One of the most difficult aspects of dining out for Maria Lee wasn’t deciding what to order or calculating whether she could spare the expense. It was getting up from her chair.
“[Anyone else] might just put the chair back and, with equal weight on both feet, use the legs and core to stand up. Well, I can’t do that,” says Lee, 62, a retired computer scientist in Houston who has scleroderma, an autoimmune disease that can cause the skin and other connective tissues to harden. “There was a point where I was literally hanging on to the table and, of course, this doesn’t make you inconspicuous at a restaurant.”
Today, Lee’s restaurant exits are more graceful. She slides to the end of her chair, rests her hands on the end of the table and twists to gain the momentum her spine needs to stand. She uses the same technique to get off the floor and out of bed. While a few years ago she struggled to pull back her comforter, her functioning is now at about 90 percent.
What changed? In addition to medical treatments including two hand surgeries prior to her diagnosis and steroids, which she takes in lower doses than she used to, Lee credits the Feldenkrais Method, a sort of movement education practice, with enhancing her quality of life. “[Feldenkrais] is a different modality; you have to be patient, but over time, a little bit at a time, I saw vast improvements,” Lee says. “It’s really been a miracle for me.”
Felden What?
The Feldenkrais Method of Somatic Education defines the practice as “a form of somatic education that uses gentle movement and directed attention to improve movement and enhance human functioning.” In either group lessons that use only verbal instruction or one-on-one sessions that are hands-on, students learn to notice how parts of their bodies — often those as ignored as a single rib — feel, move and fit together using a series of nearly 1,000 movements developed by an Israeli physicist who believed that traditional rehabilitation exercises weren’t based on proper body mechanics.
“They’re all rooted in a basic human function like grasping or turning or looking, but when people stand up and walk around, they find that things have been reorganized,” says Lee’s teacher, MaryBeth Smith, founder and director of the Feldenkrais Center of Houston. “It’s like their personal furniture has been moved and it feels different to walk, it feels different to just stand.”
[See: 4 Ways to Stick to Your Physical Therapy Homework.]
Over time, it’s believed that the novel, gentle movements spur the brain to rewire itself such that old movements or positions can be achieved in new ways. In effect, students might find that Feldenkrais helps relieve muscle and joint pain, eases anxiety, enhances athletic and artistic performance, deepens sleep, improves balance and coordination, boosts cognitive function, fosters peace of mind and more. Even Lee’s husband, a physician and recreational tennis player, and son, a 20-something CrossFit enthusiast, have attended Feldenkrais lessons and appreciated their relaxing nature and injury-prevention benefits.
“The people that find me usually have tried everything else … medically, everything is fine but they can’t do what they want to be doing in their lives,” says Smith, a professionally trained singer who got her voice back — and in better shape — after sugery through Feldenkrais. “And usually, that involves movement.”
But trying to categorize the method is more difficult than illustrating its wide-ranging benefits. Some liken it to mindfulness meditation, but with more noise and movement. Or, they say it’s like yoga, but not so structured. It’s like physical therapy, but not so treatment-focused. It’s like massage, but not so passive. It’s like tai chi, but not so choreographed. “In Feldenkrais, you forget about goals; there is no perfectionism,” says Gerhild Ullmann, a Feldenkrais practitioner and research assistant professor at the University of Memphis School of Public Health. “You just listen to your own body.”
While the effects can be therapeutic, it’s not intended as medical treatment. It involves moving the body, but too slightly to pass as exercise. It’s not mainstream, says Jane Clark, dean of the University of Maryland School of Public Health in College Park, but “it’s not quackery.”
But Does It Work?
Strong research on the Feldenkrais is thin, but promising — especially when it comes to how it can benefit the musculoskeletal system, says Ullmann, whose research found that a Feldenkrais intervention improved older adults’ balance and mobility, which can help prevent falls. Another study of 53 people with low back pain found that the Feldenkrais Method was as effective as a more traditional education and rehabilitation intervention in improving pain and disability. “People who are having pain are less likely to engage in physical activity … so mind-body exercises are easier to handle,” she says.
[See: 11 Ways to Cope With Back Pain.]
Other research hints that the method’s benefits go deeper — even benefiting the brain and mental health. One albeit small 2016 study by Ullmann, for example, found that a four-week Feldenkrais intervention improved three older women’s ability to complete a common test of cognitive functioning. Another randomized trial of 30 people with Parkinson’s disease found that the method improved their quality of life and reduced depression symptoms more than a control group that received educational lectures.
“There’s evidence to show it works for some people,” says Jill Whittal, a professor of physical therapy and rehabilitation science at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, “it’s just not good evidence.”
But there is good news for those interested in trying it: Save the cost (group lessons run around $20 and one-on-one sessions may be over $100), it’s risk-free. “I would never think of it being detrimental to you; it could give you a lot of awareness of your body,” says Clark, who points out that different types or combinations of therapies work for different people. “Find what resonates with you.” And that includes the practitioner, she says.
[See: 5 Reasons Your Doctor Might Prescribe Meditation — and One Reason She Won’t.]
For Lee, whose doctors support her work with Smith, the Feldenkrais Method isn’t a substitute for medical treatment, but rather the boost she needed to go from simply living to living optimally. “The kinds of thoughts and exercises and evaluation that we do in Feldenkrais,” she says, “really gave me a tool set to get back on the road to health.”
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What Is the Feldenkrais Method? originally appeared on usnews.com
