What I am after isn’t flexible bodies, but flexible brains. What I am
after is to restore each person to their human dignity.
Moshe Feldenkrais
Lessons in the Feldenkrais Methđod® use movement to allow students to give up seemingly engrained habits – ranging from the merely annoying to the downright harmful – and, through increased sensory awareness, replace them with more skillful and pleasurable ways of moving. It uses movement to overcome difficulties that result from injury, traumas of surgery, accidents and developmental delays or disabilities . Students then can have active, satisfying lives. Rachel teaches both group classes (see below) and individual sessions, which traditionally serve a complementary purpose.
In either format, the Feldenkrais Method provides a safe and calm learning experience. Rachel encourages students not to judge, but to discover and comprehend embedded biological, cultural and personal patterns of movement. With sources of tension removed, students learn how they move from her verbal or physical guidance and their own sensory awareness, and discover easier, more efficient, more pleasing ways to not only to learn but to move. Former pursuits become more enjoyable, new possibilities for thought and action open up.
Awareness Through Movement® sessions are taught in group classes. The lessons lead students through simple movements, exploring a range of possible variations that help each person find the best way to move. Rachel chooses, from the hundreds of Dr. Feldenkrais’s lessons, the ones that will offer a particular group intriguing problems and simple challenges, awakening the nervous system to new ways of learning and of moving.See the FLC’s website for more detailed information, and
She has joined the Feldenkrais Learning Center‘s faculty, where in normal times she teaches Awareness Through Movement® Saturday mornings from 11:00 AM until 12 noon. (The FLC is between 74th and75th Street on the West Side of Broadway.) But do note:
While Covid-19 makes it impossible for us to safely meet in person, ATM classes are conducted each week only via Zoom. You are welcome any week but you must let me know you are coming at least a day or two ahead. Get in touch with Rachel to register.
Functional Integration® sessions, are one-on-one lessons. Touching and moving the student gently frees the student from the work of resisting the pull of gravity. Through simple movements, Rachel and her student discover how the student rests and moves, and how he or she could be more comfortable and move with greater ease.
Both types of lesson typically last about an hour.
Please e-mail questions or inquiries about group classes or private lessons.