Celebrities including Yo-Yo Ma, Whoopi Goldberg, and Rene Russo are all longtime fans of the Feldenkrais Method. Find out why this decades-old functional movement therapy is shaking up the wellness world.
On average, you probably spend a third of your day sitting behind a desk. But that’s not all the sitting you might be doing. Maybe you spend another hour or two sitting in your car commuting to and from work. And if you have kids, you might spend a couple more hours each week cheering them on from the bleachers at various sporting events.
So it’s no wonder that your muscles feel extra stiff by the end of the day. A special type of movement therapy called the Feldenkrais Method may offer a powerful solution to relieving your aches and pains.
What Is the Feldenkrais Method?
The Feldenkrais Method was first developed in the 1950s and is a gentle type of somatic movement — intentional movement that connects your mind and body. According to the International Feldenkrais Federation, the Feldenkrais Method was created by Israeli engineer and physicist Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais. Feldenkrais developed this form of somatic movement therapy after a chronic knee injury threatened his ability to walk, prompting him to utilize his knowledge of physics, body mechanics, neurology, and psychology to relieve his own pain.
“The Feldenkrais Method is beneficial for pain relief, improving posture, helping trauma, reducing stress, improving the mind-body connection, and helping people sleep better,” explains Dayana Pereira, a certified Feldenkrais practitioner in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. “Feldenkrais is a neuroplasticity-based way to heal the body. We use the capacity of the brain to rewire the body to form new neural connections with the bone, muscle, fascia, and connective tissue.”
Feldenkrais instructors educate their clients to reconnect with — and become more aware of — their bodies so that they can move with greater efficiency and engage their muscles to prevent injury. And because Feldenkrais movements are typically slow, gentle, and easy to modify, the practice is accessible to people with a range of abilities. Exercises vary from session to session, but typically include movements like modified child’s pose, gentle back stretches, and interlacing your fingers, along with deep breathing to heighten awareness and connect your body and mind. According to the official Feldenkrais website, there are “no repetitive movements, and no physical conditioning is required,” making it suitable for any age group and just about any fitness level.
Interested in learning more? Check out The Feldenkrais Way to Heal the Body
The Benefits of the Feldenkrais Method
“One of the things that happens with the brain is we go from fight-or-flight to rest and digest,” says Pereira. “Generally, we create this down regulation of the central nervous system. What happens [with a Feldenkrais practice] is people relax. They have less stress. They have more dopamine, more serotonin, and more oxytocin naturally coming through and replacing those stress hormones. So, in that respect, it has the potential to help with almost anything because it’s a respite from constant worry.”
According to a small study published in July 2000 in the Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies, participants who followed the Feldenkrais Method reported significantly lower anxiety levels than the control group (who received no treatment) after completing the fourth intervention.
Because a Feldenkrais practice is unique to each individual client, the outcome is also unique to each person, Pereira says. “We don’t try to fix the person,” she stresses. “We observe what is happening, support them, and find alternatives to feel better that are different and more efficient, and are recognized by the brain as more life-giving. It’s a process of noticing what’s happening in your body, supporting it with radical compassion and proposing a new way.”
Feldenkrais is a neuroplasticity-based way to heal the body. It uses the capacity of the brain to rewire the body to form new neural connections with the bone, muscle, fascia, and connective tissue.
That said, the Feldenkrais Method is mostly known to help reduce stress and anxiety by practicing a series of slow, gentle movements to help bring more awareness to your muscles, joints, and breath.
In addition, recent research has shown that the Feldenkrais Method has been especially helpful for older adults and people with neurodegenerative diseases. For example, a systematic review published in October 2022 in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health found that the alternative movement patterns used in the Feldenkrais Method significantly improved pain, posture, functional balance and mobility, and perceived exertion in people suffering from pain, Parkinson’s disease, or multiple sclerosis.
According to the Feldenkrais website, this occurs by having the teacher interrupt habitual patterns that decrease balance, mobility, and posture by working in other orientations, like sitting in a chair or lying down. In these lessons, there’s a focus on both your center of mass and base of support, and how they relate to each other to improve your overall coordination and safety.
“Movement is a great way to do mindful awareness and shape the brain, so a method that promotes mindfulness and incorporates movement would be complementary with therapy,” says Andrada Neacsiu, PhD, a clinical psychologist with a focus on neuroscience-informed treatment at Duke University. “We tell people often to include relaxation and pleasant activities in their everyday lives to reduce stress, depression, and anxiety. If this method falls under one of those categories — it’s relaxing or pleasant — or it gives the person a sense of mastery when they engage in it, then it fits very well with what a psychologist would prescribe.”
