Feldenkrais® is a method of somatic education, which uses movement as a tool for learning new ways of functioning and being in the world. Whether recovering from injury, seeking greater mobility, improving motor development, striving for athletic or artistic prowess, or developing a more embodied approach to your life, the Feldenkrais Method® teaches you how to move through your life with greater ease and enjoyment. Individual hands-on sessions and group classes focus on learning through experiencing and doing, and on moving as a means to develop self-influence.
Mainstream medical models tend to be reductionistic and linear in their approach to bodies and how they try to correct or fix body parts. With the Feldenkrais Method, instead of looking primarily at what body parts hurt and trying to fix them, Feldenkrais® practitioners expand their focus to how you move, how you create movement patterns that contribute to your circumstance, and how to help you influence these. This shift of perspective — from dealing with problems as things we need to fix, to investigating challenging dynamics in which we can participate and influence — helps me as your Feldenkrais practitioner to engage with you in your unique way of functioning and gives us, both you and me, the ability to actively and fundamentally influence how you move and to form new ways of functioning.
“To make the impossible possible, the possible easy, and the easy elegant.”
—Moshe Feldenkrais
The Feldenkrais Method is taught through two modalities. Each supports and supplements the other.
Functional Integration®
Individual Sessions are uniquely tailored to each specific situation. Many practitioners call the interactions “lessons”, for the emphasis is on learning—learning new ways of functioning and being in the world. Through hands-on and verbal directions, I will guide you to sense and to learn how you can organize your moving more effectively.
Awareness Through Movement®
Awareness Through Movement classes consist of verbally directed movement sequences which guide you to discover new ways of moving, sensing and feeling. Classes emphasize how you use various aspects of yourself (such as your shoulders, back, neck, eyes, breathing) in relation to your whole self within the context of how you function in your world.
Why Feldenkrais®?
Because it makes sense!
With the Feldenkrais Method®, you develop a clearer sense of yourself—of how you can move with greater ease through your life.
Many people seek out the Feldenkrais Method for relief from aches and pains such as back, neck, shoulder or hip pain. Some discover the Feldenkrais Method through their desire to move more efficiently and gracefully. Others pursue the Feldenkrais Method to enhance their sense of themselves. The Feldenkrais Method embraces all these needs, desires and interests.
Here are examples of some clients from 5 months to 103 years old with diverse needs and interests who have benefited from working with Sonja:
- Persons with neurological difficulties or musculoskeletal concerns
- Acute injuries— car accidents (whiplash), falls
- Learning differences or developmental concerns
- Cerebral palsy
- Chronic conditions, repetitive stress, accumulative strains
- Scoliosis
- TMJ
- Strokes
- Pre- or Post-operative rehabilitation: knee, hip, back, shoulder, open heart surgery
- Performing artists
- musicians
- dancers
- actors
- Athletes
- skiers
- tennis players
- body builders
- runners
- golfers
- equestrians
- Martial artists
- Aikido
- Tai Chi
- Karate