"This is the most sophisticated and effective method I have seen for the prevention and reversal of deterioration of function."
--Margaret Mead
The Feldenkrais Method, developed by Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais, uses sensory motor learning to ease aches and pains and enhance skills. It is an innovative approach to achieving dynamic health and well-being.
Feldenkrais practitioners use gentle touch and movement to help clients discover efficient and comfortable action patterns, freeing them from restrictions and pain.
Clients report increased vitality. The negative aspects of stress are reduced. Movement becomes pleasurable.
Mary has obtained positive results with people diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome, chronic and acute back pain, headaches, neuralgia, arthritis, foot, knee and hip pain.
Improved enjoyment and performance of pursuits including riding, skiing, martial arts, tennis, golf, racquetball, swimming, running, walking, yoga and weight-training is common.
The Feldenkrais Method consists of two components. One, called Functional Integration, is a hands-on approach. Clients lie comfortably clothed on a low, padded table. As pleasurable as a massage, this approach is highly individualized and yields maximum learning for the client.
Benefits can include: improved flexibility, coordination, posture and elimination of back, neck and knee pain. Each session is custom-tailored to the individual's needs. Mary has an office in Encinitas, San Diego County, CA. Contact Mary to discuss your needs or to schedule an appointment.
The second approach is called Awareness Through Movement (ATM). Awareness Through Movement is generally taught in a group setting. The group is led through a series of movement sequences that are organized around a functional action, with participants learning how to involve their entire self in an action. The result is movement that is elegant and virtually effortless.
To find out how you can improve your posture and help reduce back pain and stiffness in the comfort of your own home, please refer to our Products page.
To find a Feldenkrais practitioner in your area, visit www.Feldenkrais.com.
Because of its gentle effectiveness, Feldenkrais is suitable for people of all athletic levels and in all conditions. Many people report positive life changes as a result of their newly discovered self-images.
Lie down on the floor with your legs straight. Notice how much space is behind your lower back. If your back hurts, bend your knees. Otherwise keep your legs straight. With your arms at your sides, lift your head for a moment to look at your feet. Notice how high your head lifts easily. The key word is "easily." Don't strain, please! Make a mental note of how high your head went.
Please bend your knees and place your feet about hip width apart.
Cross your hands over your sternum (breastbone). Gently press down on your sternum. Does it feel springy or immovable? Can you feel movement in your chest as you do this? Gently press down on your sternum several times. Think of your sternum as simultaneously going closer to the floor and closer to your pelvis.
Now slowly lift your head as you press down on your sternum with your crossed hands. Does your head lift higher? Slowly lift your head a few times while gently pressing down on your sternum.
Straighten your legs. Cross your arms over your chest and simply lift your head to look at your feet. How does this movement compare to the first time you lifted your head?
For most, the movement will be much easier now because you are no longer using your neck muscles to lift your head. Instead, you have learned to soften the sternum and ribs and allow the powerful muscles of the ribcage and abdomen to do the work of lifting the head. In addition to being biomechanically efficient, using the large muscles of your body reduce strain and help diminish back and neck pain.
Contact Mary if you are interested in scheduling a private Feldenkrais session in Encinitas, CA (North San Diego County). To find out how you can improve your posture and help reduce back pain and stiffness in the comfort of your own home, please refer to our Products page.
To understand how your horse can benefit from biomechanically efficient movement too, refer to the articles Help Your Horse Round His Back and Improving Equine Movement And Well-Being
Mary offers private Functional Integration sessions. The client, comfortably clothed, lays or sits on a low padded table. The session lasts about an hour and involves non-habitual, pleasurable movement and gentle touch.
Benefits can include: improved flexibility, coordination, posture, and elimination of back, neck and knee pain. Each session is custom-tailored to the individual's needs and both riders and non-riders can benefit. Cost is $85. Location: Office in Encinitas, CA (north of San Diego).
Contact Mary to discuss your needs or to schedule an appointment.
Awareness Through Movement classes. Improve posture; eliminate movement restrictions and aches and pains. Riders and non-riders benefit.
