Frank
Wildman (1977)
GCFT, Ph.D.
holds degrees
in Physical Education, Biology and Psychology. He directed the
first accredited Feldenkrais training in 1986, and had organized
and directed over a dozen Feldenkrais Training Programs. A past
Guild president, he heads the Feldenkrais Movement Institute
and has authored many audio and video programs and books on the
Feldenkrais Method®.
The
Brain as the Core of Strength and Stability
In recent years the notions
of core strength and core stability have become increasingly fashionable
in a number of movement systems ranging from Yoga to Pilates to
Qi Gong.
The Feldenkrais Method, on the other
hand, is generally thought of in the public mind as providing
only easier movement and greater flexibility. However, in order
to use our deep intrinsic muscles, and organize the power of
the pelvis we must use the organs of the mind. The most far-reaching
motor organ in our body is our Nervous System. It reaches
into our deep interior organizing our pelvis, our intrinsic muscles
- our core.
In this workshop we will use Awareness
Through Movementâ lessons that develop core stability and
learn interesting ways to use the gentleness of Functional Integrationâ to
provide the core organization required for stability and strength.
In this way, the vigor of the martial arts origins of our work
can be brought forth to the public.
Clinical
Applications of the Feldenkrais Method
Balance, Stabilization and
Gait
In this workshop you will deepen your
understanding of bio-mechanics, balance and stability while exploring
pleasurable movement lessons that directly apply to problems
presented by clients with difficulties in these areas. Balance
will be approached as an activity in all basic positions and
cardinal directions. A dynamic sense of stabilization emphasizing
proximal to distal control of balance as well as the importance
of diagonal movements and counter-rotation involved in gait will
be demonstrated, experienced and practiced.
Fundamentals
of Movement
In the understanding of the Feldenkrais
Method, movement can offer a way to alter inappropriate but deeply
conditioned ways we use our body. At the same time it can teach
us new and more effective ways to correct neuromuscular limitations
that contribute to distress, pain and dysfunction.
Participants will explore movement
lessons and practice hands-on techniques emphasizing movement
patterns and all motor activities of the body. The skills presented
are applicable to the treatment of chronic pain, orthopedic and
neurological disorders in geriatric, adult and pediatric patients,
athletes, musicians, and other performing artists.
Human
Potential
The notion of human potential provides
a key understanding
to the radical educational and social nature of the Feldenkrais
Method. In the Potent Self Moshe states, "The
power of a body is determined by the power of the abdomen and
more generally by the pelvic region." We will explore
this idea through
practical elaborations for hands-on work taken directly from
the Potent Self. Although the book was published posthumously,
the many ideas described have been explicated in some rarely
presented Alexander Yanai lessons. Utilizing these rich source
materials, we will work deeply with the potential power available
through a well-organized abdomen, pelvis and head.
Intelligent
Posture
Ground Zero in Working with
Overuse and Pain
What does “good posture” mean
to you?
Most of us think of it as sitting
and standing straight, having “proper” alignment—a
static concept. The Feldenkrais Method views posture as dynamic.
With reduced muscular effort, internal resistance and altered
breathing, this posture allows free, light and comfortable movement
from one body state to another—it is efficient. Unnecessary
effort often leads to reduced mobility, chronic pain, or overuse/repetitive
stress symptoms.
Using Awareness Through Movement
lessons, discussion
and demonstration,
you will experience and evaluate your unique posture, and explore
movements and concepts rooted in the Feldenkrais Method to improve
the quality, ease and comfort of
your posture
and subsequent actions.
The
Intelligent Spine
Learn how to relieve stress in the
face, jaw, neck and shoulders and create greater ease, strength
and grace in everything you do. Explore how the use of the head
affects your spine from neck to pelvis and how very subtle movements
can affect your ability to use your spine more efficiently. Dr.
Wildman will demonstrate hands-on approaches of lessons you will
experience in sitting, standing and lying.
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From
Prevention to Performance
Contemporary exercise culture often
follows the following pattern: Work hard to get in shape, get
an injury, work in pain or don’t work, recover and then
start over.
It doesn’t need to be that way.
This workshop will introduce you to a method of neuromuscular
re-education that will help you work smarter rather than harder.
