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Standards
of Practice for the Feldenkrais Method
Preface
1. Any attempt to write a definition
of the Feldenkrais Method might be seen as producing a somewhat
static description of a highly fluid and dynamic method. Feldenkrais
practitioners/teachers continually evolve their understanding
and practice of the Method and in offering definitive statements
about the work we must not lose our perspective of dynamism and
evolution. This document should be interpreted in this light.
2. Innovation and growth in this field
are valued, especially when based on a solid foundation of understanding,
sensitivity and skill embodied in the Methods' present form.
As valid innovations become accepted in the Feldenkrais community,
these standards will be changed accordingly.
3. This document will be updated at
regular intervals by a committee to be appointed by the Board
of Directors for the purpose of reviewing and making revisions
to the Standards of Practice.
Introduction
1. The Feldenkrais Method assumes
that human beings have transformational potential and that all
people, regardless of their age or condition, have the ability
to learn.
2. Moshe Feldenkrais wrote in "Higher
Judo", "In a perfectly matured body which has grown without
great emotional disturbances, movements tend gradually to conform
to the mechanical requirements of the surrounding world. The
nervous system has evolved under the influence of these laws
and is fitted to them. However, in our society we do, by the
promise of great reward or intense punishment, so distort the
even development of the system, that many acts become excluded
or restricted. The result is that we have to provide special
conditions for furthering adult maturation of many arrested functions.
The majority of people have to be taught not only the special
movements of our repertoire, but also to reform patterns of motions
and attitudes that should never have been excluded or neglected."
Section
1 - What the Feldenkrais Method is and what it does.
1. The Feldenkrais Method is
an educational system that develops a functional awareness of
the self in the environment. The Method utilizes the fact that
the body is the primary vehicle for learning.
2. The Feldenkrais Method is an approach
to working with people which expands their repertoire of movements,
enhances awareness, improves function and enables people to express
themselves more fully.
3. The Feldenkrais Method directly
addresses the question of how to facilitate the learning that
is necessary for organizing the whole self and recovering excluded
and unconsidered movement patterns or actions.
4. This is done by expanding the self-image
through movement sequences that bring attention to the parts
of the self that are out of awareness and uninvolved in functional
actions. Better function is evoked by establishing an improved
dynamic relationship between the individual, gravity, and society.
Feldenkrais himself defined function as the interaction of the
person with the outside world or the self with the environment.
5. The Method enables people to include
in their functioning, movements and parts of the body unconsidered,
forgotten, or excluded from their habitual actions or images
of actions. By allowing a person to learn how their whole body
cooperates in any movement, the Feldenkrais Method assists people
to live their lives more fully, efficiently and comfortably.
6. The improvement of physical functioning
is not necessarily an end in itself. Such improvement is based
on developing a broader functional awareness which is often a
gateway to more generalized enhancement of physical functioning
in the context of one's environment and life.
7. The Feldenkrais Method is based
on self-organization and self-regulation in learning.
8. The Feldenkrais Method is expressed
in two parallel forms: Awareness Through Movement® and Functional
Integration®.
9. Awareness Through Movement consists
of verbally directed movement sequences presented primarily to
groups. There are several hundred hours of Awareness Through Movement lessons. A lesson generally lasts from thirty to sixty
minutes. Each lesson is usually organized around a particular
function.
10. In Awareness Through Movement lessons,
people engage in precisely structured movement explorations that
involve thinking, sensing, moving, and imagining. Many are based
on developmental movements and ordinary functional activities.
Some are based on more abstract explorations of joint, muscle,
and postural relationships. The lessons consist of comfortable,
easy movements that gradually evolve into movements of greater
range and complexity. There are hundreds of Awareness Through
Movement lessons contained in the Feldenkrais Method that vary,
for all levels of movement ability, from simple in structure
and physical demand to more difficult lessons.
11. Awareness Through Movement lessons
attempt to make one aware of their habitual neuromuscular patterns
and rigidities and to expand options for new ways of moving while
increasing sensitivity and improving efficiency.
12. A major goal of Awareness Through
Movement is to learn how one's most basic functions are organized.
