he lived and worked in Tel Aviv. Very touching little film and a way of feeling a little closer to the man for those of us who sadly didn’t meet him. I discovered the method in 1984 – the year he died. thanks to the makers of this for making it available to us all. click on title below:
Moving A-Head (workshop: Sat 8 Feb 2014)
Terrible name for workshop. So sorry. Time pressure.
But I have been working a lot both myself and with many, many people who come to see me for one- to-one (F.I) with this issue of the freedom of the head in order to be able to look around (obviously) but also balance better, move from one position to another better (lying to sitting to standing etc) or one point of balance to another (one leg to the other), be able to use the arms for pushing, pulling, reaching, typing, playing an instrument – even punching. It can be so difficult to do these kinds of things without fixing the head by hanging on somewhere in the neck or right at the junction of neck /torso or neck/shoulders and so limiting possibilities and disrupting the very activity we wish to improve. And then of course there is tension and pain etc that can go along with it. Continue reading “Moving A-Head (workshop: Sat 8 Feb 2014)”
Anxiety and Stress Patterns and the Feldenkrais Method
I just found this article on Anxiety and Stress which I wrote a few years ago for the newsletter of the health centre I work at. Trauma and anxiety have been cropping up as a theme in one-to-ones lately and I thought this article still read quite well – though it is a little more formal than my usual ‘blog’ style’ – so here it is: Continue reading “Anxiety and Stress Patterns and the Feldenkrais Method”
Maria and Julia chat about Feldenkrais
It being the end of Awareness Week, I thought it would be fun to put up this informal chat between two of my most long standing students, Julia and Maria. They are always talking about the method and finally I managed to get them in to my little studio office to record them talking. https://www.dropbox.com/s/d0hm66fgmivebk7/maria%20and%20julia%20on%20feldenkrais.mp3?dl=0
A Dynamic Core
A lot of things get said about the ‘core’. Principally that it must be ‘strong’ and it must be ‘stable’. And of course those can be useful ideas. But it begs a whole lot of questions. Continue reading “A Dynamic Core”
Walking With Ease Workshop Jan 27th
There is a lot of emphasis around at the moment on being stronger in a muscular sense. In general if someone comes to see me they tend to say ‘I am not strong enough’, ‘my back is weak’, ‘my core is weak’ as an explanation for whatever it is they are having difficulty with. We also have a very exercise oriented culture in which things need to be done ‘strongly’ and nothing is any good unless you are using lots of effort and working very hard.
Now I should lay my cards on the table at this point and say there is nothing wrong with exercise and nothing wrong with using lots of effort and working very hard. Continue reading “Walking With Ease Workshop Jan 27th”
new short video of a one-to-one session
Very nice little video giving a good idea of the kind of thing a one-to-one Feldenkrais hands-on session is (Functional Integration). Andy Dawson made it, Scott Clark does the FI and its shot in myl ittle studio. really gives the feel of the story of it. great.