Defining The Feldenkrais Method® of Somatic Education
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Defining the Feldenkrais Method®?January 2025  “I am keen to understand our ways of functioning so that we can learn to make our lives easier and more enjoyable.” – Moshe Feldenkrais Happy new year Feldenkrais Method® of somatic education fans!We thought we should start of the year with a fresh attempt at defining what the Feldenkrais Methodof Somatic Education is. This serves two purposes, the first is to bring this amazing resource to new audiences and make real differences in the quality of peoples lives. The second is as a fun ‘mini challenge’ to the Feldenkrais® movement practitioner community, to see if we can collectively become more effective at providing short descriptions of what the Feldenkrais Method of somatic education is and how it works. This isn’t an easy feet because of the variety of applications of the method, you have practitioners working working with young children and the elderly, others helping musicians with fine motor dexterity, or helping weight lifters with good skeletal alignment. Those helping office workers with persistent back pain or RSI or helping athletes recover after injury. We have practitioners working with people with various disabilities, with Parkinson’s disease or stroke recovery. You name it and a Feldenkrais Method of movement practitioner has probably helped someone with it. So as you can see, when the application of the method is that broad, is isn’t always easy to condense ‘what it is’ and ‘how it works’ into a few simple sentences. In this month’s Senseability we reached out to practitioners from around the world to share their 100 word descriptions with us. It’s a fantastic short collection and we think it will have something for everyone. It also serves to highlight that we are all unique as humans, in terms of how and what we have learned and how we express it. This is something that we think Moshe Feldenkrais would have been proud of. In this edition we have a wonderful interview with Paris Kern. As a trainer and long time Feldenkrais movement practitioner she has had plenty of opportunity to refine how she talks about the method and that really comes through in her delivery. She speaks clearly and concisely and makes the most of the opportunity to describe what the method is. Lastly we have a short video submitted to us by a practitioner who was concerned with the lack of clear and concise descriptions of the method, so he spend a year working with animators, musicians and his fellow practitioners to create a short ‘what is the Feldenkrais Method’ animated video. If you are a Feldenkrais movement practitioner and you would like to contribute to the newsletter in 2025 please get in contact with us here: fgnacommunications1@gmail.com Feldenkrais Communication TeamJane, Michelle, Seth and Joe |
What is the Feldenkrais Method® of Somatic Education?An interview with Paris Kern In this month’s Senseability podcast interview Paris Kern explains that the Feldenkrais Method® of somatic education is best understood through direct experience, and even if we can come up with the best description possible, it still wouldn’t completely make sense to someone without them actually trying an Awareness Through Movement® lesson or a Functional Integration® session. She then leans on her wealth of experience to provide a beautifully clear and accessible answer to ‘What is the Feldenkrais Method?’ question.Watch now  Paris Kern has been a Feldenkrais movement Practitioner since 1992, and has attained the highest professional certification as a designated Feldenkrais movement Teacher trainer. Paris also travels to train the next generations of Feldenkrais movement practitioners, teach workshops in The Sounder Sleep System™, Your Body Sings and Riding with the Whole Self.Since 2020 she has pioneered teaching the Sounder Sleep System online creating teacher training programs Hong Kong, North and South America, Europe and Mainland China Paris is a steady and inspiring presence, who brings a compassionate and light hearted manner to her work.She has the ability to simplify complex theories and principles of the Feldenkrais Method® of somatic education. Through stories and demonstrations, she de-mystifies challenging concepts and brings a common sense approach to her work. Her website is www.pariskern.com Asking Practitioners.. ‘What is the Feldenkrais Method®?’An collection of short descriptions of the Feldenkrais Method of movement provided by practitioners from around the world! In this month’s Senseability newsletter we reached out to practitioners from around the world to share their 100 word descriptions of ‘What the Feldenkrais Methodof somatic education is?’ with us. It’s a fantastic short collection and we think it has something for everyone. It also serves to highlight that while we all went through the same 4 year professional training process, we are all unique, in terms of our life experiences, what we have learned over time and how we express it. This is something that we think Moshe Feldenkrais would have been proud of, diversity in the expression of the Feldenkrais Method of somatic education. If you are inspired by any of the descriptions, please reach out to the practitioner for more information. We have included their website details, and where they are based.Read more |
| What is the Feldenkrais Method® – Animated VideoAn animated video about the Feldenkrais Method®of Somatic Education From Mattis Appelquist-Dalton, one of the creators of the video: Over the years, many practitioners and students shared with us that they felt the need for a simple, engaging tool – a short, 5-minute video to introduce the Feldenkrais Method of somatic education to prospective students and collaborators. Over the course of six months, we worked with two animators, a composer, a script consultant, and received invaluable input from trainers and practitioners. The result is and fun, and I hope, compelling video that conveys the essence of the method.Watch now Additional resources |
| Mattis has shared with us that him and some fellow colleagues are hosting a free 12 week program starting on February 1st 2025. You can sign up here: https://feldenkrais-education.com/en/12weeks/What is Feldenkrais? A video description provided by Annie Thoe |
In this month’s Senseability edition we have contributions from Andrew Gibbons and Mary Rudd. Andrew gives an insightful podcast interview on the subject of ‘What is Awareness Through Movement‘ that you don’t want to miss, and we Mary has written a lovely ‘beginner friendly’ article which discusses what to you can expect as you start your journey with Awareness Through Movement classes. Through his wide ranging physical and intellectual influences and self investigations, Moshe Feldenkrais found a novel way of working with the human condition, he was able to change his own physical and mental habits very effectively. He translated that learning into working with other individuals through the medium of touch and developed his one to one work which is known as Functional Integration® (FI®). Feldenkrais’s group classes, called Awareness Through Movement (ATM®), came into existence after the individual work. The development of group classes was a direct result of him wanting to bring the benefits of Functional Integration to a larger audience. He was faced with the challenge of how he could maintain the quality of attention and subtleness of movement, which was conveyed so well through touch, into a group lesson where each person was then responsible for their own learning experience. The result was Awareness Through Movement classes, which allowed him to take students through a process of sensory exploration and self awareness, using precise verbal movement instructions and guided attention. The classes went through their own evolutionary process, starting with the early lessons taught on Alexander Yanai street in Tel Aviv in the 1950’s & 60’s, in which he was developing his ideas. All the way to the classes taught in the professional trainings of San Francisco and Amherst in the 1970’s & 80’s, towards the end of his life. During that time Feldenkrais tried to refine and define what ‘Awareness Through Movement’ was and even produced a book by that name with 10 key lessons, each lesson demonstrating one of the core ideas in the Feldenkrais Method® of somatic education. 
Mia Segal and Moshe Feldenkrais. San Francisco 1975-77.Image credit: IFF We have included a short Awareness Through Movement lesson taught by Mia at her MBS academy in the resources section of the newsletter. Feldenkrais Communication TeamJane, Michelle, Seth and Joe 
Andrew Gibbons is the co-founder of Feldenkrais First, a mobile app and online platform for the practice of the Feldenkrais Method. A practitioner for over two decades, he maintains private practices in both Manhattan and Port Washington, Long Island (NY). Andrew has taught Feldenkrais movement for the Hospital for Special Surgery’s Integrative Care Center, the Doctoral PT program of SUNY Stoneybrook Medical School, for musicians in the Manhattan School of Music’s wellness program and in other public programs sponsored by the NY Department for the Aging, and has worked as an ergonomic consultant for The New York Times. He delivered a Tech Talk at Google’s New York headquarters on 
Mary Rudd, GCFP, works with students from the larger central Kentucky area in her Danville studio, Wise Move Studio, LLC. Mary maintains a general “Mindful Movement for Mindful Living” Feldenkrais® practice, supporting a range of people who are active and wish to remain so, who are recovering from injury or illness, or who simply enjoy a learning experience that helps them explore their creativity, resilience, and other pursuits according to their interests. Drawing from her earlier career as a teacher, administrator and literacy and leadership consultant, Mary emphasizes the learning process in her work, supporting students in trusting their own insights as applied to their daily life. Her website is 
March 2025 What is Functional Integration®? 
