"Harmonious, efficient movement prevents wear and tear.
More important however, is what it does to the image of ourselves and our relationship to the world around us."
Moshe Feldenkrais
What is the Feldenkrais ®?
MethodThe Feldenkrais Method® was developed from 40 years of study and research by Dr Moshé Feldenkrais based on his understanding of biomechanics, physics, neurology, engineering, martial arts and psychology.
It is a unique learning approach that uses gentle movement and guided attention to improve your ability to control and coordinate your action and discover ways of moving with less effort.
The Feldenkrais Method® can be experienced in two ways.
It is a unique learning approach that uses gentle movement and guided attention to improve your ability to control and coordinate your action and discover ways of moving with less effort.
The Feldenkrais Method® can be experienced in two ways.
- Individual sessions which are called Functional Integration® (FI) lessons
- Group classes which are termed Awareness Through Movement® (ATM) lessons
Who was Moshé Feldenkrais? (
pronounced “Fel-den-krice”)Dr Moshé Feldenkrais (1904-1984) was trained in mechanical and electrical engineering. A keen interest in martial arts, and personal knee injury, provided the impetus which led him to a lifetime study of the structure and function of humankind and the relationship between human development, education and movement.
The full and interesting life of Dr Moshé Feldenkrais (1904-1984) was driven by his intellectual interests. A keen soccer player and accomplished martial artist, he studied mechanical and electrical engineering in Paris. A personal knee injury provided the impetus for the development of his Method. For 20 years, Feldenkrais researched, using his own body as a laboratory. In the 1950s he returned to Tel Aviv, where he had migrated from Ukraine as a teenager, coming out of relative anonymity to teach widely with students from all over the world seeking him out. He trained practitioners in Tel Aviv, Europe and the United States to ensure the continuation of his Method. His understanding of human development and learning are being increasingly validated by recent developments in the fields of psychology and neuroscience. Forward thinking and ahead of his time, Moshé Feldenkrais enjoyed respect and acclaim during his lifetime for his contributions to the fields of rehabilitation, athletic and performing arts training. He died peacefully in Tel Aviv at the age of 80. (Biography obtained from The Australian Feldenkrais Guild). For more information about Dr Moshé Feldenkrais please refer to Wikipedia.
The full and interesting life of Dr Moshé Feldenkrais (1904-1984) was driven by his intellectual interests. A keen soccer player and accomplished martial artist, he studied mechanical and electrical engineering in Paris. A personal knee injury provided the impetus for the development of his Method. For 20 years, Feldenkrais researched, using his own body as a laboratory. In the 1950s he returned to Tel Aviv, where he had migrated from Ukraine as a teenager, coming out of relative anonymity to teach widely with students from all over the world seeking him out. He trained practitioners in Tel Aviv, Europe and the United States to ensure the continuation of his Method. His understanding of human development and learning are being increasingly validated by recent developments in the fields of psychology and neuroscience. Forward thinking and ahead of his time, Moshé Feldenkrais enjoyed respect and acclaim during his lifetime for his contributions to the fields of rehabilitation, athletic and performing arts training. He died peacefully in Tel Aviv at the age of 80. (Biography obtained from The Australian Feldenkrais Guild). For more information about Dr Moshé Feldenkrais please refer to Wikipedia.
"The nervous system gives us three things. It gives us information about the body, information about the environment, and the curiosity to do so."
Moshe Feldenkrais
Article by Professor Susan Hillier
Executive Dean, Allied Health and Human Performance
University of South Australia
The Feldenkrais Method is a way of exploring movement, posture and breathing through hands-on touch, used by dancers, musicians, athletes, actors and people living with and rehabilitating from a range of illnesses and injuries. Terms integral to the method such as awareness and integration are not easy concepts.
But think of it this way – in order for any system to work at its peak, it needs a mechanism to receive feedback on its performance so that it can adjust and improve.
Remember how you learnt to play a musical instrument or play a new sport. You became aware of feedback to improve; you listened to the sounds you were making with the violin and adjusted how you used the bow or where you put your fingers to make a better sound.
When you used a tennis racquet, you monitored where the ball landed after you hit it to gauge how to adjust to strike the next ball. Then you monitored the new way and either continued to adapt and integrate and the cycle of improvement hopefully continued.
If you didn’t adapt then you probably got stuck in a habit or relatively fixed way of being. So we use our senses for feedback (sound, vision, touch and body position/motion) to learn a new skill or to refine and improve an existing skill – to learn to perform better.
We become aware of the effects of what we are doing, try new ways and then we integrate those ways that work better.
This ability to make sense of our sensory feedback in more and more refined ways is what people do in Feldenkrais – you can become more discerning and so your quality improvement loop gets more accurate. You can use this improved sensitivity to (body) feedback to improve all kinds of performance.
Click here for full article
Executive Dean, Allied Health and Human Performance
University of South Australia
The Feldenkrais Method is a way of exploring movement, posture and breathing through hands-on touch, used by dancers, musicians, athletes, actors and people living with and rehabilitating from a range of illnesses and injuries. Terms integral to the method such as awareness and integration are not easy concepts.
But think of it this way – in order for any system to work at its peak, it needs a mechanism to receive feedback on its performance so that it can adjust and improve.
Remember how you learnt to play a musical instrument or play a new sport. You became aware of feedback to improve; you listened to the sounds you were making with the violin and adjusted how you used the bow or where you put your fingers to make a better sound.
When you used a tennis racquet, you monitored where the ball landed after you hit it to gauge how to adjust to strike the next ball. Then you monitored the new way and either continued to adapt and integrate and the cycle of improvement hopefully continued.
If you didn’t adapt then you probably got stuck in a habit or relatively fixed way of being. So we use our senses for feedback (sound, vision, touch and body position/motion) to learn a new skill or to refine and improve an existing skill – to learn to perform better.
We become aware of the effects of what we are doing, try new ways and then we integrate those ways that work better.
This ability to make sense of our sensory feedback in more and more refined ways is what people do in Feldenkrais – you can become more discerning and so your quality improvement loop gets more accurate. You can use this improved sensitivity to (body) feedback to improve all kinds of performance.
Click here for full article
Dr Norman Doidge on the Feldenkrais Method® ...
Dr Norman Doidge is the author of 'The Brain That Changes Itself' & 'The Brain’s Way of Healing: Remarkable Discoveries and Recoveries from the Frontiers of Neuroplasticity'
Read his article about The Feldenkrais Method® : 'New hope for aching, creaky bodies'
Dr Norman Doidge is the author of 'The Brain That Changes Itself' & 'The Brain’s Way of Healing: Remarkable Discoveries and Recoveries from the Frontiers of Neuroplasticity'
Read his article about The Feldenkrais Method® : 'New hope for aching, creaky bodies'
"What I'm after isn't flexible bodies but flexible minds.
What I'm after is to restore each person to their human dignity."
Moshe Feldenkrais, D.Sc.
Awareness Through Movement® & Functional Integration® are registered trademarks.
Feldenkrais Method® and CFP® are certification marks of the Australian Feldenkrais Guild Inc.
Feldenkrais Method® and CFP® are certification marks of the Australian Feldenkrais Guild Inc.