The Method
Learning as a basis for evolution

The Feldenkrais Method proposes to visit the movement and actions as they happen, without preconceived ideas or judgments, and to let new solutions emerge. In this way, it enables each person to be more autonomous and confident in their ability to find their own solutions when undertaking their actions.

Its practice allows us to discover - through experience - to what extent aspects of ourselves that we thought were immutable are, on the contrary, very flexible: when these aspects were learned in childhood or later, they can continue to evolve when learning takes place. For example, the way one stands on a chair, the way one stands, the way one reacts to a problem, the way one holds one's shoulders, all of these aspects are much more malleable than we generally think.

Its foundations

The laws of mechanics, particularly those of the movement of bodies in the field of gravitation, the learning faculties of the central nervous system and certain fundamental principles of the Japanese martial arts constitute the basis of the Feldenkrais Method?
Our limitations in the extent or fluidity of a movement do not always come from mechanical limitations in the joints. Our limitations in movement often come from the way the central nervous system organizes movement, mostly using habitual learned patterns.

The central nervous system is constantly learning from experience, regardless of age. Until a few years ago, it was thought that the nervous system completed its learning in early adulthood, but recent discoveries have shown that this is not the case. Massive reorganizations can occur, the brain can somehow change the way it works. This is called neuroplasticity. Thus, the organization of a movement is never fixed and can be modified. This possibility makes it possible to modify patterns - sometimes awkward - resulting from a past situation, to make others appear that are adapted to present situations.
Beyond clinical experiences, researchers in neuroscience and cognitive science such as Francisco Varela and Humberto Maturana have joined the sometimes intuitive experiences carried out in the psychosomatic field and have proposed theoretical models that are supported by the practice of the Feldenkrais Method.

For Francisco Varela, the point of contact between the Feldenkrais Method and his own scientific research is the human experience, that is, the way in which each person embodies his or her thoughts in daily life. Together with the biologist and cyberneticist Humberto Maturana, he developed the notion of "Autopoiesis", which is the property of a system to produce, maintain and define itself. From a philosophical, even political point of view, and to join the project of the Feldenkrais Method, Autopoiesis gives back to the human being his power of action and his autonomy. Its practice: Functional Integration and Awareness through Movement.