Sessions
Individual sessions, also know as Functional Integration, address a particular concern.
Individual Sessions
Functional Integration
The Feldenkrais Functional Integration session is a powerful tool in the fight against pain and injury. At Smart Somatics, I use this technique to help clients achieve optimal health and wellness.
I believe that pain and discomfort are not your enemies but rather your body’s natural response to stress. Pain signals you to stop, assess what’s going on, and take care. If you don’t, the pain and discomfort increase until they become chronic; your brain learns that pain is “normal.” The more you resist, the more you tighten. The more you tighten, the more restricted your movements, and the more uncomfortable you become.
In a typical Feldenkrais session we will work together to discuss: how do your habits of movement help you, but at the same time stand in the way of you doing better? You will usually lie, or sit, fully-clothed on a low table as I support and move you, suggesting, encouraging and guiding you towards new ways of moving and organising yourself.
The session is developed by me, specifically for you, custom-tailored to your unique circumstances, and at that particular moment to address your particular habits of moving and holding yourself. Increasing self-awareness enables you to let go of these habits, to find and choose new patterns of movement; you may find similar development in the flexibility of your thinking and feeling.
At times, various props (pillows, rollers, supports) are used in an effort to support your body configuration or to facilitate certain movements. The learning process progresses without the use of any invasive or forceful procedure.
The session will often lead to suggestions for ways of working on your own, in order to help the new choices become a lasting part of your life. Sessions are particularly useful for specific or long-standing problems, to deepen your experience of "Awareness Through Movement" classes, or to provide ongoing support for your everyday life.
This is a very individual hands-on treatment that can also be supplemented by exercises to do at home, that can follow on from a session theme.
Prices
First Feldenkrais Functional Integration session, including consultation approx. 1 hour 45 minutes…. £85
Follow up sessions approx. 1 hour 15 minutes…£75 **
** Regular booked weekly sessions £65
(Usually for people with complex issues)
Group sessions, also know as Awareness Through Movement (ATM's), can be used to address ongoing issues and help promote wellbeing.
Group Sessions
Awareness Through Movement
Awareness Through Movement consists of verbally directed movement sequences presented primarily to groups. A lesson generally lasts from 30 to 60 minutes. The lessons consist of comfortable, easy movements that gradually evolve into movements of greater range and complexity. These precisely structured movement explorations involve thinking, sensing, moving and imagining.
Many are based on developmental movements and ordinary functional activities (reaching, standing, lying to sitting, looking behind yourself, etc.), some are based on more abstract explorations of joint, muscle, and postural relationships. There are hundreds of ATM lessons, varying in difficulty and complexity, for all levels of movement ability.
The emphasis is on learning which movements work better and noticing the quality of these changes in your body. Through increased awareness, you will learn to abandon habitual patterns of movement and develop new alternatives, resulting in improved flexibility and coordination.
How do you learn in an Awareness Through Movement lesson?
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Using slow, gentle movement and directing students to move within the limits of safety by avoiding pain and strain.
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Orienting to the process of learning and doing rather than working towards a goal.
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Directing awareness toward sensing differences and perceiving whole inter-connected patterns in movement.
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Allowing you to find your own way with a lesson.
(Please call and ask for availability and venues for these sessions)