By experiencing the details of how one performs any action, the
student has the opportunity to learn how to:
- attend to his/her whole self
- eliminate unnecessary energy expenditure
- mobilize his/her intentions into actions
- learn
13. Functional Integration is the other
form of expressing the Feldenkrais Method. Just as Feldenkrais
practitioners can guide people through movement sequences verbally
in Awareness Through Movement, they also guide people through
movement with gentle, non-invasive touching in Functional Integration.
14. Functional Integration is a hands-on
form of tactile, kinesthetic communication. The Feldenkrais practitioner
communicates to the student how he/she organizes his/her body
and hints, through gentle touching and movement, how to move
in more expanded functional motor patterns.
15. The Functional Integration lesson
should relate to a desire, intention, or need of the student.
The learning process is carried out without the use of any invasive
or forceful procedure. Through rapport and respect for the student's
abilities, qualities and integrity, the practitioner/teacher
creates an environment in which the student can learn comfortably.
16. In Functional Integration, the
practitioner/teacher develops a lesson for the student, custom-tailored
to the unique configuration of that particular person, at that
particular moment. The practitioner conveys the experience of
comfort, pleasure, and ease of movement while the student learns
how to reorganize his/her body and behavior in new and more effective
manners.
17. In Functional Integration, the
practitioner/teacher's intention is instructive and communicative.
18. Functional Integration is usually
performed with the student lying on a table designed specifically
for the work. It can also be done with the student in sitting
or standing positions. At times, various props are used in an
effort to support the person's body configuration or to facilitate
certain movements.
19. The Method is based on principles
of physics, biomechanics and an empirical understanding of learning
and human development.
Section
2 - What the Feldenkrais Method is not.
1. The Method is not a medical,
massage, bodywork, or therapeutic technique. The Method is a
learning process.
2. The Feldenkrais Practitioner has
no sexual intent and does not place hands on or in the genitals
or anus.
3. Chemical or mechanical aids are
not used in the practice of the Feldenkrais Method.
Section
3 - What a Feldenkrais practitioner knows, understands and does
in practicing the Feldenkrais Method.
The practitioner/teacher:
1. Understands that all actions in
the Feldenkrais Method are a product of a way of experiencing
and thinking as originally developed by Moshe Feldenkrais, and
structured in the curriculum of Feldenkrais Professional Training
Programs. All expressions of the Feldenkrais Method in the design
and teaching of Awareness Through Movement or in the implementation
of a Functional Integration lesson, represent that way of thinking.
2. Is sensitive to the interdependency
of acting, sensing, thinking, and feeling that constitute human
activity, and recognizes that changes in movement influence all
these factors.
3. Understands the rationale, design
strategies and principles of Functional Integration and Awareness
Through Movement lessons. This understanding can be implicit
and/or explicit, empirical and/or cognitive.
4. Understands the effectiveness of,
and can communicate the basic learning strategies of the Feldenkrais
Method in teaching Awareness Through Movement, such as
| a: |
orienting to the process
of learning and doing rather than working towards a goal; |
| b: |
using slow, gentle movement; |
| c: |
directing awareness toward
sensing differences and perceiving whole inter-connected patterns
in movement; |
| d: |
allowing the student to
find his/her own way with the lesson; |
| e: |
directing students to
move within the limits of safety by avoiding pain and strain. |
5. Observes and interacts with students
from the initial contact and interview in a manner that leads
to the development of Functional Integration lessons coherent
with the principles as stated above in Sections 1 and 2. This
means the practitioner/teacher knows how to translate the way
students present their problems into the framework of thinking
of the Feldenkrais Method.
6. Distinguishes between solving a
problem that the student presents and evoking a response designed
to create a new way of thinking, feeling, sensing and moving.
7. Knows the difference between learning
to accomplish a particular skill or function and learning how
to achieve new strategies and possibilities for action in relation
to one's intentions in the environment.
8. Uses his/her voice, body, presentation
and presence in relation to the student's, so as to encourage
a supportive environment for learning.
9. Continually reorganizes him/herself
in relationship to perceived changes in the student undergoing
Awareness Through Movement lessons and Functional Integration.
10. Contacts another person through
touch in a manner that is supportive, non-invasive in intention,
and non-corrective.
11. Meshes his/her movements with the
easiest directions in which the student moves.
12. Becomes aware when support is given
to the student, when quality of action improves, and when function
becomes more integrated.
13. Alters his/her self-organization
in order to evoke greater feelings of comfort, greater capacity
for learning and improved ability to function in the student.
