Trying the Feldenkrais Method for Chronic Pain
Trying the Feldenkrais Method for Chronic Pain
After two hourlong sessions focused first on body awareness
and then on movement retraining at the Feldenkrais Institute of New York, I understood what it meant to experience an incredible lightness of being.
The slow, gentle, repetitive movements I practiced in a Feldenkrais group class helped foster an awareness of how I use my body in relation to my environment,
and awareness is the first step to changing one’s behavior.
The group class, called Awareness Through Movement, was followed by an individual session called Functional Integration with a therapist
that helped to free tight muscles and joints that were limiting my motion and increasing my discomfort.
Although the Feldenkrais method was developed in the mid-20th century, neurophysiologists have since demonstrated the plasticity
of the brain, its ability to form new cells, reorganize itself and, in effect, learn new ways to do things.
But after a number of Feldenkrais sessions, she told Ms. Ramin, “I realized that the pain had more to do with the way I carried myself every day.”
Even after just one session, I understood what she meant.
Once aware of their counterproductive habits, students are given the opportunity to experience alternative movements, postures
and behaviors and, through practice, create new habits that are less likely to cause pain
After two hourlong sessions focused first on body awareness
and then on movement retraining at the Feldenkrais Institute of New York, I understood what it meant to experience an incredible lightness of being.
The slow, gentle, repetitive movements I practiced in a Feldenkrais group class helped foster an awareness of how I use my body in relation to my environment,
and awareness is the first step to changing one’s behavior.
The group class, called Awareness Through Movement, was followed by an individual session called Functional Integration with a therapist
that helped to free tight muscles and joints that were limiting my motion and increasing my discomfort.
Although the Feldenkrais method was developed in the mid-20th century, neurophysiologists have since demonstrated the plasticity
of the brain, its ability to form new cells, reorganize itself and, in effect, learn new ways to do things.
But after a number of Feldenkrais sessions, she told Ms. Ramin, “I realized that the pain had more to do with the way I carried myself every day.”
Even after just one session, I understood what she meant.
Once aware of their counterproductive habits, students are given the opportunity to experience alternative movements, postures
and behaviors and, through practice, create new habits that are less likely to cause pain