Individual Sessions (or Functional Integration) are a conversation in movement and are as unique as conversations can be.
We recognize that people attending indiviual sessions have very different personal histories and for this reason we tailor our approach to your individual need.
Working with a high performer athlete, a dancer or an actor is very different from working with a person who is recovering from a stroke or with a brain injured child. By the way lessons with children last only half an hour initially as they are adapted to the children shorter attention spans.
The commonalities can still be found in the way our neural system approach learning or relearning a skill.
We recognize that learning can only happen in a safe and welcoming environment. a fundamental aspect is that we consider that as living being we are constantly changing and there is no way back to former status; However we can adjust, adapt, relearn and even improve the way we move.
The series of movement that we perform will engage the brain to improve the body’s comfort and function, in a pleasurable way, designed to address your particular needs and concerns.
Sessions are conceived in a sophisticated way; They are made of complex but slow and delicate movements and gentle variations allowing the neural system to discover a better alignment of the muscoloskeletal system and more efficient pattern of movement.
There is no conscious effort involved and you can simply let go of any effort during the lesson. The movements are not intended to develop the muscles or to adjust as we want your own brain to be able to find a better organization. Once the brain finds a way to achieve a better way of moving it will adopt it, hence we provide as many informatios as possible to your neural system and let neuroplasticity to benefit you. The movements in a Feldenkrais session are information-rich and designed to communicate with the client’s nervous system in a beneficial way.
The sessions take place usually on a low, padded table. The client remains fully clothed. After having a session, people often report feeling relaxed and refreshed, more comfortable in their body, and “taller,” “younger,” and more physically able.
Some improvements may be felt immediately, while others are felt later and in following days. To enjoy the greatest—and longest lasting—benefits, take ample time to notice the changes that have taken place in your body, and in the way you move, and use yourself. Your attention is part of the process.
I will help the student to clarify and undertand his/her need and present way of moving. You may need to alleviate some pain, or maybe you want to improve your sport performances, improve your flexibility or reach a better coordination, or get free from tension. We will discuss about your need and I will observe the way you move.
Touch is the most ancient sense from an evolutionary point of view, through touch once identified some areas/movement of interest
Using my hands we will establish a non verbal "conversation". You will be generally on a low padded table, fully dressed. Through gentler touch and slow movements the relationship between different parts of your body will be clarified, for istance how the position of your shoulder affect the mobility of your arms or others.
Through this "conversation" I will access your neuro-muscular and muscolo-skeletal organization and I will safely guide an exploration of different and possibly better organization of your self. This process will help to change the muscular tonus bringing it where needed and reducing superfluous effort if present.
Finding a different more efficient way of moving is an internal process, like riding a bike or swimming and once you learn a new way it will be your own.
My role will be to help and assist this exploration opening up possibilites that will be taken on board by your neural system only if they provide a better and more efficient way of performing an action.
In this respect learning a new posture is not something that we can impose on ourself, and usually if we do so, we only transfer tension from one place to another.
Learning a new organization produces very subtle change that without no conscious effort will move you away from pattern of movements that may cause you pain or discomfort.
As an infant you learned to walk and you just stopped crawling because walking was a better way of displacing in space, but walking was the consequence of many abilities converging together to create a new opportunity. The same happens with individual lessons and in group class: We create together new opportunities that will be embraced as they work better for you.
By changing your internal organization through a gentle and non invasive touch we mean proviinfg a better way to approach a function like how you sit, stand, turn in space, walk, jump etc.
Change can happen by recognizing consciously and unconsciously your habits and the emotions and internal sensations accompanying them as well as the differences with your new way of moving.
This will also affect the way you will carry out actions in the world surrounding you. Actions will be simpler and more fluid and effective.
We define ourseves through our internal sensations but also through our relationship with the external world. Very often we do not notice that an action is causing some suffering till the suffering is umberable. It is a lilttle bit like when we find out that our shoes are hurting us only when we are unable to walk.
This automatic way of carrying ourselves in the world has the advantage that we can carry on with our own activity but if the habits are very wrong at certain moment we can't simply change them as we do with shoes that are too tight. We need to develop better habits and to do so we need to integrate new way of moving, what is facilitated in an individual session.
The work during an individual lesson is really individual. Each session is different from another one. It is neither mechanical nor corrective. Once found the pattern of movement the are froming your present organization will find and release superfluous tensions and introduce possible variations working always within your comfort zone. Like in classes, we ask questions about possibilities, we do not impose a way. Once the new possibilities are clear change happens in a spontaneous way and we can integrate it into a function.
A series of lessons can allow to go deeply into the change and integrate the movement of the eyes or of the jaw, or the larger muscles of the hip with the arms and the hands. The movement are guided by your own interest and you will need to maintain yourself open to listen to your own sensations and to integrate them in your daily activity. This aspect will remains completely private.
The one-to-one sessions currently active are: