These are verbally directed movement lessons. Sessions are usually done in a group but the movements are explored individually. These explorations enable individuals to experience the availability of all human movement and functioning. Movement patterns are done in all sorts of positions from sitting, to lying on the back and stomach, in standing, and walking. Many lessons include patterns of neurological functioning and developmental sequences as manifested in babies, infants and children. Others include movements from sports, dance, and the martial arts. But the movement is not an end in itself:

“To come to the point, I was dealing with a process of self-direction and each particular movement was important only inasmuch as it illuminated this process”

– Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais

The central idea is to gain knowledge, discover personal resources and learn how to guide oneself intentionally and according to one’s potential. In order to achieve this the focus of attention should be changed from the movement itself and redirected to the way the movement is carried out. In this setting, the important thing is how we do it and not what we do. The emphasis is in the how. In Awareness through Movement movements are done within the range of comfort, without effort and at the individual’s own pace. Results emerge naturally not as something sought after but as a spontaneous expression of one’s potential.

“The idea is not avoid errors, but rather to use them as alternatives for what you feel is right and their roles may soon be interchanged