News from the UK Feldenkrais Community 

• Editors' Update
• Guest Interview
• Guild News
• Feldenkrais News
• Success Story
• Tell Us What You Think

Welcome to our April newsletter

Warm wishes, 
Anne Taylor and Alex Frazier (editors)

Interview with guest teacher Sabine Schmid Blackaby

Our featured practitioner is Sabine Schmid Blackaby who spoke to Alex about what brought her to Feldenkrais and what she loves best about the method. As well as working with people of all ages Sabine specialises in child and infant development. She works with parents in small groups helping them to observe and support their baby's development with touch and movement, and individually with babies and infants with developmental or neurological challenges. 

There is a free mini movement lesson in the video which will improve your ability to bend your spine and ribs to both sides for easier and more supported sitting, standing and walking. For this lesson you'll need an upright chair, without arm rests, at a height which allows you to place your feet firmly on the floor.

Free lessons to celebrate Moshe’s Birthday 

To mark International Feldenkrais Awareness Week and the anniversary of the birthday of Moshe Feldenkrais next month, the UK Guild is celebrating with the launch of a series of free Awareness Through Movement lessons.

The eight lessons, which fall under the theme ‘Learning with Curiosity’, will be available to download on the Guild website and will be released on a daily basis between May 6 and 13. 

This year's lessons are taught by Scott Clark, Nikhila Em Ludlow, Philippa Castell, Alan Caig Wilson, Ana Stojadinovic, Anita Fenoughty and Niall O’Riordan. 

Look out for associated articles and events on the Guild’s Facebook and Instagram pages. 

Are you interested in training to be a Feldenkrais teacher? 

The Feldenkrais International Training Centre UK  is offering a three-day introduction next month for people who may be interested in joining its next training course. 

Garet Newell, the centre’s Principal Trainer and Educational Director, is running the three day introductory course in May to allow interested participants to experience the method in greater depth and to provide information about the FITC’s Sussex 13 training which is due to start in October this year and finish in September 2027. The course will be offered again in July and September.

Attendance at the three-day course is the first step of the application process for Sussex 13 training and will take place between Friday 5 May and Sunday 7 May at Hassocks in West Sussex. The fee is £247.50 (with an £80 deposit to secure your space). The course will run again July 7-9 and September 1-3.

For more information and to book your place click here.  Alternatively, email the office at office@feldenkrais-itc.com. Or Phone 01273 844140.

Feldenkrais can support women through the Menopause  

The menopause and its impact on mental as well as physical health has attracted media attention in recent months and women are being reminded that the Feldenkrais Method can provide a means of relief. 

A survey of menopausal women at work commissioned by the House of Commons women and equalities select committee last year found that 75 per cent reported problems with memory or concentration and 69 per cent reported feeling anxious or depressed.  

Caroline Scott, a Feldenkrais practitioner in Yorkshire, who recently ran a six-week lesson series aimed at woman navigating this transition, observed that participants benefited from bringing fresh awareness to themselves and the way they moved.  

‘Finding more delicacy and finesse around the movement of the pelvis and pelvic floor were aspects of the classes that really helped.  Women seemed to find the creative, playful side of Awareness through Movement sequences to be more beneficial and pleasurable than traditional pelvic floor exercises,’ says Caroline.

Participants also found relief from stress and anxiety through exploring ways of calming the central nervous system: 

‘The pace of the lessons offers a chance to slow down and focus on how breathing can support healthier movement habits and vice versa. Racing thoughts, increased heart rate, tightening of our breath are all signs that we are living in a more heightened state of alertness.  Women commented that they felt calmer after the sessions and had strategies to call on when these stress responses arise.’ 

Katharina Hesse, a Feldenkrais teacher in London and specialist in women’s health says: ‘For many women the pelvic floor can tighten when they are stressed and tense during the menopause and this can impair blood and lymphatic circulation in the pelvis and affect vulvovaginal, urinary and even digestive health, or impair orgasms and the juiciness of the vagina. In Feldenkrais we work with the whole body and allow sensation and relaxation.   

‘If you are collapsed in your chest your pelvic floor is affected. Feldenkrais helps us to find those connections between the pelvic floor, the diaphragm and head, jaw mouth and even the feet.  Everything is connected to the pelvis.’

If you are experiencing the menopause ask your Feldenkrais teacher for ideas for lessons or movement sequences to do that may be particularly suitable for anxiety or awareness of the pelvic area or gentle movements to do when sleep is disrupted. 

‘Feldenkrais helped me find self-compassion’

Forty-five-year-old architect Anja Carstens has been taking part in regular Feldenkrais sessions since the start of the pandemic and believes it has markedly improved her mental as well as physical wellbeing.

A strict Protestant upbringing in apartheid South Africa led to emotional challenges and a feeling of bodily dissociation. Participating in regular Awareness Through Movement (ATM) classes and workshops as well as some one-to-one Functional Integration (FI) sessions has helped her to improve her relationship to her body. 

‘I was brought up in a very religious way, where dancing and physical enjoyment were discouraged.  Anything to do with the body was hidden away,’ says Anja.

‘Feldenkrais allows me to be more present and to sense in the moment. It has put me in touch with myself physically and helped me get to know my whole self by directing awareness.’   

Anja was introduced to Feldenkrais by a friend who was training to be a practitioner and it has taken time for her to feel comfortable with the slow, exploratory nature of the movements. 

‘To begin with an hour felt like a long time and I felt almost uncomfortable lying on the floor. I would look at the clock while my mind was racing. I used to ask myself whether I was doing it right or wrong.  Now I have come to enjoy and appreciate the slow explorations and the idea that I am responsible for my own comfort.  I have learnt to look after myself better. I also find myself paying attention to the way I move when I am walking, running, sitting and breathing.’ 

Anja particularly enjoys the respectful and gentle nature of the method.  ‘Nowhere else in life did I hear talking like this.. You can’t do it wrong,  Do what is easy and comfortable…

‘I have developed a curiosity about myself and am kinder as opposed to hyper critical. If you are in a place of curiosity you can’t be judgmental. I have more self-compassion.’