What is Functional Integration (FI®)? To answer this question we would like to start right at the beginning of life, with the relatively blank canvas of the human nervous system. “Homo sapiens arrive with a tremendous part of his nervous mass left unpatterned, unconnected, so that each individual, depending on where he happens to be born, can organize his brain to fit the demands of his surroundings.” – Moshe Feldenkrais When Moshe Feldenkrais was introducing the Feldenkrais Method® of somatic education (at the start of a new course or training), he often led with the idea of ‘Neuroplasticity’. He would explain that a human being’s ability to learn is unique among animal species, and that our behaviour (Habits, abilities, difficulties and skills) are the direct result of what we have learned in our lives. He must have felt this provided a good context for his teaching because it showed that we develop based on our lived experience. But more importantly, it introduced the idea that it is possible for us to improve at any point in life, due to our capacity to have new experiences. “Through awareness, we can learn to move with astonishing lightness and freedom at almost any age.” – Moshe Feldenkrais Functional Integration®, then, is a process designed to help human beings rediscover their ability to change; change the way they are organised, as well as how they move, at any point in life. Here is a great quote from Feldenkrais® trainer Carl Ginsburg (1938-2018), which we feel helps clarity how the above ideas are incorporated into the term ‘Functional Integration‘. “A second unique aspect of Moshe’s work is his insistence on function. Function in this sense is anything you do such as walking, standing, twisting, etc. A function is integrated when you carry it out with the whole of yourself, without self-interference.” To explore this subject further we have some great contributions in this months SenseAbility edition. We have a lovely interview with Prisca Winslow, Feldenkrais® practitioner and assistant trainer based in Taos, New Mexico. She shares the impact that Functional Integration® lessons and the Feldenkrais Method® of movement has had in her own life, as well as some of the beautiful examples of change and improvement she has received from her clients over the years. We also have a great article by Sabina Graf-Pointner, about why the skilled touch of a Feldenkrais practitioner is able to help clients so effectively. In the article she explores how the touch and careful attention of a trained practitioner can help their client find new ways of listening to themselves and new options for movement. Sabina is a long time practitioner and trainer based in Europe and her wealth of knowledge really comes through in the article. Lastly, we are re-airing a previous SenseAbility interview with Paris Kern from 2023, in which she goes into detail about what Functional Integration is and how it all works. We hope you enjoy this new edition, and it inspires you try a Functional Integration® if you haven’t already! Jane, Seth, Michelle and JoeFGNA Communications team An Introduction to Functional Integration®
Prisca Winslow, GCFP and Assistant Trainer, like everyone else, began her life discovering the world through movement. She has continued to do so through a variety of intriguing forms of movement arts, all of which Feldenkrais movement has informed and made more doable and fun! She first discovered the Method in 1983 after a four year search trying numerous other methods and therapies to heal from chronic ankle and back pain. It quickly brought her to enjoy again what she has always loved… Dance. The process continues to be expansive and rewarding and she is excited to share her learning.
Sabina’s passion for movement led her from competitive sports to New Dance and Contact Improvisation, and then to various methods of somatic learning, including her first experiences with the Feldenkrais Method in 1983. An accident in 1990 abruptly cut her intensive time as a dancer and teacher of dance and movement short, but this also marked the beginning of an intensive exploration of the Feldenkrais Method.Since completing her Feldenkrais training (1993) in Holland with Mia Segal, Dr. Moshé Feldenkrais’s first assistant, Sabina has worked as a Feldenkrais pedagogue in her own practice in Erlangen. Her Feldenkrais practice became so successful that, starting in 1998, she steadily expanded it into a Feldenkrais Center, where other Feldenkrais colleagues work.In addition to her intensive work as a leader of seminars and training courses for Feldenkrais colleagues, she has participated in various Feldenkrais movement training programs in Germany and abroad since 1996 – first as a training practitioner, since 2005 as an assistant trainer, and since 2018 as a trainer. Since 2023, she has been leading a Feldenkrais movement training program in Barcelona together with Philipp Unseld.Her website: 
June 2023 Newsletter Fit Over Forty Fitness Newsletter
Jane Johnston 
Photo by Jordan ChristianMay 12, 2023Exploring Children’s Motor Development With The Feldenkrais Method® From the Editors
About Chrish: Chrish is a Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner® who works with people of all ages and backgrounds using movement with awareness as a primary tool for improving functional health and vitality. This includes coordination, balance, self-awareness, posture and voice. She is also an actor and director. Chrish is passionate about using her diverse skills and background to help people find their innate potency and poise.
About Cyndi: Cyndi Manes is a retired Physical Therapist who has been a Feldenkrais® Practitioner for more than 20 years. She has specialized in working with neurodiverse children. Cyndi has taken Chava Shelhav’s ChildSpace training which emphasized parent /infant interactions to promote child development and Anat Baniel’s mastery training, Working with Children with Special Needs where she improved her handling techniques. Her primary mentor is Ellen Soloway. Cyndi has synthesized her diverse trainings into an effective approach to ensure her client’s success. Her website is 
About Matty: Matty is a Feldenkrais Method® and Anat Baniel Method® for Children practitioner in private practice in Boston and online. He is fascinated by the developmental process and believes in the innate potential of each individual to learn. In 2001 Matty began teaching preschool, studying child development, and joined a Feldenkrais® training. In 2006 Matty trained with Anat Baniel to work with children with special needs, and he earned a MA in Child Development from Tufts University in 2009. As a neurodevelopmental consultant, Matty coaches parents and educators to create optimal conditions for children’s learning, applying his expertise as an early childhood educator, sensorimotor practitioner, and father. In 2020 Matty and two colleagues co-founded 
About Alex: Alex Schaefer is a physical therapist, movement educator, martial artist and Feldenkrais®️ pratitioner. For the past 20 years, he has worked in a variety of settings including out-patient orthopedics, sports medicine, and neurology. His post graduate interests include: structural integration, pain neuroscience education, meditation, and visceral manipulation. He teaches live ATM® classes 5 days a week at his office in O’Fallon IL.
Photo by Avrielle Suleiman
About Faye: Faye has been teaching yoga since 1988 and holds the highest Yoga Alliance certification. She is a Feldenkrais practitioner and an Ayurvedic Institute graduate. She founded the Laurel Yoga Studio in Minnesota, and Casa Lalita Retreat Center in Mexico. After 25 years teaching asana, she developed the Fluid Strength Yoga Practice. She lives in St. Paul, where she teaches Fluid Strength, does private sessions in The Feldenkrais Method®, and develops health/wellness workshops. Faye has also authored two books: 
About Rachel: Rachel Potasznik is a Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner CM, Certified Yoga Teacher, who among other activities enjoys, swimming, dancing, travel, cooking and nature. She also has a Juris Doctor, practiced law and held court for over thirty years. She served in the U.S. Peace Corps in Botswana, where she helped to establish and manage a community based wildlife project. She lives in New York City and since the pandemic has been teaching Feldenkrais lessons online. She is also trained as a teacher of Bones for Life, Ruth Alon’s Movement Intelligence program.Her website is 
About Barbara: 
About Molly: Molly Tipping is a gentle and joyful Somatic practitioner. Trained in Feldenkrais®, Ideokinesis, Consent, Trauma, Pilates and Dance, Molly is specialises in embodiment, anxiety and the performing arts, and has found her niche – marrying her dramatic arts background with her astute body-mind sensitivities. Molly runs a busy private practice and lectures at the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) in Anatomy, Movement for Actors, Resilience Tools and Performance Anxiety.Molly is also the creator of the training program, Embracing Anxiety, as well as many home programs, including Move Over Anxiety, co-authored with Brigit Cosgrove. See ‘
About Rachel: Rachel White Galvin holds a Doctorate in Viola Performance, is a Guild Certified Feldenkrais® Practitioner, and is the Chief Galvinizer at MindFelt Methods. Like many parents during the Covid Pandemic, she was forced to reconsider the effectiveness of schools and was introduced to the concept of unschooling. Its approach felt like a natural complement to the Feldenkrais Method®. She has since garnered inspiration from the writings of Akilah S. Richards, John Holt, and Pat Farenga. In exploring the world with her children, she has focused on deschooling her own curiosity-killing habits acquired from decades of schooling. As the creator of The Unpractice Experiment, she brings the experiential approaches of unschooling and the Feldenkrais Method to musicians burned out from their own school experiences. She lives in Carpinteria, CA with her husband, two kids, two cats, a dog, two cavies, an assortment of fish, and a host of carnivorous plants.
About Fritha: Fritha Pengelly, GCFPCM, Certified IOPS Practitioner, and an Accredited Certified EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) Practitioner is based in Northampton, MA. Her practice is deeply informed by her background as a professional dancer and dance educator.
Photo by Lacey R. March 3, 2023 Supporting Recovery after Joint Replacement Surgery 
About Stacy: Stacy Barrows is a Doctor of Physical Therapy, Feldenkrais® Practitioner and National PMA Pilates Instructor. Stacy owns Smart Somatic Solutions, Inc., an independent clinic serving West Los Angeles, Beverly Hills and surrounding communities. She specializes in movement re-education, Pilates and integrative rehab, conditioning and sports training. She is the creator of the Smartroller,® and sister products, LINKS and SITS. She also authored “The Smartroller® Guide to Optimal Movement”, second edition, based on the Feldenkrais Method® and contributed a chapter to the recently published book titled THE FELDENKRAIS METHOD® . More information at 
About Becci: Becci Parsons is a Guild Certified Feldenkrais® Teacher and dancer with over 40 years of experience in the movement arts. She teaches community Awareness Through Movement® classes and workshops while maintaining a private practice in Seattle, consulting with clients online and in person. Becci also leads study groups and mentoring programs for local practitioners. Her work is dedicated to the mindful exploration of human vitality, grace and elegance through the study of ‘self in motion’. Her website is 
About Jane: 
