A Gentle Alternative to Alleviating Pain
Feldenkrais. What is it and how does it work?
Do you struggle with that old back or neck pain that just won’t go away?
Or a sway in your spine that you’ve been told you need an adjustment to correct?
Or difficulty sleeping at night due to pain or insomnia?
If so, I’ve got the modality for you……
Feldenkrais.
Named after the founder, Moshe Feldenkrais. Ukrainian born (1904–1984), an Israeli physicist and engineer who initially devised his system to rehabilitate a recurring knee injury aggravated by years spent practicing judo and playing soccer.
You see, most people by the time they reach adulthood have developed such deeply ingrained habits of holding certain musculature, inhibiting our breath, and walking with our weight much more over to one side than the other, that we don’t even know who we are without such habits. We could easily ignore such habits and patterns and put little importance on them. Until they result in pain that is.
Such holding patterns will overtime result in the over utilization of certain muscle groups, and the under utilization of others. This is the root cause of most overuse injuries.
Old injuries, fears, traumas, or environmental factors could likely have caused such habits to form in the first place. Perhaps we looked down at a laptop for so many years or sat with our back’s slouched in our chairs as we worked. Or perhaps we believed we were never good enough and sat with our head held low and our chest caved in. Whatever the cause may be, the good news is that at any stage of chronicity or severity, change is very possible, and can be more pleasurable than you’d ever expect.
Chronic pain always comes with chronic muscular tension. When we alleviate the muscular tension, so often the pain just magically disappears.
I see the work I do as a Feldenkrais practitioner as a way of releasing such habits in order to discover or unravel the truth of whom we truly are. It’s amazing to witness, once a person releases the excessive holding and tensing of their musculature, an emotional release usually follows. It’s a gift to be there to witness such a moment of profound self discovery.
As clients get up from my Feldenkrais table (which looks like a massage table), their spines are much straighter, they distribute weight through both feet evenly, and they have a felt sense of peace, calm and spaciousness inside. Most clients report sleeping incredibly well after sessions. Most also report their pain is alleviated at the sessions end.
Over the past couple weeks, I’ve treated a client(s) with a stroke, ALS, knee ligament injury, low back pain, carpal tunnel, Stomach abscess, anxiety, insomnia, foot injury, nerve radiating pain, tennis elbow, and symptoms of generalized stress.
In a 1:1 “hands on” session (called Functional Integration), the Practitioner will perform slow, gentle guided touch that has an extraordinary impact on the nervous system. Reorganizing the bones, muscles, and ligaments of your body.
A similar effect can be experienced through a Feldenkrais class (called Awareness Through Movement), where the teacher guides you to perform slow gentle movements in a sequential order. There are over 1000 lessons so do not be surprised if you never experience the same lesson twice.
For more info please see: sharaogin.com/Feldenkrais
