Feldenkrais Method®
Human movement is a self-taught process that begins during infancy and is the first step of creating our self-image. Dr. Feldenkrais believed every human emotion has a physical expression.
As infants, we learn to leverage our bones and strengthen and balance the use our muscles to move our bones against supporting surfaces in a gravitational field. As adults, we take movement for granted and assume everyone can walk. We don’t pay attention to how we move until it hurts to move, and then our nervous systems make necessary adaptations upon adaptations to change how we move to minimize re-injury or pain. Years later, the cummulative effect of these movement adaptations may result in unusual wear and tear of chronically overused joints, stiffness, or muscle spasms that “suddenly appear”.
Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais believed if movement is a learned skill, then inefficient, adaptive movement patterns can be unlearned and replaced by sustainable movement patterns that do not further compromise our bodies. By slowing down our movement and improving our self-awareness to understand how we move, the brain subconsciously and efficiently chooses movement patterns that are aligned with the body’s current structure and forms new neural connections. Students learn to balance the use of their muscles with their skeleton and, distribute the work throughout the body so that a joint does not work in isolation or deteriorate prematurely. Improvement of movement efficiency results in decreased pain and stiffness, and promotes long-term quality of life. Learning sustainable movement patterns is actually rediscovering patterns that we learned during the first years of our lives.
There are 2 types of Feldenkrais lessons. Private, one-on-one Functional Integration® (FI) lessons are 90 minutes and group Awareness Through Movement® (ATM) classes are about 60 minutes. The investment per FI® lesson is $150-$175. The investment per ATM® lesson is $20.
Improves posture
Increases strength
Improves balance & flexibility
Decreases pain
By focusing your attention inward, the joy & ease of movement are rediscovered.
TESTIMONIALS
“The movements (in Functional Integration lessons) are so gentle.”
~Ann D., retired RN
"...better freedom & mobility..."
“Thorough and effective, Dr. Yao gets even the most difficult of patients’ complaints better freedom of mobility with less pain through the Feldenkrais Method.” ~Quoc Vo, D.O, NMM-OMM
"...no such thing as "correct" movement..."
“Prior to signing up for the online class, I worried about not understanding the instruction “correctly” and the instructor would not be able see my movements very well on screen. There is no need for such worries with Virginia – her instructions are clear, and she is gifted in articulating position and movement in three dimensional space. I also learnt that there is no such thing as “correct” movement, each body is unique and the awareness of our habitual pattern is key.” ~Shirley T.
"...swimming is a joy rather than a grind..."
“Virginia’s work in the pool is quite unique and leads to wonderful outcomes including better body awareness and swimming skills. In the crawl stroke, you learn about the form of the arms above and below the water, a kick that stems from an awareness of the pelvis rolling from side to side and coordination of the breath. By studying and practicing the individual components of a stroke, you slowly learn to bring it all together in an organized and calm way. These days I’m confident in the water, swimming is a joy rather than a grind, and it’s a gentler exercise on my joints, which is great. Thank you, Virginia!” ~Heather W.
"...taught me how to swim in a very Feldenkrais way..."
“I started my work with Virginia by attending her ATM classes, which were a terrific introduction the principles of Feldenkrais. I also worked with her individually in what are called FI (Functional Integration) lessons— hands-on table work. And to round it out, Virginia taught me how to swim in a very Feldenkrais manner, going over how we initiate movement in the water to arrive at a more efficient and graceful stroke. What a gift her teaching has been!” ~ Gay O.
