The Feldenkrais Method is taught in two formats: Awareness Through Movement® and Functional Integration® personal instruction.
Awareness Through Movement® lessons focus on basic movements performed in daily life, e.g., reaching, sitting, and lying down and on specific parts of the body, e.g. jaws, back, knees, neck, and ankles.
Students are guided through a sequence of gentle, simple movements that provide multiple options for kinesthetic learning. For example, students seated in chairs are asked to see how far they can rotate their necks.
Through a series of guided verbal instructions, they may repeat the movement and connect it to moving their shoulders, ribs and other body parts.
As they bring more parts of themselves into play with each repetition, they notice their necks can rotate a little bit farther and, by the end of the lesson, significantly farther than when they began.
Functional Integration® is an individual approach tailored to the particular needs of the client. The practitioner observes how a client walks, sits, and moves and assesses what the client needs to work on.
Similar to the Awareness Through Movement® lessons, the movements are light and gentle and bring awareness to different parts of the body. The difference is that working one-on-one allows the practitioner to guide the client through light touch rather than verbal directions.
The practitioner can also record strategies learned in a session so the client can practice during the week.