Moshe Feldenkrais, D.Sc. (1904-1984) is the originator of the method that bears his name and is universally considered to be one of the great pioneers of somatic science.
Having emigrated from Russia to Israel in his youth, he earned his degree in engineering in Paris, and subsequently received a doctorate in physics from the Sorbonne and worked as a nuclear physicist at the prestigious Joliot-Curie Laboratory. There, he also trained in and taught Judo, becoming the first European to earn a black belt.
Following a debilitating knee injury playing soccer, the scientist’s career took a new and unexpected path. Given a 50% chance of recovery with surgery and faced with the prospect of life in a wheelchair, Feldenkrais embarked on his own research and experimentation to better his chances by combining his already formidable scientific background with intensive study of anatomy, neurology, anthropology and human development. After two years he completely recovered his ability to walk. He then continued to refine and develop what became a methodology at once highly practical and scientifically sophisticated, using movement and awareness to activate the brain and nervous system to stimulate new learning and improved function.
Feldenkrais’s work anticipated by several decades almost all contemporary research on brain plasticity vis-à-vis human learning. (The Feldenkrais Method is one of the cornerstones of The Brain’s Way of Healing, Norman Doidge’s groundbreaking book on neuroplasticity.) Today the Feldenkrais Method is studied and practiced worldwide to increasing recognition and acclaim in medical world, as well as inspiring innovative work in ever-expanding arenas of human learning.
Both formats can provide an array of immediate benefits as the nervous system makes use of the information gained.
People commonly report a sense of moving with increased ease and lightness; a natural improvement in posture, balance and coordination; reduction or elimination of pain; faster healing; release of tension and easier breathing.
Done with consistency, this method can provide a pathway for sustained and open-ended positive change.
…self-knowledge through awareness is the goal of reeducation. As we become aware of what we are doing in fact, and not what we say or think we are doing, the way to improvement is wide open to us.
-Moshe Feldenkrais
