As an occupational therapist, I have studied the relationship between the body’s movement and function for over 25 years. After receiving my degree in occupational therapy and I was working with clients, I realized that movement and strength did not automatically lead to satisfying functioning and living. The question of how function is learned prompted me to study further how the brain and emotions connect with the rest of the body. In the course of my exploration, I attended Awareness Through Movement® classes for several years. In 1991, I graduated from the four-year Feldenkrais professional training program and have been practicing Feldenkrais in private and group settings ever since.
The Feldenkrais Method® uses movement and the ability of the nervous system to relearn movement to create improved functioning and increased ease in all activity. The process directs the student’s attention to the detail of how the thought process and execution of movement work together. This provides an opportunity to recognize parts of the self that are not moving, efforting unnecessarily, or have been left out of awareness. The student is guided to experience limitations in thought and movement, and then to discover ways through those limitations. As the brain recognizes these additional possibilities, the new information is organized and distributed through the whole body leading to overall improvement of the nervous system.
This approach to learning allows the student to recognize and relinquish habitual behaviors responsible for chronic tension and pain. It facilitates recovery of movement diminished by injury or trauma, either physical or emotional. The intent of the method is not to correct, but to assist students to live more fully, comfortably, and effectively by bringing the expanded repertoire of possible ideas, options, and movements into actions. Breathing, walking, balancing, dancing, yoga, playing sports or a musical instrument, or simply getting up from a chair can become easier and less effortful.
Awareness Through Movement (ATM)® is the group format of the Feldenkrais Method. Students may be lying down, sitting or standing and are verbally directed through a sequence of simple, slow, exploratory movements organized around a specific human function such as reaching, turning, bending, or walking. The class
length is usually 45 minutes to an hour. The instructor does not interfere with the students’ exploration but offers approaches and thoughts about the movement. The movements are gentle enough to allow almost anyone to participate.
Functional Integration® are individual sessions in which specific problems and needs are individually addressed. Persons that are unable to participate in a class setting because of age, physical or cognitive limitations would also be appropriate in this one-on-one environment. The client is fully clothed and may be lying, sitting, standing, kneeling or moving, depending on the movement focus. The practitioner uses words, gentle touch and non-invasive movement to create an opportunity for the client to identify existing habits and recognize new options in thinking and moving.
Feldenkrais is appropriate for
everyone regardless of movement experience, age or injury. Both class formats are gentle enough for
adults and children because the learning occurs not due to willpower or
physical strength, but through reorganization of the nervous system. Athletes, dancers, musicians, artists and
other are subtly challenged to discard unwanted habits and enhance abilities
where organization and initiation of action occur. Infants and children (even those with
difficulty with movement or development) can experience learning as
pleasurable and stimulating while the nervous system applies the “how to” of
the learning experience.
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Marsha Robertson
has been a certified Feldenkrais® practitioner for over 11 years and an
occupational therapist for over 28 years.
Her diverse Charlottesville practice includes teaching Awareness Through
Movement ® classes, offering individual Functional Integration® sessions, working
part time as an occupational therapist in local health care facilities and
combining skills to work with frail individuals in the home setting.
For the current Awareness Through Movement®
class schedule, please use the contact information below.
Marsha E. Robertson