What is the Feldenkrais Method & Why?With this work, we let go of striving, and any story except those that are filled with understanding, patience, love, and a sense of childlike curiosity for the wonders that might yet be possible…we turn to sensation and direct experiences, in a fun, supportive community.
Our bodies are the miraculous entities through which we perceive and experience life and our emotions. The incorporation of movement, mind, and spirit can produce higher self awareness and self confidence, & more exuberant self expression, passion, compassion, & joy. |
Unlike yoga or physical therapy, Feldenkrais is a method, a fluid pathWAY, utilising subtle, gentle movements and the power of focus to access your Central Nervous System. It is from our brilliant CNS, axis of our body, mind, & spirit, and not the muscles themselves, that change really occurs. All movements can be altered or done in the imagination to effect change. People of all "levels" and physical capacities can participate.
Feldenkrais was ‘created’ (more like discovered) as a method by a engineer with a black belt in material arts who wanted to avoid knee surgery. To him, the surgery didn’t make sense, since it would not alter the movement patterns that had originally caused the cartilages to wear down. Feldenkrais has long been practiced by world class musicians, dancers, and actors. Its benefits go far beyond the scope of movement and posture to the realm of the psyche, showing us how we lock our mental habit patterns, fear, and sense of limitation in our bodies. For many of us, life hits hard with trauma. The body can freeze around it, with patterns so deep and so subconscious that if we try with only our mind to change them, we are met with resistance and pain. Bringing the trauma to the level of awareness, whether emotional or physiological, allows it to be incorporated, transformed, worked around. It is all sacred, and through the novel awareness imparted by movement, we can also learn to love others more entirely as we should also be able to love ourselves, for all of our experiences, blindness, mistakes, and beautiful successes. Your instructor, Clara, is also available to work one on one sessions, and is very passionate about helping people to heal, express, Speak in public, and sing, by gaining access to their unique, powerful voice. Feldenkrais is a gentle, fluid method that incorporates many states of being and can be adjusted to meet your needs. Clara holds a BA and MM in music, vocal performance and opera, and completed her doctoral qualifying exam while teaching for the University of Arizona. She also holds an MA from Stanford University where she taught public speaking workshops, as well as performance and audition workshops for singers. For all this education (or in spite of it!), it was her study of the Feldenkrais method that finally gave her a sense of safety, fluid control, relative peace in movement, and a confident vocal “technique.” It also gave her back the voice to say “NO, that’s wrong for me,” or “Thank You for the help, I want this experience.” |