- Lessons in person: Functional Integration
Photo by Jonathan Thrift
The advantage of working with you on your own is that I can address your issues much more specifically. Similar to group classes, the goal is to explore how Feldenkrais can rewire your brain, musculoskeletal system and nervous system to enable you experience less pain and greater ease in how you hold yourself, breathe and move. These sessions are called functional integration lessons because we learn how to use the whole of ourselves, like we did as babies. The unhelpful habits of holding and movement that we’ve developed are due to constricting the free flow of movement throughout ourselves.
We begin by discussing what you’d like to learn to do more easily and comfortably. The idea is to identify the function that is compromised by the difficulty you are experiencing – i.e. if you’ve a pain in your shoulder it impacts on your ability to reach, if your hip is giving you gyp then it’s walking that’s affected. The starting point is how you are right now, so we usually begin with ‘reference movements’ which, after the lesson, you do again to see what has changed as a result of our work together. Lessons generally take place on a low padded table, either in sitting or lying down and you remain fully clothed. It’s important to wear clothes that allow you to move freely in these sessions.
Individual lessons differ from group classes, in that rather than you moving in response to verbal instructions, we have a conversation mostly through the medium of touch. A functional integration lesson is the somatic equivalent to a counselling session as with touch, I am gently questioning your movement patterns and facilitating you in breaking unhelpful habits of holding and movement. Learning is taking place at a somatic level and the goal is that you find greater flexibility of movement, freer breathing and improved posture. Lessons are gentle, slow and deeply relaxing.
Each session takes about an hour and weekly sessions are recommended to facilitate lasting change. The number of lessons you will need depends on the depth of change you want, how longstanding the pattern you want to address is. For example, it took me about six months of weekly lessons and attending group classes to become symptom-free after ten years of chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia.
Dearbhaile Bradley 