Feldenkrais (Awareness Through Movement) - IN STUDIO & ONLINE
with LeAnn Brightwell

THE FELDENKRAIS METHOD is NEUROMUSCULAR RE-EDUCATION

Awareness Through Movement Classes/ATM’s

All classes start by lying on your back on the floor & doing a body scan as LeAnn verbally guides you from your feet to your head, noticing any differences between how the right side of your body is lying compared to the left such as:  Are both heels & legs touching your mat in the same places?  Is one side heavier into the floor than the other? We then go through a series of slow, small movements that address connections in the body (such as the contralateral connection or a function of movement such as rolling over, bending or reaching.)   We do movements & then lengthen out again to compare how the body has changed in its contact with the floor.

This work is neuromuscular re-education. How we move is basically an unconscious process. However, if you watched 10 people get up from a chair you would notice big differences in the quality & ease of movement.  Due to postural habits, repetitive movement, injuries, surgeries and, last but not least, internal stress, our muscles get tight when we get “up-tight" and our bodies start developing holding patterns in the muscles & fascia.

The basis of the work is this:  From the time you were in your mother’s womb building your body, until the moment you leave this life, we largely respond to pressure via gravity.  By slowing movement down and doing movements that extend pressure into your body tissues at angles they hardly ever get, your nervous system has the opportunity to course-correct as it recognizes itself.  When we move fast, we use only what’s already established.  

The class is called Awareness Through Movement for a reason.  You are not making the change.  You are simply providing the environment your brain & body need to course-correct.  Through the series of movements that are addressed in the hour-long class, there is improvement in flexibility, balance, coordination, posture, better breathing & less tension & restriction which means less inflammation.

Moshe Feldenkrais

M.F. was a physicist & engineer living in Israel.  He had a knee injury playing soccer in his youth which became troublesome in his 30’s.  Doctors told him surgery may or may not be effective, so being the scientist that he was, he began studying physiology, anatomy & neurology.  He finally went to Switzerland & studied with Gerda Alexander whose work is virtually unknown is this country.  It’s called Eutony.  To make a long story short, he healed his knee & did this work for the last 40 years of his life.

LeAnn Brightwell

LeAnn came to this work from a dance background & found it due to a car accident in her mid 30’s living in Los Angeles. To heal, she decided to take an evening class, using the human voice to change the body.  By the end of her first class, she found out that it was a Feldenkrais class and her back spasms went away and never came back. LeAnn decided to train as a Feldenkrais practitioner and was in the last training that Moshe Feldenkrais ever taught. 

Moshe’s most famous quote is: “You can’t do what you want until you know what you do”.

LeAnn has 39 years of experience with teaching various modalities of The Feldenkrais Method. 

Please contact LeAnn for more information if you’d like to know more about the class! 

LeAnn Brightwell

C. (760) 902-0863            

Email: [email protected]