Developed by Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais, distinguished physicist,
engineer and Judo expert it has helped thousands of people reduce
injuries while improving performance. You will not only rediscover
the joy and comfort of easy, well-coordinated movement, but also
learn to use your body’s intelligence to walk, swim, dance
and even think better.
Reconstructing
Dance Technique
From the Floor to the Barre (Open
to dancers of all levels
and their rehabilitators.)
Dr. Frank
Wildman has had a lifelong interest in reconstructing dance
technique. He believes that dance technique should contour
to the individual rather than the individual trying to conform
to an ideal. In his view, human body becomes the model —not
the technique. This course will provide dancers with tools to
designed to enable anyone to prevent injury and to achieve their
goals in dance. This workshop is for any dancer or student of
dance wanting to learn technique in a safe, non-competitive manner.
You will learn to sense yourself more from the inside. You will
unlearn old injurious and stressful habits and re-learn the movement
ideals of dance from Ballet to Modern in a way that will be both
challenging and liberating.
Dr.
Wildman will use the unique and sophisticated movement repertoire
of the Feldenkrais® Method
to affect the
spatial awareness,
self-image, and postural control required to move more vividly
and easily. In reconstructing dance technique, Dr. Wildman
assists his students to develop a deeper understanding of their
bodies rather than simply imitating. This course has been taught
regularly to dancers at the Trisha Brown Dance Studio in New
York City, The Dancers Workshop of San Francisco, and in Sydney,
Australia. Reconstructing Dance Technique has served as an
introduction to the Feldenkrais Method to dancers throughout
the world.
The Timeless
Body – Improving with Age
The older we get the smarter we must
become. As we age, it becomes increasingly important to use our
bodies more efficiently, because we can no longer afford to slam
our bones, strain our muscles and do things with will willpower
and brute strength. We must learn to improve our quality and
ease of motion, our coordination, our sense of balance, control
and ease.
This workshop, originally developed
for the University of California’s gerontology program,
will show you how to reduce stress while increasing muscular
efficiency in a pleasurable and comfortable manner using Feldenkrais
Awareness Through Movement lessons.
A
Weekend on the Pelvis
or “Two Days on the
Pelvis” if during the week
Experience pleasurable movement lessons
selected for back and hip problems associated with pelvic instability
or loss of mobility, as taught to therapists and physicians at
the American Back Society, yoga teachers and dancers. Students
will explore different ways of handling the pelvis and learn
interesting and effective lessons that use the pelvis as the
central reference. Perineal function will be included. Dr. Wildman
will address hands-on approaches to these lessons.
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A
Day on
the Pelvis
Taught
for many years to physicians at the American Back Society,
physical therapists working in gerontology, and Yoga practicioners,
this workshop focuses on the practical benefits of understanding
the evolutionary structure and functions of the pelvis. This
is particularly useful in assisting people, who suffer from
the back and hip problems frequently associated with pelvic
instability, hypermobility, as well as loss of perineal control.
The
distortion of
weight
transference with pelvic instability contributes to both lower
back, sacroiliac and hip pain. Students will learn to identify
when there is too much relative movement, which can be aggravated
by certain ATM or FI lessons. Bone,
muscle, perineum,
and other pelvic soft tissues and their innervation will be
addressed with short ATM's and FI practice interspersed throughout
the day.
Working
with Repetitive Stress Injuries
In the Feldenkrais Method improving
posture is the considered the most reliable and effective approach
to address local misuse and repetitive stress injuries. In this
workshop you will learn how to approach stress and pain from
repetitive motions through a whole body approach to movement.
You will discover connections between hands and feet, the spine
and arms, that will prove immensely helpful to those suffering
from Repetitive Stress Injuries. This workshop is suitable for
those who suffer from RSI as well as for health professionals
who encounter it in their practices.
Emotional
Learning
From Biomechanics to
Emotions
Our experience is shaped by complex
combinations of beliefs, perceptions, hormones, social values,
and desires.
Every thought,
action, and feeling
finds its expression in movement. Even our
posture can be understood
as a
thought phrase, a preparation
for new possible movements
and new possible
feelings. In order to
understand how to create
change, we must become
aware
of how our whole self
is embodied in our movements.
