BodyIntelligence, a Feldenkrais-inspired form of movement coaching
Bowenwork is a fantastic tool to reduce and even eliminate pain–with virtually no effort on your part. Once you are feeling more comfortable, though, I invite you to consider what you can do–on your own–to improve mobility and avoid some of the physical stressors at the root of the original difficulty. In this part of my work, I help you improve your body’s intelligence.
What I call BodyIntelligence is based primarily on my experience of the Feldenkrais Method. An engineer and martial artist, Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais was a pioneer in the field of somatic learning. His lineage is deep in the root systems of many cutting edge movement studies today.
Since my hope with every client is to empower their curiosity to help themselves, I enjoy sharing the process of becoming more body intelligent. This usually involves taking a look at habits of movement. We may sleuth out which habits are contributing to pain. I might encourage them to consider how they habitually move, including how they think they should move. Many times, we invent a simple change that can result in enormous improvement.
The undeniable fact is when we are more free to move, we usually choose to move more, and we consequently live more fully and more joyfully. For me, this is about feeling whole as human beings.
Here’s a sample exploration in a nutshell. Imagine that the soles of your feet are covered in gooey red paint. Walk across the floor as if your feet are paint rollers and you want to lay a smooth, even layer of paint wherever you go. Walk this way until it feels comfortable and free. How does this compare with your habitual pattern of walking? What happens in your hips, and knees and ankles? What clues does this give you about how you usually move?
Here’s another example which you can try at home. Especially with neck and shoulder pain, I like to check whether clients have their car seats adjusted back at couch potato angles. If the weather is nice, we’ll go out to their car and explore various tilts of the seat. Give it a try–you will be surprised how shifting the angle of your seat back can change your responsiveness and pleasure while driving.
These are a few of the practical, everyday issues I help clients with:
- How to sit more comfortably at a desk, or a slouchy couch.
- How to hike without knee pain.
- How to stand for periods of time.
- How to do any repetitive movement more easily–weeding, riding a bike, computing, or improving your form during exercise.
- How to lie more restfully in bed.
If you are curious about any particular area of your movement life, contact me so we can talk!
When you know what you’re doing you can do what you want.”
~ Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais
