What I'm after isn't flexible bodies, but flexible brains
-- Moshe Feldenkrais
For an obsessive swimmer who craves the endorphins, the past two years of failed therapies for a bum shoulder have been a bummer. I've been acupunctured, acupressured, cracked, Rolfed, electro-stimulated, nutritionized, lasered, therapized, osteopathed, hypnotized, rheumatologized, cortisoned, massaged, medicated, iced, heated, surgerized and more. Much more.
All these treatments have yielded benefits, except for the "much pain, no gain" neck-wrenchings of a certain Dr. Hertz. Our brief relationship ended when, after waiting an hour, I was asked to reschedule an appointment because Donald Sutherland had arrived. I love Donald -- he was a super doctor in M*A*S*H! -- but not that much. I would happily have stepped aside for his son Kiefer, a.k.a. 24's Jack Bauer, though, so he could save civilization as we know it before the next commercial break.
But it always seemed the healer was doing something to me or instructing me to adhere to a specific, do-or-die nutrition, exercise or stretching regimen. Some gave interesting advice that didn't quite address the problem at hand, like the enigmatic Zen acupuncturist who said little during our sessions except "You must eat very slowly and chew each bite at least 40 times before swallowing."
Advice is frequently contradictory. Ice or heat? Breathe in or breathe out? Rest or test? Meditate or medicate? Physical therapy or surgery? Yoga or Pilates? And where, exactly, is my core?
So when a friend told me I ought to check out Stacy Barrows, a Century City, CA-based Feldenkrais practitioner, I figured I had nothing to lose.
At our first meeting, Stacy took my history and then directed me to a massage table, I assumed for a vigorous shoulder workout. When she began touching my big left toe so lightly I could barely feel it, my New Age alarm went off.
My concerns about Stacy were assuaged when I learned that she's a licensed physical therapist and an articulate student of neuroscience who achieved Feldenkrais certification only after undergoing a four-year intensive training program. That she's also a certified Pilates instructor and a former competitive swimmer who's giving a seminar next month about how to improve your stroke was chocolate icing on the cake.
As for the toe/shoulder perplex, Barrows explained, "The Feldenkrais Method often involves work in a remote area of the body by helping a person make internal connections to improve a far-away injured or underdeveloped area. An injury can trigger guarding patterns that make the sore spot resistant to direct treatment. By offering clarity to a more receptive part of the body, the injured area becomes more relaxed and amenable to healing."
The Feldenkrais Method was named after Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais (1904-84), whose accomplishments included a mastery of physics, world-class status in judo and teaching 75-year-old former Israeli Prime Minister David Ben Gurion to stand on his head -- Ben Gurion's head, that is. Drawing from such thinkers/healers as Mabel Todd, Kano Jigoro and Gustav Flechner and such disciplines as dance, yoga, Rolfing, the Alexander Technique and hypnotherapy, Feldenkrais facilitates self-healing through a science-based approach to movement and posture.
Instead of telling you how to stand, sit or move, the practitioner suggests you experiment with various gentle maneuvers until you find your own comfort zone, always noticing even slight increments of discomfort and stopping before pain sets in. In other words: no pain, much gain.
You don't need a degree from Singularity University to know that the mind can accomplish astonishing things. Last month, Google founder Sergey Brin, before a large audience, manipulated a robot limb thousands of miles away by sending brain signals through a computer program. So it's hardly a stretch, pardon the pun, to believe -- as Sandra and Matthew Blakeslee reveal in their book The Body Has A Mind of its Own -- that another feature of Feldenkrais called motor imagery -- imagining and visualizing an activity like piano playing or swimming -- can be nearly as successful as actual physical practice.
I'm not talking about the faux philosophy of The Secret or the idiocy of Dodgers owners Frank and Jamie McCourt hiring a "healer" and a "Phrenology Consultant" to, respectively, impart positive thoughts to the team and examine the skull shapes of employees to eliminate "negatively karmic" influences.
Rather, by encouraging mindfulness of our body movements at a granular level, Feldenkrais claims we can weed out harmful physical patterns and replace them with healthful ones, like the way daily mindfulness meditation can enlarge those areas of the brain that produce healthier mental states.
