It’s very rare for me to mention Feldenkrais in the UK and for someone to reply that they had heard of it. I'd never heard of it either, until a few years ago, a pain specialist recommended that I see a Feldenkrais practitioner. It was to become the start of a new pain management and movement journey for me, and if it had been 20 years earlier, I probably would’ve trained to be a Feldenkrais practitioner!
History of Feldenkrais1
It all started with Dr Moshe Feldenkrais, in the 1940s. He researched and developed anti-submarine detection equipment for the British Admiralty, when he was forced to flee Paris.
He was an inventor, a physicist and engineer, and he was also a student of Judo.
Feldenkrais studied with the founder of modern judo, Jigaro Kano, in Paris, earned his black belt (one of the first Europeans to do so) and eventually opened the first Ju Jitsu Club of Paris.
It wasn’t until the return of a childhood soccer injury that he consolidated all of these interests and experiences. When the knee pain returned too severely for him to ignore, the surgeons told Moshe he’d have to be operated on. They said the operation had a 50-50 chance of a positive result. Being a scientist, Feldenkrais announced he would never carry out an experiment based on such terrible odds and decided instead to launch into a programme of self-education in an effort to ‘cure’ himself.
Initially he wished to research ‘knee function, only no such books existed. Instead, he read across a wide range of disciplines from anatomy to yoga, to biology to cybernetics and systems theory. He approached the problem of his knee like any other physical problem and thus developed a method of self-inquiry and gentle observation or ‘awareness’ that is now known as the Feldenkrais method.
What he did was teach himself new ways to move that allowed his knee to recover. What he did then was teach others the best way for them to move, and he continued to do this for the rest of his life.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Firstly, what I find interesting about Feldenkrais’s journey is that he was a scientist, which couldn’t be further from the quackery suggested in the wiki profile on Feldenkrais. Secondly, he found a solution to his own pain problem and passed it onto others. Joseph Pilates started Pilates in this way, so did Frederick Alexander who founded the Alexander technique. They may differ in method, but they all come from the same source, overcoming their own pain, improving their own well-being and passing their wisdom on to others.
What is Feldenkrais to me?
Maybe it’s easier to describe what Feldenkrais isn’t. It isn’t boring repetitive stretches. It isn’t constrained by a set number of repetitions. And it isn’t like any physiotherapy exercises you may have tried, and I’ve tried a few, having worked in a physiotherapy practice. In fact, some Feldenkrais movements are the complete opposite of physiotherapy exercises.
The Feldenkrais method had first come to my rescue with a recurring arm weakness. The next time Feldenkrais came to my rescue, I had achilles tendinopathy, which lasted for months. The achilles tendon just above the heel was very sore to touch, and it was very sore walking, never mind running on a tennis court in a competitive club match, which I was trying to do!
I saw a physiotherapist. I already knew all the physiotherapy achilles exercises through my sports massage background, so she couldn’t really offer anything new there. We tried dry point needling (physiotherapy acupuncture). It made it worse. I hobbled out of the treatment centre. Acupuncture had helped 10 years earlier, so I have nothing against acupuncture, in fact it can be very useful in pain management.
So, what next? It’s strange that I hadn’t thought of Feldenkrais sooner, because it had been effective in helping me many years ago. This was a different body part, and I think I had simply forgotten about its potential.
I subscribed to a Feldenkrais channel called Improving Ability youtube.com/@ImprovingAbility (previously known as Feldenkrais with Alfons). There were some videos called the Happy healthy feet series which looked helpful for my condition. And it most certainly was. I only did the series once or twice and the tendonopathy simply vanished! I couldn’t believe it.
I also couldn’t believe that the movements Alfons guided me through on his channel were the complete opposite of the traditional physiotherapy exercises. It started with a self-massage of the toes, pulling and twisting them. There were no familiar physiotherapy stretches, instead, lying on my back, there was a lot of tapping of the heel and the forefoot on the ground with impact! There were quick movements of the heel. And there was Alfons, guiding me through the movements in his own quirky and impressive way, particularly as English isn’t his first language. It all worked a treat.