In these group classes, Mary leads participants through a series of gentle movement sequences that are designed to improve awareness, flexibility, coordination, and balance. Tensions release, and movement becomes effortless and elegant. While this class is beneficial for everyone, equestrians will find that their riding skills can improve significantly with this unmounted work.
Please contact Mary for information on these classes.
For more information on Mary's Feldenkrais work with equestrians, click on Horses and Riders.
For more information on the Feldenkrais Method and to locate a practitioner near you, visit www.Feldenkrais.com.
Trish, sitting on the comfortably padded table in my office, was there because she was having difficulty with her horse. Trish made an appointment for a Feldenkrais session after reading about my work in the AHSA publication, Horse Show Magazine. She had been frustrated for a long time by her horse's apparent stiffness and had decided to explore how she might be contributing to her horse's difficulties.
Riding, like many sports, demands coordination and timing. It also requires that elusive quality, "feel." Feel is the ability to carry on a subtle two-way dialogue with your horse, so that horse and rider act as a single, intelligent unit. Feel requires a heightened awareness of self that is often lacking in our stress-filled world.
How can the Feldenkrais Method help riders improve their skills and achieve feel? Simply put, the Feldenkrais Method teaches riders how to stop interfering with themselves, taking the struggle out of riding. Years of sitting behind a desk, driving a car, dealing with stress and nursing old injuries often leads to the development of unhealthy and restrictive movement patterns which overuse parts of the body and lead to pain and stiffness. These habitual patterns become so ingrained that they are lost from our awareness. The restrictions feel familiar and thus seem "normal." We no longer realize that we have the potential to be flexible, coordinated and graceful. The freedom of movement we had as children seems a distant memory. Feldenkrais can help you recover it.
What is so extraordinary about the Feldenkrais Method is that it does not attempt to correct or manipulate. Rather, it is an educational approach that is relaxing, pleasurable and supportive. Using noninvasive touch and movement, a Feldenkrais practitioner clarifies for the client what he is really doing and helps him explore more effective movement options. This sensory learning approach is in contrast to attempting to make postural changes through force of will. The familiar refrains of "Sit up straight, pull your shoulders back, sit evenly," etc. often fall short of their goal as they can create even more tension in the rider.
Gently running my hand over Trish's back, I noticed the tension in her muscles. She mentioned that her back ached at times. I was not surprised, seeing how hard her muscles were always working!
When muscles remain habitually contracted and tense, they are weaker than softer, supple muscles. Chronic muscular contractions also interfere with free movement and can lead to pain, stiffness and joint difficulties. They also inhibit feel.
Sitting heavier on one side is a common rider problem which often goes unnoticed by the rider... but not by her horse, who is forced to compensate for the unbalanced load. I asked Trish to feel how her weight was distributed over her seatbones. She noticed that she was hardly aware of her right seatbone, but could feel her left seat bone pressing into the table. Slipping her hands, palms up, under her seatbones confirmed this finding. She realized she was squishing her left hand uncomfortably under her weight. "So this is what my horse feels! No wonder his back is sore and he's always drifting to the left!" Trish exclaimed.
I proceeded to give Trish a Feldenkrais session which lasted about an hour. Although I also work with riders in the saddle, I generally start by working with riders off their horses, so that they are removed from the situation where the habitual behavior is taking place. As Trish lay comfortably on the table, I used slow touch and movement to help her release the tight muscles which were causing her to throw her weight onto her left seatbone.
I also led Trish through an Awareness Through Movement (ATM) exercise that helps riders learn how to be balanced over their seatbones. This easy-to-do exercise also helps improve posture and relieves back and neck pain caused by tight, tense muscles. An abbreviated version of this exercise follows.
Awareness Through Movement Lesson for Riders
Sit on a hard or firmly cushioned seat. A tack trunk often works well. Sit on the forward edge, resting your hands on your thighs. Your feet should be flat on the floor, hip width apart. Feel how your weight is distributed over your seatbones. Is one side heavier?
Put your right hand on the top of your head. With the help of your hand, slowly tilt your head toward your right shoulder a little bit. Do not turn your head - you will be facing forward, with your nose straight ahead. Just bring your right ear toward your right shoulder.