To work with a person's
emotions becomes a technical question, which falls
within the realm of
Moshe's notion of function,
no different than addressing
a back problem or
arthritis.
In this workshop, we will technically
explore the inseparability of body
mechanics from our embodied
emotions and investigate
function, learning, and
emotions by integrating information from psychology
and anthropology to
better inform us.
Movement Strategies
What
is efficient
movement? What
constitutes "normal" movement?
Is this
movement an example
for mobility or for a lack
of stability?
Is this person's movement style ingenious and unique
or merely inefficient?
This
workshop was
developed watching
hundreds of students
in training
programs struggle with
these and similar
questions. It has been
designed to
provide the skills to
know what to look and
feel for in a movement
and
examine how a person's
available physical resources,
e.g. the condition of
the skeletal and neuromuscular system and the changes
in the environment can
be used to develop a variety of effective
strategies for action.
You will learn to:
- see
how specific
movements
are indicators
of a
movement strategy that will reappear in many
functional activities
- understand
how the strategies
underlying any
one movement
are expressed
in
many seemingly
unrelated movements
- think
beyond the "right", "best", "most
efficient" way of performing an
action and have
a new way of
perceiving awarness
and movement
- overcome
confusing categories
such
as: "tighter - looser", "involved-uninvolved", "organized-disorganized" and
evaluate what
people
are
really learning
from movement.
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MASTER
CLASSES
PRESENTATIONS
"What's the Feldenkrais
Method?"
Whether it's an initial interview
with a client,
your first visit to your prospective in-laws or a presentation
for medical professionals, artists, athletes, or the general
public, your style of answering this question can determine whether
you gain rapport or not. This in turn can make the difference
between gaining your livelihood with the Feldenkrais Method or
not.
One of the major problems in the Feldenkrais
community is presenting the Method to professional and other audiences.
We need skills in design and presentation to effectively communicate
to communities outside our own.
The ability to present yourself and
the Method in an effective and interesting manner, are as important
as your skills practicing the Method. This may very well be the
most crucial workshop you can take to sustain your career and further
the recognition of the Method.
We will use theater exercises and
video feedback to make your personal style of communication more
effective in addressing audiences that are important to you.
How
to Prepare Yourself
Our
postural preparation is a crucial factor in organizing our perceptions
and actions. How we prepare ourselves for a presentation, an
Awareness Through Movement or Functional Integration lesson,
can influence the outcome more than our technical proficiency
on that particular day.
How
do you reach inside yourself to create a profound and unique
experience for your students and clients? How do you use yourself
to create a specific feeling in a teaching situation? How can
you share your passion with an audience in a way that engages
them more fully? How can you utilize your doubts and insecurities
as assets to create a unique teaching style?
This
workshop will show you how to become a more effective guide by
preparing for surprises and challenges from the inside. You will
learn how to engage your students by creating situations that
are outside of their usual habits and experiences.
Finding
the Core of a Lesson
Good musicians
do not
simply memorize and play the sequences in a musical score, they
must understand the meaning of the piece they are playing in
order to emphasize, interpret and improvise. The same is true
for a Feldenkrais Practitioner.
In this course, you will learn to
discover the core of a lesson. Once you understand the central
function of a lesson, you can adjust it to fit a wide range of
groups in Awareness through Movement or a variety of clients
in Functional Integration. Your confidence and creativity increase,
as you no longer need to depend on notes or worry about getting
lost in the sequence.
Awareness Through Movement® translates
more easily into
Functional Integration® if
we understand the core ideas of a lesson. We will use a range
of familiar and new Awareness Through Movement lessons to identify
what is central in a series of lessons as well as what is central
to each lesson in a series. We will be working both hands-on
and in ATM to physicalize the ground of our understanding. Application
of these lessons to the world outside of training programs will
be discussed.
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Follow
that Bone
In
this workshop we will explore how lessons can be better designed
by understanding in detail the relationship between anatomy
and history of the human body. We will pick a bone or two and
follow the evolution of perceptions and actions that gave birth
to form. We will clarify how structures and functions of the
body interact with the environment.