The two types of Feldenkrais sessions
There are Awareness Through Movement classes delivered which are group classes, performed on a mat rather like Alfons's classes on YouTube.
 |
|
There are also one-to-one sessions, known as Functional Integration. These sessions are more hands-on, like physiotherapy, as well as movement based. However, the actual treatment is very unlike physiotherapy, chiropractor, osteopathy or sports massage. They are gentle treatments, with no use of force whatsoever.
I have been very lucky to have been treated by not one, but two of the best Feldenkrais practitioners in the UK, Scott Clarke and Ryan Jansen feldenkraislondon.com. They have both helped me recover from frozen shoulder, non-specific arm pain (RSI) and lower back issues.
Feldenkrais practitioners in the UK are not as common as other types of health practitioners. If you want to find out if there is a practitioner near you check out feldenkrais.co.uk.
How I think it works
I think it brings the best of mindfulness and movement together. As well as enjoying the movements myself, it is one of the inspirations behind Refreshercise. In my opinion, far too many therapeutic exercises and stretches just focus on getting into a particular position, and a set number of repetitions rather than how it feels for you to get there. The guidance from the the Feldenkrais teacher is as important as the movement itself, as it engages the brain.
The Feldenkrais practitioner can guide your focus perhaps to the sole of your left foot or your right big toe. As you read this, it is highly likely that your brain has just reviewed how your left foot and right big toe are doing! Or it can widen the focus to how many body parts are moving to create a pattern of movement.
Feldenkrais also works within the pain threshold rather than taking the view of no pain, no gain. Instead of pushing through the pain, the Feldenkrais method encourages you to move more effortlessly, and thus creating a pain free state. And the movements are interesting because they are so unusual. I really don’t know how Dr Feldenkrais created such strange movement sequences! But it is the new sequence of movement that engages your brain, and has the potential to switch off pain and enjoy movement.
The science on Feldenkrais
There are a surprising number of studies on Feldenkrais considering I can count on one hand how many people have actually heard of Feldenkrais when I speak to anybody about it in the UK.
In a randomised control trial, the Gold standard of clinical trials, researchers compared the effects of the Feldenkrais method versus core stability exercise in the management of chronic low back pain. Their conclusion was that the "Feldenkrais method intervention gave increased benefits in improving quality of life, improving interoceptive awareness [listening and responding to your body and emotions] and reducing disability index"2
Another study of Feldenkrais as a physiotherapy tool showed that the Feldenkrais method has therapeutic effects comparable to other physiotherapy techniques in patients with spine pain. In addition, improvements in mobility and balance were seen in the elderly and people with neurodegenerative diseases. This was a study review so it takes into account many studies to gain an overall view. If Feldenkrais can be of benefit to an elderly population who generally have stiffer joints, then it can be of benefit to the working population who sit or stand at a desk most of the day.
I also looked at how wiki described Feldenkrais and was surprised at how negative it was. It even quoted the same studies above and yet saw them as negative (a lesson in research interpretation)! At the very least it concluded that it doesn’t do any harm.
But at the end of the day, movement is very individual, and I always think if you really want to know if it will work for you, just try it! Maybe check out Alfons for a free movement session on Youtube, which will give you an idea of what the classes are like, and then seek out your local practitioner for classes or a one-to-one Functional Integration session. One thing I can guarantee, there will be some movements you’ve never done in an exercise class before!
References:
1 History of Feldenkrais – The Australian Feldenkrais centre
Ahmadi H, Adib H, Selk-Ghaffari M, Shafizad M, Moradi S, Madani Z, Partovi G, Mahmoodi A. Comparison of the effects of the Feldenkrais method versus core stability exercise in the management of chronic low back pain. Clin Rehabil. 2020 Dec;34(12):1449-1457. doi: 10.1177/0269215520947069. Epub 2020 Jul 29.PMID: 32723088 Clinical Trial.
2 Berland R, Marques-Sule E, Marín-Mateo JL, Moreno-Segura N, López-Ridaura A, Sentandreu-Mañó T. Effects of the Feldenkrais Method as a Physiotherapy Tool: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Oct 22;19(21):13734. doi: 10.3390/ijerph192113734.PMID: 36360614 Free PMC article. Review.