Awareness Through Movement Sessions - The Feldenkrais Method~~~

Final Class of the current block is on Wednesday 30th July 2025

NO CLASSES in August

Next Classes run either as Drop-In or as an 8 Week block from 3rd September to 22nd October

Cost - Drop-in @ £10 or 8 Week Block @ £65.

****Please email or text me for bank details as the booing system on this website isn’t working

WEDNESDAYS - 2pm - 3pm @ The Old School Studio, Newlyn (in person only)

WEDNESDAYS - 6pm - 7pm @ My Garden Cabin in Pendeen or Via Zoom

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ZOOM LINK

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82381037047

Passcode: Feldy108

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Subtle Sensing in Awareness Through Movement (until 30th July - I will then put something up here about what to expect in September/October)

 The next 5 weeks of Awareness Through Movement Classes will provide a taster of what can happen when we explore subtle sensation and movement in our Hands, our Mouths, our Eyes, our Breath – and how these richly sensitive parts of ourselves connect to how we move and experience our whole selves. These are lovely, quiet sessions which, for the most part, take place lying on the back. They can be particularly relaxing sessions and are some of my favourites of Moshe Feldenkrais’ huge repertoire of lessons.

Awareness Through Movement (ATM) always gives us the opportunity to sense ourselves more subtly and as a result to feel more complete, more at ease in relation to the world around us. Movement can become more fluid, pain and discomfort can decrease, all by bringing close attention to detail in how we do things. By noticing how we do things (our habits), we learn in the Feldenkrais Method, that we have loads of choices for how we might do things differently – we just hadn’t necessarily realised before.

One lovely participant in my classes put it like this –

“It feels a bit like learning and unlearning simultaneously” (Kathryn Fitch, Lancashire).

How can we learn to do things differently – ultimately to feel better in ourselves – if we don’t know how we are moving, sensing, doing, in the first place?

Moshe Feldenkrais put it like this (personally, I like his emphasis upon choice) –

“The truly important learning is to be able to do the thing you already know in another way. The more ways you have to do the things you know, the freer is your choice. And the freer your choice, the more you’re a human being.”

During my training, I’ve become especially interested in how bringing close attention to the eyes, the mouth, the hands, the feet, the breath, can bring sensing ourselves in subtle connection, for finding more ease in movement, to another level. Might it be possible for example, that by bringing close attention to the palate of the mouth, the jaws, the thumbs, and forefingers, we might be able to discover new connections in how we are organised – might we be able to move more efficiently, with more grace? Might the discomfort and pain that so many of us experience, change in some way?

The Neurological Dimension of Sensation and Movement

It’s not a coincidence, of course, that most of us find most subtle sensation and a potential for refined movement in our hands or our mouths. These parts of us require a larger number of nerve connections for precise movements – think of the intricate movements of your fingers compared to your thigh, for example. So, the hands and lips take up more space in both the Motor and Sensory Cortexes of the brain. The Sensory Cortex is the part of the brain that allows us to sense and the Motor Cortex, in conversation with the Sensory Cortex, fires nervous impulses to our muscles to enable response and movement.

In Feldenkrais, we are not simply doing ‘muscular’ movements but changing patterns in the brain. Moshe Feldenkrais believed that after Awareness through Movement, parts of the Motor and Sensory cortexes are more differentiated and expanded for a fuller sense of the world and our ability to move within it. There’s obviously a lot more to say about neurological, sensory, and motor connections, and what the Feldenkrais Method can bring to this richness – but I’ll leave it at that for now.

This will be a beginning – a taster of sensing ourselves more subtly – I plan to expand this focus into offering further sessions on these subtle sensing parts of ourselves.

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What to expect in general from an Awareness Through Movement Class?

The classes last about an hour, during which you are led verbally through a series of movements in lying or sitting positions. The movements are most often very gentle and slow, although over time, you may be introduced to more dynamic movements. Importantly, you will become aware of how different parts of you are involved in the movements, perhaps noticing when you’re using unnecessary effort or tension. You will be encouraged to find easier, more effortless ways of moving, so that you move in ways that are elegant, efficient, and even pleasurable. This is not a no-pain no-gain type of activity – in fact, we could say it is post-ambitious!

Through these sessions, you will probably feel deeply relaxed, more at ease in yourself, and you may notice a fluidity, freedom and ease in your breath, your movements, and a sense of your whole self. Feldenkrais not only encourages flexible bodies, but also flexible, creative, and spontaneous minds. The classes are for everyone, whether you’ve practiced Feldenkrais before or not. They can be helpful if you experience discomfort in your life, through injury, migraine, neurological disorders, chronic fatigue syndrome, stroke, results of injury or childbirth, chronic pain, somatic aspects of emotional trauma. They can also be deeply beneficial for anyone who wants to become more at ease and self-aware. Practicing Feldenkrais can improve proficiency in activities including dance, theatre, yoga, surfing, running – and more. All you need is to turn up in loose clothes with enough layers to keep warm. Mats and blankets are available at the studio

“To make the impossible possible, the possible easy and the easy pleasurable” Moshe Feldenkrais

A little more about The Feldenkrais Method

The Feldenkrais Method uses movement, in ways that are accessible to everyone, to find ease, grace, and efficiency in how we move. The result can be a small difference (I find it easier to reverse my car these days ) and can sometimes be life changing (for people suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome, chronic pain, stroke & other neurological conditions - and more - my mum has chronic back pain and now practices Feldenkrais every day - she says it's changed her life!)

One of the challenges I find as a new student teacher of Awareness Through Movement is to find the right words to explain what Feldenkrais is and why it’s so beneficial, whether you are in pain or not, whether you are exhausted or not, whether you are seeking more freedom & grace in your everyday movements or not, whether you use movement, self-organisation, balance because you’re a dancer, a gardener, a yogi, a runner, a surfer - or not!

One way to start is to take seriously that moving gently and well within our comfort zone is a gift for our nervous system and for the way our nerves, muscles and bones freely and efficiently connect. As someone who feels I have to push myself at whatever I do, following instructions to do less has been very difficult - the very idea that I might not move or stretch as far as I am capable of just seemed weird!

But now with my own practice and watching people in my classes, the reason for doing less is becoming clearer - if we want freedom and to feel whole in ourselves (and this means different things for different people…), then we need to notice the detail of how we do things - if we push and we rush, so much goes by unnoticed. Most importantly we don’t learn much if we are in a hurry and seeking something larger. The Feldenkrais method is above all a way to listen to ourselves and to learn - and to keep learning. And then, of course, once the details and the subtleties of how we feel, of how we are organised, are in place, then we can play with speed and largeness.