Using
these
insights you
will learn how to develop more potent Awareness
Through
Movement® and Functional Integration® lessons
that
connect bone through muscle and brain to the environment.
This
course will provide you with the tools to see and sense movement
in a more precise and expansive manner and create more meaningful
lessons for your clients.
Working
With the Immaterial Body
How
do we Recognize
Learning? How
do we Touch Awareness?
How
do learning and
awareness emerge from tissues and organs? Both learning and
awareness are non-material aspects of a human being. To say
that learning takes place in the brain is to explain away the
mysteries of learning and awareness.
- How
do these immaterial aspects of the
body express themselves in motion and
- How
do we touch and move these non-physical aspects of the
physical body?
- What
kind of learning takes
place in the method that is unique?
We will approach
these questions
as technical questions related to the notion of function.
The
Evolution of Learning
Sequences, Transitions,
and Consequences in Lessons
"Without light there would be no
eyes."
Moshe Feldenkrais
- "What can I do when
a lesson
doesn't
seem to be working?
- Should I change to another
lesson
and if
that doesn't help maybe even try concepts
and movements
from still another lesson?"
Every practitioner
is familiar with
these questions and with the confusion they generate in ourselves
and in our clients. What options are available to us in the design
of a lesson, to make transitions smooth and easy?
There are fundamental principles shared
between the development of awareness in the Feldenkrais Method
and the biological evolution of life on earth. We will approach
the mysteries and the mechanisms of organic development and human
learning in terms of similar underlying processes.
We will work
with the similarities
in the design
and generation
of Awareness Through Movement® and
Functional Integration® lessons to the similarities
in the emergence
and development
of new life forms.
Understanding how consciousness, awareness, and learning evolved
in the natural world can better inform us in designing
more effective
and generative
lessons.
This will be an evolutionary learning
experience.
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The Motor Concept
Using Motor Learning and Motor Control Theories in
the Design of Lesson Plans and Themes
How do we learn front and back, up and
down, left and right? How do we learn to time and coordinate our
movements? The understanding of these temporal and spatial learning
processes can prove very helpful in choosing lesson plans or predicting
and influencing the outcome of a lesson.
These spatial and temporal learnings
are well mapped
in research and
occasionally chanced upon by practitioners who find themselves
surprised by the success of a particular lesson. The Motor Concept
was developed
by Dr. Frank Wildman in order to provide a useful model to better
control and predict the outcome of lessons and select lesson
plans suited to the
individual needs
of clients.
Students will experience the Motor
Concept through Awareness Through Movement® and Functional
Integration®lessons.
Ligaments
and Tendencies
©1996, Frank Wildman,
Ph.D.
"Sensing the skeleton" and "experiencing skeletal
consciousness"
are notions Moshe often
discussed, but what exactly
are the mechanisms
whereby we sense the
location of our bones
in SpaceTime?
The relationship of our skeleton
to muscular activities pours into the nervous system
as much through
receptors in
the ligaments
and
tendons as within the
joints or muscles themselves.
Ligaments and tendons
are not just passive connectors of our bones
and muscles, they provide
massive amounts of information due to their rich innervation,
yet training
programs rarely address
how to use them.
By working precisely with ligaments
and tendons in Functional Integration® lessons we
will heighten
skeletal sensations,
improve joint
stability, and
affect motor control.
Orientation/Anxiety/Pleasure
©1996 by Frank Wildman,
Ph.D
All animals must be able to orient
themselves to sudden changes in the environment in
order to identify
potential threats.
When the
orienting response is
effective, no anxiety
arises; the fluid and
uninterrupted interaction with the environment
is experienced as
pleasurable. When there
is an interference with
the orienting response
anxiety is generated.
In
human society
the nature of our orienting
responses becomes extremely complex, involving our personal history,
cultural tendencies,
imagination, humor, and
art. Identifying what
is exciting to us, what
is
pleasurable and what
evokes anxiety often
becomes confusing, since
the terms"anxiety" and "pleasure" mask a wealth
of underlying bodily
feelings.
In this workshop, we will deepen
our work by learning to identify and utilize
differing orienting
responses that
form the basis
of
postural control and
social identity.
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