Should we "correct" people? Feldenkraisian Learning & Neuroplastic Healing.

This week’s share is all about something I like to call, ‘Feldenkraisian Learning.’

This learning concept comes from the work of the late Dr. Moshé Feldenkrais.

Work which I strongly believe (and I sense many of my colleagues and students would agree) – to be the original ‘somatic’ (aka: body-based) work – in modern, western society, at least.

Even Norman Doidge, MD., who brought the term ‘neuroplasticity’ to the mainstream, coined Dr. Feldenkrais, “the first ever neuroplastician.”

Doidge applauds Feldenkrais’ work so highly that he has two whole chapters in his book, The Brain’s Way of Healing, dedicated to Feldenkraisian methods.

* * *

But what does this have to do with healing trauma and restoring nervous system regulation? And why does it matter to you?

Well, because the main principles of Feldenkrais’ self-awareness via movement methods IS the glue that makes my signature neurosensory exercises what they are. It’s also why they work (to heal trauma and restore regulation) for so many!

Meaning:

Feldenkraisian Learning is the ‘binding agent’ for how I teach people how to release trauma, grow something called ‘somatic capacity,’ gain access to the positive sides of neuroplasticity, and — last but not least — restore nervous system regulation.

At its heart, Feldenkraisian Learning is about finding potency and maturity in the human system.

It is also about learning how to re-learn as adults (something that has been emerging as KEY to evolving out of our conditioned ways of behaving, relating, and being).

If you’d like to experience Feldenkraisian Learning in action, be sure to check out this Drop-In Class replay on ‘Rolling & Relaxing The Spine’ (it’s a good one to soothe the nervous system and also restore flow to the muscles).

* * *

Some pictures of Dr. Feldenkrais teaching at his final (of only two) large-scale professional training(s) in the early 1980s in Amherst, Massachusetts:

It still baffles me how they got 250 people (!!) to show up for weeks at a time, pre-internet?!

Feldenkraisian Learning is, I believe, the ‘proprietary ingredient’ that makes the neurosensory exercises in my longest-running public nervous system program, SmartBody SmartMind™ (aka: SBSM), as well as my popular foundational self-study course, 21 Day Nervous System Tune-Up, so potent (even for advanced practitioners!).

In this week’s re-release, I share a clip that I produced over a decade ago, of one of my Feldenkrais colleagues, Assistant Trainer, Sheryl Field, speaking in reference to a classic lecture that Feldenkrais gave at his last professional teacher training (the same one pictured above).

This clip goes to the heart and guts of what it means to help people reconnect with their own (biological) genius through intention, movement, self-awareness, and honouring their power to choose what is right for themselves.

I hope you take a little time to watch it, and if you do…

Enjoy the learning!