14. Has the necessary skill to evoke
the student's self-regulating abilities.
15. Determines what movement patterns
a person needs to learn in order to learn a function.
16. Makes distinctions between a more
or less efficiently executed action, becomes aware of the presence
of extraneous efforts and can feel where a student interferes
with intended actions.
17. Detects changes in muscular patterns,
skeletal configurations, respiration, and autonomic nervous system
signs in both him/herself and the student.
18. Makes basic distinctions about
differences in muscular tones throughout the student's body and
more importantly, knows how to find those differences by increasing
one's own sensitivity when needed.
19. Is sensitive to the amount of input
a student can receive during each lesson and regulates the intensity
and duration of each lesson accordingly.
20. Can discuss and describe to others
what his/her intentions are or were during a Functional Integration
lesson.
21. Organizes Functional Integration
lessons understanding both the symbolic and bio/mechanical aspects
of self-expression and how they are interwoven.
22. Most importantly, knows how he/himself
or she/herself learns.
Section
4 - Organizing Processes of the Feldenkrais Method.
1. At the core of the Feldenkrais
Method is a state of mind that fosters a process of inquiry rather
than one that seeks to define solutions. The practitioner and
the student join together to discover and promote the awareness
necessary in order to improve functioning in the student.
2. The following questions are unique
coordinates for the Feldenkrais Method. When they are all brought
together as a constellation, they represent a unique signature
of the Feldenkrais Method. Practitioners teach the Feldenkrais
Method by translating the answers to these questions into actions,
whether the questions are asked or answered explicitly or implicitly.
3. These questions might never be brought
into language by a Feldenkrais practitioner but rather form a
sea of thoughts which might occasionally bubble to the surface
in an articulate form, and be asked by the practitioner of themselves
or another directly.
Questions practitioners/teachers
refer to themselves:
1. How am I presenting myself in relationship
to my student?
2. What can I do to achieve greater
rapport with my student?
3. What must I do with myself to create
the environment for learning for any lesson?
4. How am I organized to make contact
with another person?
5. How do I organize myself to be able
to feel more sensitively (for feedback)?
6. How am I organized to communicate
and to act (for feed forward)?
7. What can I do to communicate support
and ease with my student?
8. What must I do to evoke a response
from my student without being overly directive?
9. How can I work so that my intention
is clear but not imposed on the student?
10. What feelings are evoked in myself
while working with my student and how is this affecting my actions?
Questions related to observing the
student
1. How can I discover the needs or
wants of my student and how can I arrange myself to address them?
2. How does the student succeed in
his/her life or in any particular actions of importance in life?
3. If the student feels unsuccessful,
has he/she felt successful previously and how did he/she organize
themselves to succeed in the past?
4. What can I sense in the way of differences
about this person that reveals what is needed, e.g., one side
compared to the other, high and low tone, between this person
and others, etc.?
5. What can I see, feel, or sense that
will allow me to discover for myself and to reveal to my student
the pattern of organization he/she is currently maintaining?
And how can I feel and reveal the direction he/she might be moving
towards from their current pattern of organization?
6. What can I feel, see, or sense that
will allow me to move the student in the direction that will
evoke greater learning and increased ability?
7. How can I perceive what is missing
or unattended in the student's self-image as it is revealed in
his/her body?
Cognitive questions in the mind
of the practitioner/teacher, that he/she considers
1. What is the student doing and not
doing to fulfill his/her intentions in life?
2. How can I find what the student
wants in the context of his/her life? What function or functions
might be involved?
3. What movement sequences can be organized
around a theme which can create a possible learning experience
for the student, that will help complete what is missing or unattended
in their self-image?
4. What kinds of lessons are most appropriate
for this person's needs?
5. Is there a major function I would
like to explore with my student, and what steps are necessary
to embark on the exploration of that function?
6. What movement possibilities and/or
what functions are developmentally required prior to working
with the function we intend to restore?
7. What can this student learn right
now? What is the timeframe for his/her learning and what would
be required to deepen it?
8. What are the distinctions I need
to make and what are the categories and abstractions I might
need to form in order to continue my and my student's learning?
Developed and adopted by the North
American Feldenkrais Guild® in 1992 and adopted by the International
Feldenkrais® Federation in 1994.
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