While I was in graduate school, I tweaked my shoulder. It wasn’t serious but the pain was distracting and intractable. I tried acupuncture, cupping, massage and Thai massage to get it to go away. Most things felt good for a little while but the pain always remained or returned quickly.
Then, after living with this pain in my shoulder for at least a year, I had my first hands-on Feldenkrais experience, known as Functional Integration (or FI for short). I had enjoyed the group classes, (Awareness Through Movement) but the FI transformed me. My shoulder issues disappeared after the time I spent with a skilled practitioner. I walked away thinking, “This Feldenkrais stuff is doing a terrible marketing job! It just cured something I thought was more or less permanent. Why aren’t people on TV trumpeting the miracles of this method?! I don’t get it!”
Since my training in the method, I have seen many many people improve dramatically, no longer needing canes or moving their shoulders in ways they hadn’t in 40 years. I’ve witnessed a lot of miracles. I saw all kinds of evidence of this practice being a Miracle Method. And yet. I also came to understand why no one was shouting about the curative powers of the method from the rooftops. The problem of marketing it this way lies at the heart of the method.
What one begins to learn, the deeper one gets into the Feldenkrais Method, is that the approach requires a great letting go. We could never claim to “cure” people because one of the central tenets of our work is that there is nothing wrong with them. We can’t claim to have fixed someone because we never look at someone like something to be fixed. We start with an assumption of capability in the person we’re working with. The anatomy of a lesson includes a kinesthetic listening, a seeking for what’s working well and doing what we can do to assist the student in doing what’s easy. We help improve what’s already working and make space for new ways of working to emerge. Sometimes pain relief or the disappearance of a problem is a by-product of that process. Sometimes it isn’t.
We can’t call Feldenkrais a healing practice (even though it seems like one) because while we are doing the work, we are thinking about listening and paying attention. If you came in with a pain in your leg, we have learned not to begin with that leg. In fact, we may never touch it. But in the process of improving movement throughout the rest of you, you may find that the leg has improved. And it won’t be because the teacher improved it but because we created a learning environment for your brain to improve everything.
I find when I get ambitious and think, “Oh, yeah, I’m going to help that guy with his leg! This method can fix everything! Legs! Digestion! Emotional feelings!,” the quality of the work suffers. It is a constant discipline to keep the whole person in my mind’s eye as I’m working, if I get caught up in some idea of healing, I’m sunk.
Which brings me back to the marketing problem. What brings most people to a Feldenkrais practitioner’s door is a pain they’re experiencing and everyone in pain wants to be told, “Yes, yes, I will help you eliminate that pain.” But as a conscientious Feldenkrais practitioner, all I can say is that the elimination of that pain might be a side-effect but it won’t be the point and most people aren’t so convinced by this idea. It’s hard to explain how the method might benefit them without some direct experience of it.
As a somewhat new practitioner, I’m still learning how to communicate what I have to offer while remaining true to the sprit of the work. And it would seem that every single practitioner fights a version of this fight. What we have to offer runs so counter to the cultural idea of how things work, we often find ourselves cross-motivated (in Dr. Feldenkrais’ words, we’re trying to kiss and smoke a cigarette at the same time). We’re trying to offer a model that suggests that we can slow down, pay attention and improve things without TRYING to improve things. We’re engaged in a practice that suggests that correcting is incorrect and that assumes each person’s capability. And we’re trying to do this in a culture that suggests that we try harder, that we correct ourselves constantly (Fix your hair! Fix your weight! Fix your nose!) and a culture that assumes that none of us is enough.
It may not be so surprising that a lot of us Feldenkrais practitioners end up a little tongue tied while trying to bring our wares to market. The work is directly at odds with advertising ethos. Not to mention that the name of the method (and the man who invented it) is a little tricky for people to say and remember.
The balance of getting better at the method and getting better at marketing it is an extremely challenging negotiation, so have patience with us as we carefully choose our words, as we struggle to find a way to communicate that yes, your pain might go away, but no, we can’t claim to heal you. Any miracle that happens will have happened by virtue of making space for your brain to make it itself.
And if you’ve never gotten a taste of what this method is like, give it a shot. Or two. We might not give you our best marketing pitch the first time around but if you come curious, there’s a world of things to discover. Possibly even some miracles. But I can’t guarantee those.
by Emily Davis, Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner
1 thought on “Marketing the Feldenkrais Method”