A Special Offer for Functional Integration(R) – Community Outreach
Very recently, I participated in a forum exploring models for integrative healthcare,looking at from the patient’s perspective. We were compiling a list of requirements, necessities, that clients need to have in their care.
Among those necessities mentioned was to make it accessible, affordable and to give back to the community. It got me thinking about what I do, how I do it and whether most people would be able to afford my services on a regular basis. Continue reading →
Fool the Pain – Make it Go Away on April Fool’s Day
This April Fool’s day we won’t fool around: instead inviting you to a complimentary half hour session of Functional Integration(R), or FI for short. This is the individualized session of the Feldenkrais Method(R), the somatic movement modality, that allows you, the recepient, discover your most optimal way to move, function, perform. It allows you – through mindful movement – to release tension, useless old patterns and pain. Combined with Awareness Through Movement or ATM(R) classes, the group version of the Method, you will become the director of the change you desire in yourself.
The method, that is the toast of the town and the subject of chapters in Norman Doidge’s new book: “The Brain’s Way of Healing”, is the mind/body discipline utilized; created by Moshe Feldenkrais and finally getting the attention it deserves. Instead of using repetitive action to “fix” something not functioning optimally in your body, it uses delicate and differentiated movement to go directly to the source, the brain itself. Through movement, using the learning/changing ability/plasticity of the brain, it allows for change to happen organically instead.
Application of the Feldenkrais Method(R), not only results in less pain, better function and performance physically, but in a more fundamental shift stemming from the adaptability of the brain and the nervous system, that will allow you to grow and change continually and optimally. Working with the this somatic mindfulness method is like being provided with an owner’s manual to your whole self, where you the owner, are in charge of your progress in body and mind, actually possessing the tools necessary to initiate and follow through with such change.
So this April Fool’s fool the pain, the difficulty and the stress and give yourself a break instead: come and have a half an hour session with me and celebrate the potentiality of change, growth and life itself! And maybe, just maybe, even spring 🙂
Sessions are available this Wednesday from 11:30 AM to 4:00 PM,
to book: call 603-548-5511 – leave message with your preferred time(s)
or email: MoonDanceYoga@yahoo.com.
So how did Moshe Feldenkrais, physicist and judo master come about developing his original method instead of moving on as a talented physicist with a promising future?
We do know about his debilitating injury to his knee and his stubborn, albeit well founded refusal to have conventional treatment with a risky surgery and instead going his own way, experimenting, learning, even meditating on it, using every bit of knowledge and tool at his disposal, including applying psychology and becoming one of the pioneers of mind/body approaches.
“She will dance at her wedding”: Healing the girl born without part of her brain”
The following is annotated excerpt from the full article published on Salon.com on Sunday, March 1, 2015
See how a parent’s nightmare turned into hope by Dr Moshe Feldenkrais’ intervention, continued support and the innovative approach he pioneered, the Feldenkrais Method®, when medical science had no hope or answers.
“A Girl Missing Part of Her Brain”
N Moshe Feldenkrais doing Functional Integration(R) or FI with a young child
“Feldenkrais’s approach can radically change the life even of people who were born missing huge parts of the brain, by facilitating differentiation in the remaining brain areas. Elizabeth, whom I (refers to N Doidge, MD, author) interviewed, was born missing a third of her cerebellum, a part of the brain that helps to coordinate and control the timing of movement, thought, balance, and attention. Without the cerebellum, a person has difficulty controlling all these mental functions. The cerebellum, which means “little brain” in Latin, is about the size of a peach and is tucked under the cerebral hemispheres, toward the back of the brain. Although it occupies only about 10 percent of the brain’s volume, it contains almost 80 percent of the brain’s neurons. The technical name for Elizabeth’s condition is cerebellar hypoplasia, and there was no treatment known to change the course of the illness.”
The case of Elizabeth clearly points out that even a severely damaged brain is plastic, in other words, with proper stimulus, it can grow, learn and regain function, through a method of somatic education, as it was pioneered by dr Moshe Feldenkrais and is known and practiced by Feldenkrais (R) practitioners and eloquently accounted for in Norman Doige’s new book, The Brain’s Way of Healing.
“When she was in the womb, her mother felt there might be a problem, because Elizabeth hardly moved. When Elizabeth was born, she didn’t move her eyes. They flickered and were not properly aligned, gazing in different directions. At one month, they rarely tracked objects. Her parents were terrified she might not see normally. As she developed, it was clear she had a problem with her muscle tonus. At times she was very floppy, meaning she had too little or no muscle tension, but at other times she had too much tension and was “spastic,” making no exploratory, voluntary movements. She received conventional physiotherapy and occupational therapy, but the treatments were painful for her.
Pregnant Pauses is a scientifically proven exercise program that alleviates your pregnancy pain, increases your energy and helps you have a healthier overall pregnancy! It is not about bending or stretching or poses: it is about optimal movement for your changing body. Pregnant Pauses(TM) is based on the ground-working method of the Feldenkrais Somatic Education, originally developed by Moshe Feldenkrais. Continue reading →
In the following video, recorded at TEDx Talks, professor Dorit Aharanov talks about the issues of learning, finding and implementing new ideas and the challenges of research. She draws a parallel of learning with the Feldenkrais Method(R) – a way somatic learning – reaching goals, extracting potential and quantum computation – her specific field of research -, that is universally applicable to learning, adapting, problem solving (neat math puzzle included) and better overall function in general. Continue reading →