Do not stretch or strain! Do very small, slow movements. The idea is to feel how you do the movement. Range of motion will increase automatically as you learn how to do the movement effectively and easily. Let comfort be your guide. There should be no pain or strain at all. This may mean making a very tiny movement!
As long as you are comfortable, gradually let the movement get bigger, but continue to do it slowly. Pause in the starting position between each movement. Repeat each movement several times (about five to ten times). These directions apply to all the following movements.
As you bring your right ear to your right shoulder, feel how the ribs on your right side get closer together and the ones on your left side get farther apart. Can you exhale as you bring the ear toward the shoulder?
Rest in the starting position. Now, take the weight off your right seatbone, so that your weight goes onto your left seatbone. This is a small movement of lifting the right seatbone a little. Return to the starting position and pause. As you lift the right seatbone, feel how the ribs on your right side come closer together and the left ribs spread apart. Do this movement several times. How are you breathing? Can you relax your legs, shoulders and neck while you do this?
Now bring your right ear toward your right shoulder as you take the weight off your right seatbone. Can you feel how the right ribs come closer together and the left ones farther apart? Your spine will make the shape of a "C". Feel how your entire left side is lengthening and the right side shortening? Can you relax while you do this? Do the movement several times.
 Rest. Just tilt your head so that your right ear goes toward your right shoulder. Is it easier? Do you go farther? Do you feel that your chest and neck are more flexible and relaxed?
Repeat all the movements on the left side.
Take the right ear toward the right shoulder as you take the weight off the right seatbone. Return to the center, then immediately take the left ear toward the left shoulder while taking the weight off the left seatbone. Go back and forth, shortening your right side, then your left side, several times. Is one side easier to shorten? Can you make this a light, easy movement? Relax as much as possible as you do this. Are you breathing?
Now rest. Gently take your right ear to your right shoulder. Easier? Take your left ear to your left shoulder. Easier? How is your weight distributed over your seatbones now? Are you sitting up straighter and taller? How are you breathing?
At the end of the session, Trish discovered that her weight was much more evenly distributed. And this felt comfortable and natural, not forced. When she stood up, she felt half a foot taller! Her back was softer and more mobile and her walking took on a graceful quality.
Feldenkrais helps give riders an increased awareness of their movement, allowing them to be more aware of their horses' movement. This can significantly improve a rider's timing and coordination of the aids. As riders gain independent use of each hip, seatbone, leg, shoulder, hand, etc., they can match their action with their intention. Balance improves, confidence soars and riding becomes a true pleasure.
Many people believe that a supposed weakness or bad habit must be overcome through some rigorous, forceful routine. One of the most rewarding benefits of Feldenkrais is the realization that improvements in ease of movement can be learned in a pleasurable instant. Flexibility, coordination and power then increase automatically. Feldenkrais-inspired riders understand that the same principles apply to their horses. They realize that a horse's difficulty in responding to their aids is not usually a result of disobedience, but often stems from confusion or pain. And these riders first look to themselves as a possible cause.
This understanding leads to more harmonious partnerships with horses as well as a desire to help horses learn how to move with ease and elegance, rather than riding with force and gadgets. As is true with people, improvements in equine movement prevent wear and tear on joints and increase strength and stamina.
Another day, I worked with Trish while she was riding. I've created various exercises, done mounted, that improve rider balance, posture and coordination. Working with the rider aboard also allows me to observe how her horse reacts. Is he tightening his back in response to his rider's movements? It's likely that her horse has been compensating a long time for an unbalanced rider and he'll continue to react defensively out of habit. By working with the rider up, I can help both horse and rider learn to move easily, elegantly and harmoniously.
Over the years I have helped many riders whose problems included: rounded shoulders, swinging legs, tight shoulders and hands, errant heels, stiffness, poor balance, aching backs and necks, sore knees, collapsed hips or carpal tunnel syndrome. While Feldenkrais does not take the place of proper riding instruction, it can be a remarkably effective tool for maximizing the potential of both horses and riders.
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