Truth or Fiction? You decide: The Berry Method®
The late Lauren Berry Sr. was exceptionally straightforward whenever anyone asked what he did. “I’m not a healer and I’m not a doctor,” he would say.”- Mirka Knaster’s “Discovering The Body’s Wisdom”
Berrywork or Berry Method is considered as one of the most effective type of bodywork. – History of Health.
Lauren Berry’s legendary career as a body worker began at an early age when his next-door neighbor, a retired Finnish physician, took an interest in Lauren and showed him several Swedish gymnastics techniques that he could use to help his ailing mother. Over time he counseled and guided Lauren as he continued to help his mother recover and regain her health. It wasn’t long before word spread and people started showing up on his door step eager for him to “work his magic”.
Often Lauren would come home from school to find a house filled with people waiting for him to help them. A number of events and coincidences helped shape and guide a career in bodywork and alternative health that grew to be legendary .
Berry Method® Training
The Institute of Integral Health, Inc. is a non profit teaching corporation that was formed shortly after Lauren’s passing in 1983, initially consisting of seven of his advanced students who had assisted him with his practice and in teaching his classes in the ’70s and ’80s.
We have all agreed that by staying and teaching together we could pass on Lauren’s amazing system in a way that would be responsible and not be overly influenced by any one individual teacher’s personal view and interpretation of “The Work”.
What Do You Think?
Is that a narrative that I created as a parody based on some events from the Feldenkrais community? Or is it “real” in the sense that someone created a narrative based on their teacher “Lauren Berry.” Make a comment and let me know what you think.
**Note: I just updated my commenting functioning so that you can subscribe and get notified of new comments and also so that you can subscribe to the comments even if you do not want to comment. Of course, you don’t have to do either.
1950 “Review” of Body and Mature Behavior.
A moment ago, I stumbled across a reference for what I though was a review of Feldenkrais’ book “Body and Mature Behavior” from a 1950 psychology journal. Unfortunately, it was more of a fortune cookie note than a review. None the less, the unsigned review is notable for it’s outright dismissal of the book and apparent need to show no supporting details.***
From Journal of Consulting Psychology, Vol 14(3), Jun, 1950. pp. 235.
FELDENKRAIS, M. Body and mature behavior. New
York: International Universities Press, 1949. Pp.
viii + 167. $3.75.
“The perplexing subtitle of this small book, “A Study of Anxiety, Sex, Gravitation, and Learning, may seem like a cross-out-one-wrong-word test item until the author’s thesis is disclosed. Feldenkrais examines the implications of the erect human posture, and of various modes of carriage and movement, for the development of personality and for psychotherapy. The theory has its points of interest, but does not quite persuade.”
***That being said, I must say I am only now after 15 years of experience and study coming to appreciate the utility of the book and its ideas. I’m going to believe that makes me an early adopter. After all, it is widely reported that a cure for scurvy was found in 1601 by the British Captain James Lancaster. Though it was not until 1795 – nearly 200 years later – that the cure was mandated by the British Navy.
Feldenkrais Podcast with Edward Yu (The Art of Slowing Down).
I am republishing a couple of radio interviews with Edward Yu, the Feldenkrais Practitioner who wrote “The Art of Slowing Down, A Sense-ABLE Approach to running
The second interview is from Robin Hood Radio a show from an NPR station in Sharon Connecticut. I am posting the entire interview with the permission of the interviewer Marshall Miles. If you want to subscribe to the Robin Hood Show you can do so through itunes: Robin Hood Radio on iTunes.
I hope you enjoy this! Both interviews are worth hearing:
Edward Yu Podcast (click!).
If you want to hear more from Edward, he has several presentations as well as an Awareness Through Movement lesson and a chapter from his book at the Feldenkrais Running Conference.
Change Your Age (But Not Your Marketing?)
I received an email this morning regarding Frank Wildman’s “Change Your Age Program.” I’ve heard good things about the program. And like most products and ideas that Frank puts into the world, I’m guessing that it is well-thought out, highly-useful and even transformative.
But I could not help being puzzled by the requirements for teaching Change Your Age. According to the website to become a “certified” Change Your Age teacher you must be Certified as a Feldenkrais practitioner and have permission to take the course from the Educational Director, Frank Wildman, GCFT, PhD. Fascinating. The only way to become a Change Your Age Practitioner is to first spend $16,000+ to become a Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner.
My guess is that there are approximately 6000 people worldwide who have been through Guild Certified Feldenkrais Trainings. I would be absolutely stunned if more than 1000 of are in active practice. I will be generous, double that number and estimate 2000. The most likely market for Frank’s certification program are those 2000 active practitioners.
That certainly does not leave much room for growth, does it?
Bones For Life
Compare Frank’s strategy to what Ruthy Alon has done with “Bones For Life.” Ruthy has a complete training program that does not require one to first attend a Feldenkras Training program. She now has 100′s of independent practitioners, many certified trainers and currently has trainings in over a dozen countries. And guess what? She still has a market of 100′s of thousands if not millions – Rolfer’s, Feldenkrais Practitioner’s, Massage Therapists, Physical Therapist’s and interested members of the public. Not bad!
Hello From A Feldenkrais Practitioner (On SomaSimple Forum)
I recently noticed that the SomaSimple Forums moderated by Barret Dorko has a fun thread discussing what has historically been called, “The Feldenkrais Method.”
The discussion ranges from some people’s perception of Feldenkrais practitioners, to a reader’s digest definition of the work, some historical details, as well as one person’s change in perception of the work:
“I took a motor control class last semester and I feel like we touched on some of those points. I think it [Feldenkrais] sounds like an interesting way to work on some sort of metacognition of movement….”
Take a look: Hello From A Feldenkrais Practitioner (SomaSimple Forum)
By the way – I am a member of SomaSimple though I have not posted on it in a longtime, perhaps over a year. The Forum is open to new members and to Feldenkrais practitioners, but be warned – It has a robust moderation policy that supports a high level of discourse.
