The Feldenkrais Method® of Awareness Through Movement is the foremost somatic education system for human development, created by engineer, physicist and doctor of science Moshé Feldenkrais,
The Feldenkrais Method® promotes well-being and physical and mental efficiency through the observation and relearning of neuromuscular activity, using movement exercises that improve posture, proprioception, balance, coordination, flexibility and agility, resulting in greater ease and range of movement.
Grounded in neuroscience, anatomy, physiology and biomechanics, the practice is based on slow, gentle body movements performed with full attention to the movement itself and the sensations it produces, facilitating relearning and neural reorganization. The practice promotes biomechanical hygiene — learning to avoid unnecessary, parasitic tension, effort or movement that wastes energy, creates chronic tension and wears down the body.
Its main goal is to improve self-image, mobility, flexibility, and the body's capacity to reorganize and recover from pain and inflammation.
It is highly effective for resolving musculoskeletal problems and ailments in general, especially issues in the back, shoulders, neck, hips and legs.
It improves joints, tendons and muscles, and is very effective in cases of arthrosis, osteoporosis, lower back pain, neck pain, and chronic pain and contractures.
The Feldenkrais Method® has 2 modalities:
ATM – Awareness Through Movement: individual or group sessions in which the teacher gives verbal instructions for the student(s) to perform the indicated movements on their own.
FI – Functional Integration: an individual session in which the teacher moves the student's body mainly with their hands, to communicate somatic information to the nervous system.
Among teachers and practitioners it is often said that, when it comes to bodily movement, what used to be impossible becomes possible with the Feldenkrais Method®, what is possible becomes easy, and what is easy becomes beautiful and graceful.
At IKY we combine the Feldenkrais Method® with the visualizations of tantric yoga and Mayan kankueb — that integration gives rise to IKYnesis, within the IKY System.
