Editing Feldenkrais method (section)

== History ==
{{Further|Moshé Feldenkrais}}
[[File:Moshe Feldenkrais Demonstrates Functional Integration.png|thumb|right|Founder Moshé Feldenkrais demonstrates Functional Integration.]]
From the 1950s till his death in 1984, Feldenkrais taught in his home city of Tel Aviv. He gained recognition in part through media accounts of his work with prominent individuals, including Israeli Prime Minister [[David Ben-Gurion]].<ref name="Ben Gurion's Personal Trainer">{{cite news|last1=Lori|first1=Aviva|title=Ben Gurion's Personal Trainer|url=http://www.haaretz.com/ben-gurion-s-personal-trainer-1.124885|newspaper=Haaretz|access-date=4 June 2016|archive-date=3 May 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160503132051/http://www.haaretz.com/ben-gurion-s-personal-trainer-1.124885|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last1=Yakov |first1=Nitzi |last2=Gefen |first2=Eitan |date=2023-06-07 |title=Got your back: how Ben-Gurion fixed his back pain |url=https://www.ynetnews.com/health_science/article/ryeprkp8n |access-date=2024-07-06 |work=Ynetnews |language=en}}</ref>
In David Kaetz's biography, ''Making Connections: Roots and Resonance in the Life of Moshe Feldenkrais'' (2007), he argues many lines of influence can be found between the Judaism of Feldenkrais's upbringing and the Feldenkrais Method – for instance, the use of paradox as a pedagogical tool.<ref name="MHj5l">{{cite book|last1=Kaetz|first1=David|title=Making Connections: Roots and Resonance in the Life and Teachings of Moshe Feldenkrais|date=2014|publisher=River Centre Publishing|location=Hornby Island, Canada|isbn=978-0-9784014-2-9|pages=13–15, 27–28|edition=2nd}}</ref>

''Making Connections'' described Feldenkrais' approach:
<blockquote>Feldenkrais was critical of the appropriation of the term 'energy' to express immeasurable phenomena or to label experiences that people had trouble describing ... He was impatient when someone invoked energy in pseudoscientific 'explanations' that masked a lack of understanding. In such cases, he urged skepticism and scientific discourse. He encouraged empirical and phenomenological narratives that could lead to insights.<ref name="MHj5l"/></blockquote>

Beginning in the late 1950s, Feldenkrais traveled to teach in Europe and America. Several hundred people became certified Feldenkrais practitioners through trainings he held in [[San Francisco]] from 1975 to 1978 and in [[Amherst, Massachusetts]], from 1980 to 1984.<ref name="Toxxx">{{cite web|last1=Keller|first1=Jon|last2=Freer|first2=Bonnie|title=His Methods May Seem Bizarre, But Thousands Swear by Mind-Body Guru Moshe Feldenkrais|url=http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20080162,00.html|website=people.com|access-date=6 June 2016|archive-date=26 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150926101557/http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20080162,00.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
[[Cybernetics]], also known as dynamic systems theory, continued to influence the Feldenkrais Method in the 1990s through the work of human development researcher [[Esther Thelen]].<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://srcd.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2006.00955.x |title=Moving Toward a Grand Theory of Development: In Memory of Esther Thelen - Spencer - 2006 - Child Development - Wiley Online Library |format= |journal=Child Development |date=November 2006 |volume=77 |issue=6 |pages=1521–1538 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-8624.2006.00955.x |accessdate= |last1=Spencer |first1=John P. |last2=Clearfield |first2=M. |last3=Corbetta |first3=D. |last4=Ulrich |first4=B. |last5=Buchanan |first5=P. |last6=Schöner |first6=G. |pmid=17107442 |archive-date=15 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210715235230/https://srcd.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2006.00955.x |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref><sup>:1535</sup>