The Feldencrais Method (FM) is a method of integrating the mind and body to enhance performance. It is often used by athletes or musicians to enhance their abilities. It can be used as therapy for people with injuries, pain or a handicap. It respects the relationship between the body and mind, treating them essentially as one entity, and works with each to influence the other.
The Feldenkrais Method educates the body/mind using gentle movement and directed attention. It is designed to enhance vitality, movement, range of motion and coordination resulting in movement with increased grace and efficiency. Based on principles of physics and biomechanics, the method expands the self-image through movement sequences that bring attention to the parts of the self that are out of awareness. Practitioners prefer to refer to their clients as students to reinforce the nature of the work as education rather than a treatment.
The experience of the student is either in a group setting called an Awareness Through Movement (ATM) session, or in a personal training called Functional Integration (FI) session where an FM practitioner gently guides the student through a series of movements. The ATM sessions are typically 30 to 60 minutes long. The sessions are taken from many hours of movement sequences have been developed over the years for various purposes. These sequences explore thinking, sensing, moving and imagining in a gentle, non-athletic process. The FI sessions are completely individualized for the needs of the particular student and designed to improve some aspect of performance or therapy.
Developed by Moshe Feldencrais in the mid-20th century who trained the first few groups of trainers in the 1970s, the Feldencrais Method is now administered by the Feldencrais Guild of North America. Practitioners are certified after several hundred hours of training and internship in a practice under a certified trainer. Lists of practitioners are available on the Feldencrais Guild website.
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