Welcome to the Feldenkrais Guild UK The Feldenkrais Guild UK (FGUK) represents teachers in the UK. We are eager to spread the word about the benefits of Feldenkrais, and share the latest research into the method.
This issue features the latest news from the Feldenkrais Guild UK. Our guest interview this time is with Sussex-based Feldenkrais practitioner and Guild chairperson Rebecca Meitlis, and includes a bite-sized Awareness Through Movement (ATM) lesson.
We talk to Velora Levy-Sailsman about how the method has improved her autistic son Zeke’s life. We’re also sharing news of an online course on using the method to integrate your core, diaphragms and ring-muscle systems, plus some dates for your diary.
Our featured practitioner Rebecca Meitlis spoke to Alex about what brought her to Feldenkrais and what she loves best about the method.
As well as working with anyone who is curious about finding out more about their possibilities and potential, Rebecca specialises in working with performers. There is a free mini-movement lesson in the video which will help you sit without effort, and provide help with breathing, self-confidence and readiness.
For this lesson, you'll need a chair without arms, or a stool.
Free lesson offer for new course with focus on vital functions and 'internal plumbing'
London-based Feldenkrais practitioner and Guild member Maggy Burrowes will be running a six-week online course next month on how the Feldenkrais Method can be used to integrate your core, diaphragms, and ring muscle systems.
Maggy, who was our guest practitioner in our previous newsletter, has been invited to be a guest teacher by the US-based Feldenkrais Access team. The Inside Matters course will feature six lessons: each of these are designed to help improve the coordination of the internal structures that keep our senses and organs, the movements of our spine, and our internal ‘plumbing’ in good working order.
It will explore new ways to:
Improve issues related to continence
Improve organisation of the tongue and throat
Ease tension in face, eyes, and mouth
Improve awareness of vocal structures and larynx
Enable a more integrated sense of our inner core.
Maggy says: ‘Throughout the self, systems of ring muscles (our sphincters) and sheet muscles (our diaphragms) are constantly in motion, working together to organise our breathing, digestion, and circulation.
Together with the powerful muscles of our spine, our ring and sheet muscle systems form our true ‘core’, and attending to these systems can offer tremendous therapeutic benefits.
‘I am delighted to have the opportunity of offering this course for Feldenkrais Access. All lessons are recorded and will be available for participants to return to later.’
The first session is free and the course will start on 29 February and run until 4 April, 5-6.15pm GMT.
Moshe Feldenkrais’ Birthday Celebrations – Save the Date
In celebration of Moshe Feldenkrais’s 120th birthday, the Feldenkrais Guild UK committee is planning a week of nationwide events for International Feldenkrais Week in May.
The theme of this year’s activities is Transitions.The main concept is to use Awareness Through Movement to explore the many ways in which we transition from one state to another in physical movement, our emotions, the way we see and understand things, in our health and stage of life, in our self-image, and more.
As well as live events happening around the country during the week of May 6-13, the guild will release a series of recorded lessons on the website. See here for the collection of previous free lessons.
Hong Kong practitioner and dancer offers February workshop
Hong Kong-based Feldenkrais practitioner and dancer Paul Pui Wo Lee will be delivering an Awareness Through Movement (ATM) lesson in London next month, featuring the head, face, neck and shoulders.
With the title Style and Self-Marketing for Stability and Flow, the workshop, which will be delivered in London on 18 February, will demonstrate how the Feldenkrais Method can prime the nervous system for a range of movement possibilities.
‘The ATM will illustrate how the same movements that give you aesthetic appeal are also the motor ingredients that help you rebalance and give you assuredness and flow in physical activities,’ says Paul, who is the rehearsal director and choreographic assistant for Of Curious Nature, a contemporary dance company based in Bremen, Germany.
Charlotte Seirberg, organiser of the workshop says: ‘This is an opportunity for people to work with Paul while he is in the UK and experience his unique way of teaching. His lessons will be accessible for all, no matter how much experience of the Feldenkrais Method you have.’
The fee for the workshop is £30. Venue: Golden Lane Community Centre, London EC1Y 0SA
Feldenkrais has helped my autistic son become more confident and independent
The founder of an Autism support service says that her life, and that of her son, who is on the autistic spectrum, has been turned around by the Feldenkrais Method.
Velora Levy-Sailsman says that Zeke, who is 25, and often required one-to-one care outside the home before starting Feldenkrais sessions with practitioner Juliana Brustik three years ago, is calmer, better able to spend time alone and to express himself.
‘From the first session we noticed a difference with Zeke—he kept still and was better at concentrating and verbalising his needs. He also makes better eye contact and is making a real effort to make requests,’ says Velora. ‘Before he started going to Juliana he hardly spoke, and only used odd words. Now he uses short sentences and he reads the Bible.’
Velora, who set up Velora Autism Corner to support parents and children, and who has written a book about her family’s journey with autism, says that one-to one-Feldenkrais sessions with Juliana have had a marked impact on Zeke’s needs.
‘Juliana is a calm and sympathetic person. She has a way of keeping Zeke’s attention and interest when she works with him on the floor or the table.
‘Before he started with Juliana he needed one-to-one care. Now he does a lot on his own, on his ipad and phone in his room and creates his own writing exercises.
‘His attention has greatly improved. Now when he comes back from college he is able to give us some updates on his day. His confidence has improved, his breathing is easier and he is calmer within himself.’
Up until last September Zeke was having sessions with Juliana once a week. Since moving house, she is visiting for sessions once a month.
‘Feldenkrais has helped him in so many ways. He listens and doesn’t interrupt now, and Feldenkrais has also improved his sleep. After a session with Juliana he sleeps through the night, when his habit is to get up in the middle and wander around.’
Velora came across the Feldenkrais Method when she attended classes with Juliana and found they helped with her anxiety and pain: ‘I was a terribly anxious person and she has taught me how to breathe and relax and deal with difficult times much better. I was worried that, in lockdown, everybody had to stay at home—not even the support worker was allowed to come, so I asked Juliana to work with Zeke.’
‘I think Feldenkrais is a brilliant approach and has so many benefits, especially for people who are tense and who have aches and pains. It’s been magical for me and Zeke.’
Feldenkrais teacher Juliana says: ‘Working with Zeke over the last few years has been a great joy for me. It is wonderful to see his development over time, observing him finding his inner centre, sense of self and being able to differentiate between himself and others amongst many other changes.
'During Covid times I had close contact with his mother and was given detailed ongoing feedback on his changing behaviour. This was incredibly useful. I consider the ongoing positive contact and trust between me (the practitioner) and his parents a vital part of Zeke's learning and ongoing changes.’
If you have any questions about this newsletter or would like to give us any feedback, or to feature in our next newsletter, please email us at newsletter@feldenkrais.co.uk. And please forward this to any friends or family who would like to subscribe and hear more about the Feldenkrais Method.
The Feldenkrais Method® offers a unique way of making lasting improvements to our lives through the medium of movement. We learn how to move through the world with greater ease, co-ordination, flexibility and grace.
It is a somatic practice that harnesses mindful attention and gentle movement to heighten awareness of ourselves and our sensations. In doing so we learn from the inside out, making use of our brain’s plasticity – its ability to change for the better at any age.
Teachers deliver lessons in two ways. They teach group classes called Awareness Through Movement®. Individual sessions are called Functional Integration®.
Feldenkrais Practitioners have the letters FG(UK) after their name, they will be graduates of an internationally recognised training programmes, are fully insured and are accountable to the Guild’s Code of Ethics, (available on the Guild Website). Current members of the Feldenkrais Guild (UK) can be found on the Guild’s website and Guild Directory.
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