"The lessons are designed to improve ability, that is to expand the boundaries of the possible, to turn the impossible into the possible, the difficult into the easy, and the easy into the elegant." --Moshe Feldenkrais
During a group Awareness Through Movement® (ATM) class, I verbally guide you through a sequence of movements intended to clarify and refine for your nervous system an underlying functional pattern. I also verbally guide your attention to kinesthetic, proprioceptive and other sensations that accompany those movements. Interpreting verbal instructions into movement creates a very different experience than copying a modeled demonstration; it induces greater awareness of what you're doing and sensing, and it allows for a more self-directed and exploratory learning process. This exploratory process is similar to the play of infants and toddlers as they learn to lift their heads, reach for objects, roll, sit, crawl, stand, walk, and form words. However, the design of an ATM lesson leads you to discover and refine movements more quickly than you would with random play.
Most lessons are done while lying on the floor; some lessons are done while sitting on the floor or a chair, and some are done while standing. Usually you move very slowly, allowing enough time to observe your movements and to inhibit compulsive movements that interfere with your intended action. Usually you move with as little effort as possible; this heightens your awareness of subtle differences, which is essential to refining your motor control. Always you move within your range of comfort, both because discomfort is a distraction from learning and because learning requires attention to how, not how far, you move. Although it may seem paradoxical at first, this study in slow, small movement, using minimal effort results in increased speed, range of motion, and effective power.
*If you have serious pain, injury, or disability, you may want to try a private lesson before trying group classes.
Feldenkrais®, Feldenkrais Method®, and Guild Certified Feldenkrais PractitionerCM are all service marks, collective or certification marks of the Feldenkrais Guild® of North America.