After a couple of weeks of visits to Stacy and following up on my own, my shoulder feels a bit better and I'm able to swim for 20 or 30 minutes without too much pain. But, like Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of The Black Swan, I'm a skeptical empiricist and don't want to get caught up in a pleasant narrative without more evidence.
Meantime, I pitched an editor friend -- not a New Ager by any means -- on a piece about Feldenkrais and the mind/body connection. He was interested, but said he didn't know much about it -- except that it had helped save his son's life.
For more info: feldenkraisguild.com;http://www.feldenkraisinstitute.com/; http://feldenkraisinstitute.com/about_feldenkrais/videos_articles_press
Next time: How everything you thought you knew about stretching and posture might be wrong.
Follow Michael Sigman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/majorsongs
The Feldenkrais Method is not a psychological or New Age methodology—it was created by a physicist. It’s not about crystals or energy flows—it’s supported by peer-reviewed research. It does not support traditional views of stretching or physical therapy to strengthen your muscles, but it increases your strength and mobility dramatically. It is not magic, but I have seen miraculous outcomes from the work.
It appears to be simple. Guided by a practitioner, a person experiences heightened awareness of body mechanics and movement, and the brain learns new patterns of movement. This new information changes the habitual patterns we’ve developed throughout our lives; we can replace the habitual patterns that have caused us pain and injury.
I hope your skeptical empiricism doesn’t overwhelm the progress you're making with your lessons. Skepticism is sometimes necessary, but noticing the small incremental improvements is critical. Though they can be subtle, they are the key to achieving larger, more dramatic changes.
It was Feldenkrais classes, hands-on lessons and ultimately a training which gave me back myself - and continue to do so. It is, in fact, the gift that keeps on giving. And even though I was in severe pain when I started the classes, & it took me about 5 minutes to get comfortable lying on the floor, I just **knew** from the feedback my body was giving my mind & my mind was giving my body, that something significant was happening.
And I am now very happy to be able to help others rediscover themselves ......
I hope, Michael, that you will continue this journey you have started. You'll be pleasantly
The thinking behind the Feldenkrais method is as different as homeopathic medicine is to allopathic medicine (normal Western medicine). But at its heart is that the body can learn to move differently, and the mind can use the body differently that and with proper direct instruction to the nervous system, we can avoid much of the pain that we might otherwise take as "normal" or "aging."
Feldendrais lessons are the best thing I ever did for my back pain. I like my chiropractor, but I have to keep going back to get an adjustment. But I learned things in Feldenkrais lessons that gave me the ability to solve my own problems. Unless most other healing disciplines, you might walk away from your lessons empowered and able to solve your own problems, instead of dependent on someone you need to see each week.
I have been going to physical therapy for help with pain from deteriorating cervical vertabrae in my neck and head. They're inpinging on nerves, and also the muscles are very tight.
I feel better after treatment, but then the tightness and pain returns when moving my head .
I definitely don't want surgery.
Maybe I should give this Feldenkrais a try.
Spaffy Hull
http://bit.ly/bZrCkO
The University of Utah also publishes a list of peer reviewed articles
http://www.psych.utah.edu/feldenkrais/articles.php
Great write up in any case, Michael. You made a fan
Anyway, kudos and thanks for an honest and square representation of a somewhat esoteric approach to learning how to be comfortable.
The problem was a certain amount of stiffness + intermittent discomfort that would also interfere with typing and piano playing (I play piano)
Treatment (from a very smart PT and body worker, Kas Allen) focused on some carefully targeted development of strength, flexibility, and tissue health in my back and shoulders. But as Kas proceeded, I realized there was an additional factor: (In my own terminology,) I would say that my shoulder had become "stupid": Kinesthetic awareness was poor; motor/reflexes were slow; sensory awareness was mediocre; coordination was mediocre.
As my treatment proceeded, my shoulder became less "stupid" and more "intelligent". Increased "intelligence" helped Kas (and me) to better target the various treatments and excercise to further improve my body.
Increased "intelligence" manifested itself in much better piano playing. And piano playing provided some excellent information for further treatment and exercise for my shoulder.
This has been a fascinating and worthwhile process - with good results.
Everyone is different, but I thought my experience may be of value to you or some readers of your column.