Free2move Physiotherapy

Change Your Brain to Relieve Pain: An Introduction to Feldenkrais

Have you or someone you care about been experiencing chronic pain, with persistent or recurring episodes of pain or tension? Have you tried treatments which only work for a short time or don’t work at all? Then this enlightening evening about the Feldenkrais Method will open your mind to a new possibility – the possibility that your problem does not lie within the body part where you feel it, but in the brain and nervous system.

The great news is that you can change your brain and relieve almost any kind of pain with an ingenious method developed decades ago by a scientist ahead of his time, Dr Moshe Feldenkrais. Put simply, the Feldenkrais Method is a way of changing your habits to make movement easier, more comfortable and more enjoyable (while making your brain more flexible).

Current pain science tells us that if you’ve had pain for more than 3 months (chronic pain), the main problem is usually no longer in the tissues, muscles or bones, it’s actually in your brain and nervous system, which is where all pain is sensed. The movements in Feldenkrais are designed to send new and different messages to your brain, changing the way your brain and nervous system function. Feldenkrais works with your whole body and your mind, not just the parts that hurt. Read more about Feldenkrais.

Presenter Jodie Krantz is the President of the Australian Feldenkrais Guild (WA Division) and has been a registered Physiotherapist for over 25 years. Read more about Jodie’s experience and values.

Jodie has helped many people with seemly intractable chronic pain turn their lives around, using Feldenkrais:

“It is by far the most effective and powerful method I use. One client, who had not experienced a single minute without pain for over 20 years did Feldenkrais with me for 3 months before he experienced his first 2 hours of being pain free. The pain-free periods gradually got longer and more frequent. After one year he is pain-free most of the time. When he experiences pain now he knows how to find his way out of it again using the Feldenkrais Method.

“Another client with Rheumatoid Arthritis went from severe difficulty walking to being almost pain-free in a couple of months. Many people find Feldenkrais is a great bridge that enables them to move on to more vigorous forms of exercise such as walking or Pilates.”

So what are some of the things that make Feldenkrais stand out over other methods?

1. Changes can begin to occur from the very first time you do Feldenkrais
2. Improvement is usually gradual and cumulative – the slow, gentle pace is what makes it safe and helps avoid flare-ups
3. Autonomy – you can learn to do Feldenkrais for yourself, reducing the need for hands-on treatment and maybe lessening the need for medication
4. Prevention – you become more sensitively tuned into your body so that you realise more quickly when you are doing something that will end in pain later on
5. Each person is unique and different, so the exercises have built in flexibility and adaptability to your particular situation and needs

To understand what Feldenkrais is you need to actually experience it. So come along to the Bodhi Tree and experience Feldenkrais first hand.

This is how the evening will go:

• Brief description of the Feldenkrais Method
• How it works to change your brain and your pain
• Experience a Feldenkrais “Awareness through Movement” lesson sitting in chairs
• Questions and Answers
• Informal chat with Jodie after the workshop