One~on~one sessions using gentle, non~invasive touch & verbal instruction guiding the student in personalized movement processes.

Lessons, as they are called, are done with the client, fully clothed, on a work table. Depending on the function(s) being addressed, the client may be lying, sitting or even standing. Through touch, the Feldenkrais Practitioner partially discloses or hints at a functional motor pattern & the client’s nervous system responds with altered muscular responses. In order to achieve the goals of learning rather than conditioning, the practitioner & the ‘learner’ must be engaged in a highly sensitive kinesthetic rapport. The practitioner must be ready to adapt his/her sensory cues to the learner’s ability to use the input at any given moment.

A Functional Integration® lesson is always an intelligent improvisation on a theme, a kinesthetic conversation in which response determines next input, rather than a predetermined lesson or pattern. Gradually, with entrainment of the whole skeleton into participation with the function, the client synthesizes, mostly at an unconscious level, a new neuromuscular pattern of movement. The altered neuromuscular responses catch the client by surprise & change is therefore experienced as effortless ~ not based on conscious correction or exertion of will.

Functional Integration® is appropriate for those whose movement is limited or compromised by poor mechanics as well as by a variety of organic causes. Feldenkrais® Practitioners do not treat organic damage, degenerations or inflammations. We simply guide the client to reorganize his/her movement pattens in ways which respect their organic limitations. We make the observation that when this happens, pain which had been attributed to the organic causes often either disappears or is significantly decreased.

A series of Functional Integration® lessons results in re~organized body movement, re~organized posture as well as a heightened sense of self~direction in movement. In experiential language this translates into: decreased pain, increased flexibility, better posture, a sense of the whole body working together, increased mobility & a greater sense of confidence in all daily movements. Clients are much more able to make kinesthetic distinctions, therefore, they begin to be able to feel & recognize movements which are detrimental to their system as well as activities which benefit them. Clients become empowered via their bodies.