“My purpose is to allow people to move closer to actually being creatures of free choice, to genuinely reflect individual creativity and emotion, freeing the body of habitual tensions and wired patterns of behavior so that it may respond without inhibition to do what the person wants.”
— Moshe Feldenkrais
What is the Feldenkrais Method®
The Feldenkrais Method® is a process that enables you to learn how to use yourself in the most productive manner to realize an intention. The Feldenkrais Method® is based on principles of physics, biomechanics, neuroscience, and an empirical understanding of learning and human development.
Using small, intentional movements, the Method helps you increase your ease and range of motion, improve your flexibility and coordination, and rediscover your innate capacity for graceful, efficient movement.
Moshe Feldenkrais, the founder of the method, said “If you know what you are doing, you can do what you want.” The purpose of the Method is to make “the impossible possible, the difficult into the easy, and the easy into the pleasant.” (Awareness Through Movement, 1972, p. 57.)
The effects of the method often go beyond the physical. Moshe Feldenkrais said, “We move according to our perceived self-image.” With increased awareness of the physical habits and tensions that inhibit you, you can make new choices in movement that help unlock new feelings and ways of thinking as well.
By replacing self-consciousness with self-awareness and self-exploration at a physical level, the Method helps you more fully access your potential, bringing greater confidence and curiosity into your life and relationships with others.
About Moshe Feldenkrais
Born in Russia in 1904, Feldenkrais emigrated to Palestine (Israel) in 1917 at the age of thirteen. After receiving degrees in mechanical and electrical engineering, he earned his D.Sc. in Physics at the Sorbonne in Paris. He subsequently worked for a number of years in the French nuclear research program with Joliet Curie.
Physically active, Feldenkrais played soccer and practiced the martial arts. He studied with Jigoro Kano, the originator of Judo, and in 1936 became one of the first Europeans to earn a black belt in that discipline.
A chronic knee injury prompted him to apply his knowledge of physics, body mechanics, neurology, learning theory and psychology to a new understanding of human function and maturation. His investigations resulted in the formulation of a unique synthesis of science and aesthetics, known as the Feldenkrais Method®. Dr. Feldenkrais wrote five books about the method as well as four books on Judo.
He conducted three professional trainings during his life, one in Tel Aviv, Israel (1969-1971), one in San Francisco, CA, USA (1975-1978) and one in Amherst, MA, USA (1980-1983), training approximately 300 Feldenkrais® practitioners in total. Today, there is a thriving community of over 10,000 Feldenkrais practitioners worldwide.