An Interview with Donna Ray on a New Direction for the Feldenkrais Method (excerpted from a radio interview)

Feldenkraisway: I'm here with Donna Ray and we're here to talk about a new direction for the Feldenkrais Method. But before we talk about that I think our listeners would like to know a little about who was Moshe Feldenkrais and what is the Feldenkrais Method?

Donna Ray: The Feldenkrais Method consists of two basic techniques, Awareness Through Movement and Functional Integration. Together they comprise a system of neuromuscular re-education that can dramatically improve individual functioning by increasing self-awareness and facilitating new patterns of thinking, moving, and feeling.

Moshé Feldenkrais was a pioneer in movement science and the innovator of therapeutic and educational approaches.

Let me just read a brief quote that sums up his philosophy:

"What I'm after isn't flexible bodies, but flexible brains. What I'm after is to restore each person to their human dignity."

F: Tell us a little about his training & background.

D: Feldenkrais earned his doctorate Sorbonnes at the Sorbonne in Paris, where he assisted Nobel Prize Laureate Frederic Joliot-Curie at the Curie Institute.

F: Wow!

D: During his university years he met Kano, the originator of judo.

F: Really?!

D: Oh yeah. Feldenkrais studied judo intensively and became a well-known judo teacher.

During World War II, Feldenkrais fled to England where he worked in antisubmarine research, trained paratroopers in self-defense techniques, and authored books on judo. On slippery submarine decks, he aggravated an old soccer injury to his knees and began many years of extended work on himself. His self-research led to discoveries about movement re-education and to the development of his methods of Awareness Through Movement® and Functional Integration®.

F: When did he start teaching these discoveries?

D: In Tel Aviv between 1969 and 1972, Feldenkrais trained his first, small group of practitioners. From 1975 to 1978 he completed the training of a second group of practitioners, this time in the U.S.

From this group egressed a vast educational system that was the result of 40 remarkably productive and creative years for Feldenkrais during which he focused on the sensory-motor aspects that underlie human action and experience. Feldenkrais died in 1984, leaving a small group of highly trained practitioners who have continued to teach his methods worldwide.

F: How long have you been a practitioner of the method?

D: Over 20 years and I'm still learning new things about it every day.

F: What are you learning today?

D: Well let me answer that question with a quote from Bernard Lake, a medical doctor:

"The system developed by Moshé Feldenkrais has as much potential for understanding the mind/body relationship as Einstein's general theory of relativity had for physics."

In other words we can take this system in any part of the human experience and significantly alter & magnify it.

F: Which brings me to the subject of this interview - Sex - the Feldenkrais Way.

Certainly there are a lot of sex self-help books out there, every issue of every women's magazine talks about ways to have better sex. What distinguishes your program from what we would normally find in Cosmopolitan or from Dr. Ruth?

D: This is only method that specifically relates movement to sexual performance.

Awareness Through Movement® (ATM) lessons consist of slow, gentle, easy-to-do bodily movements that are designed to increase awareness and improve physical functioning. These lessons complement and enhance sensate-focus exercises by creating a non-threatening situation in which the person experiences pleasurable physical sensations. ATM also increases overall sensitivity of the person and reduces performance anxiety by teaching the person to be involved with what is happening in the here and now.

Most importantly, ATM reduces muscular tension, improves body awareness and body image so that sexual responsivity and desire are increased.

F: Does this really work?

D: Yes, it really does.

Feldenkrais teachers have found that by improving body awareness, lessening muscular tension and developing freer movement, sexual problems are reduced and people experience better sexual communication and intimacy, increased sensuality and heightened orgasm.

People rely on fantasies during sex, but those fantasies are structures in the past or future. The Feldenkrais Method will bring you into the present which is the most powerful place to be with your partner.

F: So this approach actually relaxes you into the present & makes one less tense?

D: That's right.

Muscular tension not only limits movement; it also cuts off sensations. When Feldenkrais lessons release chronic tensions from the areas of the mouth, jaw, spine, pelvis, legs and abdomen, there is a tremendous increase in sensual feelings all through the body. Furthermore, without muscular blocks, orgasmic sensations are able to spread more intensely and pleasurably through the entire body.

F: Is it just about relaxing muscle tension?

D: No, it's very much about rhythm & movement. Feldenkrais techniques create the experience of free rhythmical movements that establish a sensuous connectedness flowing from the bottom of the feet all the way to the top of the head, and from one end of the spine to the other. These wave-like movements are a natural part of sex, although they have become inhibited in most people. Once these movements are re-experienced and become integrated into people's sexual lives there is a significant increase in sexual vitality.

F: Well, what about feelings?

D: Yes, that is addressed as well in this method. The improved body awareness resulting from ATM connects people to their innermost feelings. When people know more clearly what they are feeling, both physically and emotionally, they are better able to communicate with their partners. People are able to respond more fully and this increased responsiveness leads to increased satisfaction in sex and through many aspects of their relationships.

F: So it sounds to me like this method can have a global impact on one's sexuality.

D: That's true.

The Feldenkrais Method emphasizes the importance of non-goal orientation in order to increase awareness and thereby improve physical functioning. Generalized to the sexual sphere this orientation suggests that we minimize or even suspend interest in orgasm in order to deepen our response. Paradoxically, this non-goal orientation can facilitate orgasm for those people who have not yet experienced orgasm, and results in more intense orgasmic feeling for others.

F: So by using the Feldenkrais Method I can actually be relieved of the idea or self-image that I have to perform a certain way.

D: Exactly.

The gentle Feldenkrais approach alters one's self-image so that sensuality and sexuality can be discovered, explored, and expanded. The quality of intimate relationships change, becoming more satisfying and deeply felt. Experiencing these qualitative changes in one's life leads to further curiosity and development, emotionally, intellectually, and physically.

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