I bumped into a lovely webpage by a Stanford Professor named Sanjeev Arora, What is the Feldenkrais Method?. I thought his ideas about the method were quite sound and can serve as a useful introduction to the method. Here are his first few words:

The Feldenkrais method, invention of Israeli physicist Moshe Feldenkrais, is a way of retraining the body. There are two modes of this retraining. The first is group classes called Awareness Through Movement or ATMs, which are reminiscent of yoga or tai chi classes, but very different. (For instance, the instructor makes no movements; he/she sits around and talks while you do the movements!) The second mode —more capable of causing dramatic improvements— is one-on-one sessions (called Functional Integration or FI) with a trained practitioner, which can cost about $100 per hour in the US. In such a session you lie fully clothed on a low table and the practitioner gently moves or presses your body in different directions to make you aware of (a) subconscious tension and holding patterns that make your movement less efficient (b) efficient ways of coordinating your body.

FI is the trump card of the Feldenkrais method, which I think makes it superior to yoga, tai-chi, pilates etc.

There are a couple of small points that I would like to add. First, I don't think of the Feldenkrais Method as way of "retraining the body" but rather as a way of creating actionable distinctions in the mind-body or perhaps better said "brain-body" system. So, neither training nor retraining are words that I use to describe the method.

And though I like Dr. Arora's idea that Functional Integration is the "trump card" of the method, and in the past may have even agreed with it, I have started to realize that in an internet era, with the huge potential of transmitting viral and web content, the trump card of The Feldenkrais Method - the tipping point - will likely be voice-guided Awareness Through Movement.

Modalities such massage therapy and physical therapy (to name a couple) do not have such an easily created and transmitted vehicle of their work as we do in the world of Moshe Feldenkrais.

My post today is nothing more than a cursory treatment of Dr Arora's ideas about the Method if your want more, read his website: My Experiences With The Feldenkrais Method.