How to Incorporate the Feldenkrais Method Into Your Routine
If you’re interested in trying the Feldenkrais Method, you can opt to take a group or private class in person or online. Group classes usually give verbal guidance, but don’t involve any hands-on adjustments or personalized treatment. You simply follow your instructor’s cues as they walk you through various Feldenkrais micro-movements — small movements like back bends and gentle arm stretches done very slowly throughout the session. Practitioners refer to these classes as Awareness Through Movement, or ATM.
When you have a private one-on-one session with a practitioner, it is called functional integration. The practitioner personalizes a routine based on your individual health concerns and needs. These sessions include verbal cues as well as gentle touch on a massage table, and are designed to help make you more aware of where you carry stress and tension. Through movement, you’ll open up these areas to relieve chronic pain and make changes to your daily life to help prevent injury and pain.
What Happens in a Feldenkrais Session?
Every Feldenkrais session is different, even if you’re working with the same practitioner, but there are a few things that stay consistent.
“When you work with a practitioner, they make the effort of carrying that movement,” explains Pereira. “The practitioner is supporting you in a way that is very physical.”
For example, if you have a tendency to shrug your shoulders, the practitioner will hold your shoulder and make it easier for you to move until your brain relaxes the muscle and the shoulder is free again. If you're doing it to yourself, you hold your shoulder and become more aware of it. Then, you move your shoulder a little bit with your head or your chest until you can relax it.
The practitioner will instruct you to hold the poses for a certain amount of time, then take a break to discuss how you feel and move on to the next exercise. Although there is no set series of movements you can expect to do, you will only use body weight and, in most cases, the practitioner will assist you in moving your body to help lighten the load on you.
Just don’t assume the work ends as soon as your lesson is over. “I think that the efficacy of the work is based on repetition,” says Pereira. “The most effective way to practice Feldenkrais is to do it often, because, at the brain level, just like if you’re learning a musical instrument or a new sport or a new language, you need repetition.”
And, just like learning a new instrument, the more you practice Feldenkrais exercises, the more natural they’ll become, regardless of whether you opt for in-person or online classes.
However, the number of sessions needed to reap the benefits varies from person to person. There is no set number of times a week or sessions prescribed for maximum results. Instead, practitioners encourage clients to listen to their body and incorporate the movements into their everyday life.
How to Find a Feldenkrais Practitioner
Today, there are about 7,000 certified Feldenkrais practitioners and 880 trainees worldwide. Finding a certified Feldenkrais practitioner is easier than ever using internet search engines or the Feldenkrais Method website.
“There's a lot of practitioners out there who are phenomenal,” says Pereira. “I would say to look for somebody who is either very well-rated on Google or has a teaching style that you like if you're doing this remotely. Or look for somebody who is local to you where you can [go] in-person and have a firsthand experience of being touched and moved.” (Pereira offers individual Feldenkrais sessions, and new potential clients can book a free 30-minute consultation so she can answer questions and review goals.)
Regardless of whether you do Feldenkrais in person or at home, you’ll reap big benefits if you practice the movements consistently. Just be sure whoever you work with is Feldenkrais certified, since qualified practitioners typically train for four years.
The Bottom Line
Is the Feldenkrais Method right for everyone? If you’re more interested in faster-paced, high-intensity movement, probably not. But many people find the Feldenkrais Method very helpful.
“Our brain directs behavior and, in turn, behavior shapes the brain,” Neacsiu says. “We have many examples from behavioral interventions that can increase or decrease function in specific brain regions, as well as enhance or reduce connectivity between centers in our brain through our behavior. I wouldn’t call it rewire, but it is possible to alter our brain toward a specific goal that we have with a behavioral intervention. Research is needed to find out how and exactly what happens, but it is possible that [the Feldenkrais method] is a way through, where our brain learns to cope or respond in novel ways.”
Pereira adds, “Feldenkrais is an invitation to slow down, to get in touch with yourself, and to accept yourself just as you are. It’s an invitation to not feel broken or like anything needs to be fixed. We're kind of conditioned for the quick fix, the magic-pill results overnight. This is the main difference between Feldenkrais and any other form of healing I've ever encountered. The results are long-lasting, because, at the level of the brain where remapping or reconditioning and rewiring take place, it takes time.”
