Usually, Feldenkrais practitioners focus on exploring and clarifying the skeleton. Our potential for movement rests in our bones. Most adult skeletons, whether belonging to an athlete or a sedentary person, are remarkably similar. Therefore, each of us has a potential high performer inside of us. Sometimes, however, it is the soft tissues (skin, fat, muscles, ligaments, tendons, and fascia) that hamper the movement of the bones.
Injuries to the soft tissue often have impacts on our movements, even after the injury is long-healed. These include adhesions, or tissue layers sticking to each other, the skeleton, and even the internal organs. The Feldenkrais Method can be applied to these residual effects of soft tissue injury, both in Awareness Through Movement lessons and in Functional Integration lessons.
Donald VanHowten, a Feldenkrais practitioner and teacher in the field of bodywork and personal development for more than 35 years, is a forerunner in this application of the Feldenkrais Method to soft tissues and internal organs. His CD series, Clarifying Relationships of Your Organs Through Movement, is a wonderful way to experience this special application of the Feldenkrais Method. I have had the privilege of studying with Van and am finding this work very effective at relieving long-term pain and disability due to soft tissue injury, including my foot injury that I mentioned in a previous post. It is also peaking my interest in our embryological beginnings, but that topic is for another post.
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