The Feldenkrais Method
What is the Feldenkrais Method?If you know what you are doing, you can do what you want.
The Feldenkrais Method® is a practice, a process, and a system for self-improvement. It is a form of “somatic education,” which means it uses movement and real-time awareness of your own body sensations to guide you toward the positive changes you seek.
The Feldenkrais Method is not a treatment, adjustment, or exercise program. Instead, it is based on decades of research in physics, neuroscience, biomechanics, learning theory, and human development to give you the means to help yourself.
Moshe Feldenkrais
Moshe Feldenkrais (Doctor of Science, Sorbonne) drew from a wide range of fields to develop his method. He created a system of self defense, practiced jiu-jitsu and went on to become one of the first Europeans to earn a black belt in Judo.
After a serious knee injury he taught himself to walk again and his interest in human development and movement led to the creation of the Feldenkrais Method®.
He studied, among other things, anatomy, physiology, child development, movement science, evolution, psychology, a number of Eastern awareness practices and other somatic approaches to develop his work.
Photo © International Feldenkrais® Federation
Movement and the Brain
Neuroplasticity is the capacity of the brain and nervous system to renew themselves and grow new connections. Although this ability is greatest in children, scientists in recent years have shown that neuroplasticity continues to function in adults as well.
Best-selling author Dr. Norman Doidge writes that neuroplasticity represents “the most important alteration in our view of the brain since we first sketched out its basic anatomy.” We know that neuroplasticity is stimulated through precise, directed attention to a wide variety of gentle and unusual movement possibilities. The Feldenkrais Method® of somatic education thus helps people all over the world to explore their neuroplastic potential.
Dr. Feldenkrais at San Francisco Training 1975-1977
© International Feldenkrais® Federation, photography by Bob Knighton
How Feldenkrais Helps People
Read More About the Feldenkrais Method
Books on neuroplasticity & the Feldenkrais Method
- The Brain’s Way of Healing by Norman Doidge, M.D.
- The Brain that Changes Itself by Norman Doidge, M.D.
Books by Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais
Biography Of Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais by Mark Reese
Other Resources