Most of the people I see in my Feldenkrais® practice come to me with some sort of difficulty—they're recovering from an injury, they're in pain, they're trying to find an alternative to surgery, they want to restore some functional ability they've lost, they want to improve their balance—there are any number of reasons. And, after a time, most of those folks feel that they've come to terms with that initial difficulty. Often the injured part once again regains its rightful place in their self-image, the lost function returns and/or the pain goes away. Sometimes, the difficulty is only diminished but not erased but my client comes to terms with that. They feel better at having found improvement and a way to manage their lives in a way that's more comfortable and fulfilling.
And, then, having gotten what they came for… many (maybe most) people stop. I don't see them again.
Or sometimes I don't see them again until some new difficulty crops up. Or they do something that aggravates the old injury and they come back to "get fixed" again. I'm quite happy to provide people with that for which they've come to see me: usually, relief and a greater facility to live their lives in a manner more like they want.
But what this means is that, when we who practice at The Feldenkrais Institute take all of our clients together, we are seeing—both individually and in class—relatively few people who feel they are physically "well." There are exceptions to this, of course. From time to time, I get a Feldenkrais practitioner on my table—they are usually feeling good. They come to me looking to improve. We seem to see more than our fair share of dancers, when you balance dance against all the other professions in which our clients engage. And while I think it's fair to say that most dancers are usually injured in some way, even if it's minor ;-), most often they come to us functioning at a level that still allows them to dance. They, too, come simply looking to improve. Once in a great while, I'll see an athlete who performs at a high level who is trying to find a way to eke out even more efficiency from him or herself. They are looking to improve.This all brings to mind for me something that's easy to forget when we're working with people every day who are trying to solve problems: Feldenkrais is not therapy. (I'll delve into that idea more deeply in another post.)
When teaching Awareness Through Movement® at The Institute (and the same holds true for most other places I've taught), there is always a mix of people in class. Some people feel pretty good; some might be in a great deal of pain; some people cannot use one or another part of their body at all. This means that, in an effort to make everyone in class as "comfortable" as possible, we're often teaching classes that are fairly simple. In an attempt to give everyone the best experience possible, we usually try to take away the temptation to "do" something that's difficult or might cause certain people discomfort were they to "push" themselves to accomplish a more complex or physically challenging lesson. This idea of keeping classes on the simple side works for everyone because in even the simplest class there is always new information to be mined about your organization, even if you've done that class or ones like it, many times before.
But what that means is there is a whole side of Feldenkrais that is rarely explored, and when it is, it is most often within a gathering of other Feldenkrais practitioners or students in a Feldenkrais teacher training program. Dr. Feldenkrais was an athlete. He was awarded the first Black Belt in Judo in Europe (I believe sometime during the 1930s). Before suffering the knee injury that began his inquiry that led to the development of the Feldenkrais Method®, he was an accomplished soccer player.
We have transcripts of about 1,000 lessons that Dr. Feldenkrais taught in Israel. Some of them are quite difficult and are rarely taught in public classes. Some of them involve highly complex movements. Some of them ask for muscular strength in areas some of our students simply do not have. Others involve very little movement but require a somewhat advanced level of awareness to get the maximum intended benefit.
I'm looking to provide clients of The Institute with a challenge, with a way to continue their relationship with the Feldenkrais Method after they "get better." Feldenkrais can be a life-long learning tool that will keep you supple, flexible, physically efficient, and better able to sense yourself and use yourself more sensibly. In short, continuing your relationship with Feldenkrais after you "get better" will keep you feeling young(er).
So, once you "get well" come join us on Thursday evenings at 6:30 and see where else Feldenkrais can take you. There will be an open class taught every Thursday at 5:30 that will provide a simpler lesson based on the same theme as the lesson to be taught in the advanced class. You are welcome (even encouraged) to take both, as the 5:30 class will be a great "prep" for the advanced class. You'll be happier in the advanced class if you hold off on attending until you are feeling well and are free of pain (or at least, nearly so). If you have any questions about that, just ask me.
See you on Thursday evenings at The Feldenkrais Institute of New York.
