Moshe Feldenkrais

Moshé Feldenkrais was born in Russia in 1904 and emigrated to Palestine at the age of 13. Like many innovators, he came to his field by a circuitous route, weaving together numerous influences. As a young man, he was an excellent athlete, a soccer player and self-taught in jujitsu. He did construction work and tutored problem students while attending night school preparing to study physics. He had an early interest in hypnosis and translated Emile Coué's book on autosuggestion into Hebrew.

In Paris, Feldenkrais earned his doctorate in physics at the Sorbonne and assisted Joliot-Curie. During his university years he met Kano, the originator of judo, and trained with Kano's students to become a high ranking black belt and well-known judo teacher.

In 1940, when the Germans were about to enter Paris, Feldenkrais fled to England where during the war he worked on antisubmarine research, trained paratroopers in self-defense techniques, and authored books on judo. On slippery submarine decks he aggravated an old soccer injury to his knees, and began the extended work on himself which rehabilitated his knees and led to his discoveries about movement education. After he publicly presented his ideas, people sought his help with their problems. For several years he was an amateur somatic practitioner, first in England and later in Israel where he had returned to work as a scientist. In the mid-1950's Feldenkrais gave up his career in physics and devoted himself fully to his work with people. In the late 1960's, in Tel Aviv, he trained his first group to become practitioners of his method and subsequently completed one and one half trainings in the United States. He wrote four books on his method and much of his other teaching is preserved on thousands of hours of audio and video tapes.

Moshé Feldenkrais originated two interrelated, somatically based educational methods. The first method, Awareness Through Movement, is a verbally directed, body movement technique designed for groups or work with oneself. The second method, Functional Integration, is a nonverbal, manual contact technique designed for people desiring or requiring more individualized attention.

Within a broad educational context Moshé Feldenkrais was a movement science pioneer who focused especially on the perception of the sensory-motor organization that underlies human behavior and learning. This includes but is not limited to:

Feldenkrais spent a lifetime exploring and revealing the inexhaustibly rich, multidimensional world of human movement.

Feldenkrais died in 1984, leaving a small group of highly trained practitioners who have continued his methods. In recent years the Feldenkrais Method has greatly expanded and has become well-known for its success with orthopedic and neurological problems, and respected in the theater and dance words for use in performance training. Many people have sought the aid of Feldenkrais practitioners to ameliorate muscular and joint problems, to improve balance, coordination and breathing; and to enhance personal growth. By working with the whole person, Feldenkrais practitioners promote self-esteem and learning skills. Today the Feldenkrais Method is known in more than twenty countries with nearly 2,000 practitioners worldwide.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• The Feldenkrais Method
• Awareness Through Movement
• Functional Integration
• Moshe Feldenkrais
• One-Day Workshops

More on Feldenkrais

Mark Reese, Feldenkrais' biographer has a great page on the life of Moshe Feldenkrais

Books by Feldenkrais

Judo: The Art of Defense and Attack
1944

Body and Mature Behavior: A Study of Anxiety, Sex, Gravitation and Learning
1950

Higher Judo: Groundwork
1952

Awareness Through Movement: Health Exercises for Personal Growth
1972

Body Awareness as Healing Therapy: The Case of Nora
1977

The Elusive Obvious
1981.

The Master Moves
1984.

The Potent Self
1985