The Feldenkrais Method® is an extraordinary approach to learning through movement. Developed in the 1940s and ’50s by Moshe Feldenkrais, an engineer and physicist – as well as the first westerner to receive a black belt in Judo – the method is based on principles of human development, neuroscience, and body mechanics. Feldenkrais was a keen observer and student of human psychology, development, and movement, and his method was born of his own necessity: Faced with limited options to repair an old knee injury, he began to explore ways of moving that would reduce his pain and improve his mobility. Thus, the hundreds of lessons that he developed over decades of teaching are designed to help us grow our awareness of how we use ourselves, unwind patterns of holding and acting/reacting, and make available new options for the ways we move, think, and feel.

The Feldenkrais Method® is taught in two formats: group lessons known as Awareness Through Movement®, and individual lessons called Functional Integration®. In group lessons, students are lead through a series of movements – mostly done lying or sitting on the floor – by verbal instruction. As students interpret the instruction and perform the movements, they develop awareness of their habits and tendencies, and discover new options for moving – as well as thinking and feeling. The intention is the same for individual lessons, but they are one-on-one sessions tailored to meet the individual student’s needs. The student is usually lying or sitting on a low table (fully clothed), and the practitioner uses gentle hands-on communication as well as verbal instruction to help guide awareness and learning.

“The lessons are designed to improve ability, that is, to expand the boundaries of the possible: to turn the impossible into the possible, the difficult into the easy, and the easy into the pleasant.”
— Moshe Feldenkrais