FELDENKRAIS & JKA
If we divide each step in a folk-dance choreography into separate parts – like a jigsaw puzzle, it makes it much easier for the brain to feel, integrate and perform a movement. This is actually the basis of Feldenkrais and JKA method.
While reading about this method on various websites and from numerous books dedicated to Moshe Feldenkrais, I came across a more extensive, philosophical explanation of the method that is quite difficult to fully grasp, although I basically understand its aim and methodology.
How does this method work?
A Feldenkrais professional training programme has 40 class days per year and lasts for 4 years.
This four-year training programme is this long for a reason – mastering the Moshe Feldenkrais method is a PROCESS in which we mature both mentally and motorically, just like newborns who mature psychomotorically in the first year, as well as later during their childhood.
Babies use their spontaneous, ‘random’ movements for learning. They slow down for a moment, their brain processes and integrates what their body accidentally did. They perform that same movement again and add a new one… this is a creative process leading to perfection.
You must agree with me when I say that those of us who first got a developmentally disabled child, and later a normally developed baby, marvel at the ease and perfection with which An able-bodied child gets into a sitting position, masters crawling, falls and learns to walk.
The Feldenkrais method is based on a similar principle. By moving their hands, sometimes almost invisibly, a Feldenkrais practitioner performs the movements instead of a child. While pausing, he allows the child’s brain to recognize and integrate them.
I often make it easier for parents to understand this by comparing it to learning folk dance steps. It’s hard to learn the whole choreography at once. However, if it is divided into manageable steps, like a jigsaw puzzle, the brain integrates each step. This is the basis of the Feldenkrais and JKA method.
The method consists of two parts:
ATM"Awareness through movement" which in translation would mean awareness of your body in motion.
FI"Functional Integration" or one-on-one client treatment.
The most frequently asked question is:
Can the Feldenkrais/JKA method be used in combination with other methods?My answer is: "YES" and once again: "YES".
Parents often get a negative answer, which causes a confusing situation as they want the best for their children.
The answer to this problem is simply combining this method with the others in an appropriate way.
Perhaps the therapist who is unwilling to combine other methods with his chosen one, which doesn’t only include the Feldenkrais method, is not acquainted with the other methods. This is why it is easier for them to give you a negative answer.
Our personal experience has shown that these methods have an amazing effect on children who often undergo intensive treatment. For example, Medek exercises for spastic children increase muscle tone during treatment. Afterwards, we reduce muscle spasticity with Feldenkrais treatment.
Also, we often like to let the parents rest. After three weeks of therapy, parents are trained to do the exercises at home. Once in two months, however, it is advisable for children to do a five-day Feldenkrais and JKA treatment session. We give both parents and their children’s brains a break from the assigned at-home exercises.
During the Feldenkrais and JKA five-day treatment, we provide the brain with different information, processing and integration of the processed information.