The Feldenkrais Method and Chronic Pain. Does Feldenkrais Help?

The AARP recently posted an article on “alternative therapies” and drug-free treatments for chronic pain. The Feldenkrais Method of Learning was mentioned:

Bedridden and folded up in a fetal position, she was unable to brush her hair, shower, or use the bathroom unaided. She teetered on the verge of suicide. Finally, after 15 years, a switch in medical plans introduced her to doctors who believed her. But by that point, the pain medications they prescribed could not reverse her condition. Worse, the drugs left her with a slew of side effects.

Toussaint wanted to try physical therapy for pelvic pain, and a movement therapy called Feldenkrais, ideas her doctor initially dismissed. He rolled his eyes and said, It will never help,”she remembers. Ultimately, however, the move led her into the world of alternative therapies and saved Toussaint’s life.

Guided imagery and Feldenkrais, the therapies that helped Toussaint, are only two out of more than a dozen alternative therapies that have been scientifically documented to ease chronic pain when drugs can’t. And they frequently can’t, says James Dillard, M.D., D.C., coauthor of The Chronic Pain Solution (Bantam, 2003). Even if we prescribe medication as well as we can, on average we are still only going to take away between 50 and 60 percent of your pain.

The full article is here: AARP Drug-Free Pain Relief.

If you want to know more about Feldenkrais Research, Jim Stephens and Frank Wildman have created a brief online article regarding some research on pain and other areas relevant to the Feldenkrais Method:

http://www.feldenkraisinstitute.org/articles/a_research.html

Tags: Feldenkrais research, Frank Wildman, Jim Stephens