Editing Feldenkrais method (section)

== Description ==

The Feldenkrais Method is a type of alternative movement therapy that proponents claim can repair impaired connections between the [[motor cortex]] and the body, so benefiting the quality of body movement and improving wellbeing.<ref name="ehm">{{cite book |veditors=Stalker D, Glymour C |page=[https://archive.org/details/examiningholisti0000unse_w1i5/page/373 373] |year=1989 |publisher=Prometheus Books |title=Examining Holistic Medicine |url=https://archive.org/details/examiningholisti0000unse_w1i5 |url-access=registration |isbn=9780879755539 |quote=a system of exercise therapy developed in the 1940s by former judo instructor Moshe Feldenkrais}}</ref><ref name=koch>{{cite journal |title=Alternative Healing as Magical Self-Care in Alternative Modernity |vauthors=Koch AA |journal=Numen |year=2015 |volume=62 |issue=4 |pages=431–459 |doi=10.1163/15685276-12341380}}</ref> Practitioners view it as a form of [[Somatics|somatic]] education<ref>{{Cite web |title=What is the Feldenkrais Method of somatic education? |url=https://feldenkrais.com/hrf_faq/what-is-the-feldenkrais-method/ |access-date=2024-07-04 |website=Feldenkrais Method |language=en-US}}</ref> "that integrates the body, mind and psyche through an educational model in which a trained Feldenkrais practitioner guides a client (the ‘student’) through movements with hands-on and verbally administered cues," according to ''Clinical Sports Medicine.''<ref>{{Citation |last1=Audette |first1=Joseph F. |title=CHAPTER 23 - Complementary and Alternative Medicine and the Athlete |date=2007-01-01 |work=Clinical Sports Medicine |pages=307–320 |editor-last=Frontera |editor-first=Walter R. |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B978141602443950026X |access-date=2023-12-10 |place=Edinburgh |publisher=W.B. Saunders |isbn=978-1-4160-2443-9 |last2=Bailey |first2=Allison |editor2-last=Herring |editor2-first=Stanley A. |editor3-last=Micheli |editor3-first=Lyle J. |editor4-last=Silver |editor4-first=Julie K.}}</ref>

The Feldenkrais Guild of North America claims that the Feldenkrais method allows people to "rediscover [their] innate capacity for graceful, efficient movement" and that "These improvements will often generalize to enhance functioning in other aspects of [their] life".<ref name="gorski">{{cite web |author=Gorski D |author-link=David Gorski |publisher=Scienceblogs—Respectful Insolence |title=M.D. Anderson enters the blogosphere–and goes woo |date=6 August 2009 |url=http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2009/08/05/md-anderson-enters-the-blogosphere-and-g/ |access-date=16 July 2016 |archive-date=6 May 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160506180807/http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2009/08/05/md-anderson-enters-the-blogosphere-and-g/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
[[File:Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement Lesson.png|thumb|Students at the San Francisco Feldenkrais Practitioner Training doing an Awareness Through Movement lesson (1975)]]

The ''Oxford Handbook of Music Performance'' describes FM as "an experiential learning process that uses movement and guided attention to develop and refine self-awareness." It notes that FM is "increasingly used among high-level performers, such as musicians, actors, dancers, and athletes."<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=McPherson |first=Gary |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qEVWEAAAQBAJ&dq=feldenkrais&pg=PA3 |title=The Oxford Handbook of Music Performance |date=2022 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-005886-9 |language=en}}</ref>

Feldenkrais lessons have two types, one verbally guided and practiced in groups called Awareness Through Movement, and one hands-on and practiced one-to-one called Functional Integration.<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Berland R, Marques-Sule E, Marín-Mateo JL, Moreno-Segura N, López-Ridaura A, Sentandreu-Mañó T |title=Effects of the Feldenkrais Method as a Physiotherapy Tool: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials |journal=Int J Environ Res Public Health |volume=19 |issue=21 |date=October 2022 |page=13734 |pmid=36360614 |pmc=9657136 |doi=10.3390/ijerph192113734 |url=|doi-access=free }}</ref> Moshé Feldenkrais wrote, "The purpose of these sensorimotor lessons is to refine one’s ability to make perceptual distinctions between movements that are easy and pleasurable and those that are strained and uncomfortable, which results in the discovery of new movement possibilities as well as potential for further improvements."<ref name=":1" />

=== Five principles ===
FM operates broadly within five principles:<ref name=":1" />

# ''Learning is a process'': "relies on sensory and kinesthetic information that one experiences through interactions with the environment"
# ''Posture as dynamic equilibrium'': "the ability to regain equilibrium after a large disturbance"
# ''Exploratory versus performative movement'':" the ability to make distinctions in the ease and quality of movement and to try out movements that may be unfamiliar"
# ''Whole versus part learning'': "exploring component parts of an action as well as the whole"
# ''Repetition and variation'': "introducing novelty in learning in order to expand possibilities for choice"