Tag Archives: pain

The Joy of Feldenkrais

I work with all kinds of people: some have a regular physical practice such as running, sports, yoga or dance and some just want to be able to get out of bed in the morning without pain or struggle. Whatever the aim, when I see someone discovering better movement – that’s also fun – its a joyous moment.

Releasing Your Jaw, Neck and Shoulders

Workshop: Releasing Jaw, Neck and Shoulders. 10.30-12.30 Saturday 20 February 2016
199 Rustlings Road, Sheffield S11 7DA
We often have unconscious habits that produce unpleasant results – if you took a moment to discover how often you hold your breath and clench your jaw you might find how this affects your whole self. Through using The Feldenkrais Method to increase your self-awareness , you will learn how to reduce muscular tension and experience a greater freedom of movement in your neck and jaw. You’ll learn also how to connect the movement to your neck, back and pelvis, releasing tension throughout your entire self. This workshop can be particularly helpful to people who suffer from headaches and/or neck and shoulder discomfort.

Understanding Pain

This Bank Holiday weekend a friend came round to see me because she had injured her knee and didn’t know what to do. In the course of our consultation, several things became very clear. Firstly, although the pain had subsided, the pain memory was very strong; as a consequence some of her movement was restricted not through pain but through the anticipation of pain. Secondly, she was very upset that the injury was caused by cycling and now she would have to give up her favourite activity. After a little discussion, we agreed what had caused the pain (not cycling) and found a strategy where she could continue to exercise and feel fitter without physical damage. Although we had only spent an hour together, her relief at understanding her pain and having a series of positive possibilities to explore was as important as her improved movement from the session. Scott Clark, Feldenkrais teacher and leader of the Feldenkrais Teacher Training in London has written an excellent article The Meaning of Pain which you can find here: http://www.feldenkrais.co.uk/articles/pain.html. Scott gives some clear and wonderful images about how we approach pain and the warning signs of injury.