Movement Re-education or Somatic Education
Ø The Alexander Technique
Ø The Feldenkrais Method
Ø The Trager Approach
Ø Ortho-Bionomy
The Alexander Technique
As a young Shakespearean actor touring in Australia in the last years of the 19th century, Frederick Matthias Alexander often
became hoarse and sometimes lost his voice on stage. Unable to find successful medical treatment, he began a careful process of
self-observation in an attempt to find a cause of his problem. by watching his movements in mirrors, Alexander discovered that he was
generating his own disability. An unconscious, habitual tendency to move his head backward and down created tension in his neck and throat,
which then affected his voice. Be carefully reversing this movement, he solved his problem and at the same time laid the foundations for
one of the most successful schools of bodywork.
Alexander's central finding was what he called "the primary control," the relationship between head, neck, and spine. That
relationship can be either compressed or free and natural. "In a natural state," he says, "the head balances lightly on top of the spine,
the torso expands, and breathing is easy." By contrast, "bad" posture habits tend to produce a collapsed way of sitting and standing,
shallow and inefficient breathing, and the tight shoulder, back and neck muscles so common today.
One of the unique aspects of the Alexander Technique is that the teacher, who you work with one on one, helps you understand
and become aware of your body, to recognize ingrained habits of posture and movement with the end goal of becoming more comfortable with
activities or importance to you.
A session is typically 45 minutes to an hour, done fully clothed, and takes place partly on a massage table and partly in
activity and movement. Cost run from $45 to $70 per session. Alexander teachers generally recommend a series of 30 to 40 sessions
over three to six months, in order to overcome long-standing habits and truly re-educate the body.
The Feldenkrais Method
Like the Alexander Technique, the Feldenkrais Method is primarily an educational system. According to pioneering health
educator Andrew Weil, M.D., the Feldenkrais Method is based on the promise that we have all forgotten how to move with the natural ease of a
baby. Our bodies have become rigid and set in bad habits or movement, which adversely affect our physical and emotional health.
Through this method, we can unlearn those habits and "rediscover the free, effortless sense of movement we had in the first few years of life,"
says Dr. Weil.
Moshe Feldenkrais, Ph.D., (1904-1984) left home a age 13, earned degrees in mechanical and electrical engineering and a doctorate
in physics, and was one of the first Europeans with a black belt in judo. Like Alexander, Feldenkrais developed his healing system because
of a personal health problem. When doctors told him in 1940 that a knee injury was so severe he would never walk again unless he had
surgery, he set about to prove them wrong. He taught himself to walk (partly by observing young children's natural movements) and soon was
teaching others what he had taught himself.
The Feldenkrais Method has two phases, both designed to eliminate habitual patterns of movement that are limiting, inefficient,
or painful.
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Awareness through movement - consists of classes in which groups of students perform some of the hundreds of simple exercises
developed by Feldenkrais to facilitate natural movement. These slow-moving exercises involve common everyday moves like
bending, turning, and leaning. These movement explorations involve thinking, sensing, moving, and imagining. Instruction
is purely verbal, and there is no massage or physical contact. Lessons last 30 to 60 minutes, at a typical cost of only $6 to
$15 per person.
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Functional Integration - instructor directed offering some gently hand-on guidance in movements tailored to individual needs.
At least 4 session are recommended. A typical session could cost anywhere from $40 to $100, depending on your location and the
experience of the instructor.
All sessions are fully clothed, the student lies on a padded table or sits, stands, or moves, practicing self-observation and
responding to the practitioner's tactile communications.
The Trager Approach
Tragerwork, like both Alexander and Feldenkrais systems, aims at helping you relax and let go of any long-standing energy
blockages and patterns of tension in your posture and movements. But the method developed by Milton Trager, M.D., is quite different.
The main principle of Tragerwork is applied while you lie down, preferably on a massage table. No clothes have to come off, and no
predetermined techniques or massage strokes are used. Rather, the Trager practitioner is taught to intuitively sense tensions in your body
and respond to them. By moving the head, limbs, and trunk in a gentle, almost playful way -- rhythmically shaking, vibrating, rocking,
gently rubbing, even bouncing -- the practitioner frees tight muscles and locked joints and gives your body a taste of what it feels like to be
relaxed and loose.
The other aspect of Tragerwork is know as Mentastics (mental gymnastics). These easy, dance-like exercise movements help
you replicate, through your own movements, the pleasurable feelings the therapist helped you experience on the table and increase your awareness
of light, free, effortless movement.
The experience is pleasurable and though relaxing, is also enlivening. Sessions typically cost $75 to $95.
Ortho-Bionomy
Ortho-Bionomy was developed by Dr. Arthur Lincoln Pauls, a British osteopath, who wanted to find a way to work with the body which
honored the body's inherent wisdom. From his experience as a Judo instructor and through his training as an osteopath, he found ways of
working with the body by exaggerating the body's preferred postures, thereby permitting the body's self-healing process to create greater
balance and alignment. He discovered that by working WITH the body and not against it, the body could find balance on it's own without
having to use force to correct it. Dr Pauls began teaching this work in the US in 1976, and is now teaching Ortho-Bionomy extensively
throughout Europe.
The term "Ortho-Bionomy" comes from "ortho" meaning correct or straight, "bio" meaning life, and "nomy" meaning the laws of or
study of. Dr Pauls defines the term then as "the correct application of the laws of life." He states "[Ortho-Bionomy] is really about
understanding your whole life cycle. Naturally, we focus on the structure because that is the literal skeleton upon which our life is
built. When your structure works right, your circulation works better, you feel better, you think better." (Kain and Berns,
1992)
Ortho-Bionomy is a gentle, non-invasive form of body therapy which is highly effective in working with chronic stress, injuries
and pains or problems associated with postural and structural imbalances. The practitioner uses gentle movements and positions, along with
gently compression of the body to facilitate the change of stress and pain patterns. Thus, stimulating the body's
self-correcting and self-balancing reflexes by way of the proprioceptive reflexes located in our joints and muscles. The
body's inner awareness awakens within the individual a sense of natural balance and well-being, both physically and
emotionally. The inner wisdom of the body is recognized and affirmed. Self healing occurs as the person remembers their
natural ability to move away from pain and toward ease.
A strong focus is placed on the comfort of the individual, no forceful manipulations are used. The practitioner also
suggests home exercises that individuals can do to further facilitate the neuromuscular re-education process begun in the session.
Ortho-Bionomy is very effective in helping alleviate both acute and chronic pain and stress patterns by reducing chronic muscle tension, soothing
the joints, increasing flexibility, improving circulation, and relaxing the entire body.
Be true to yourself. If you're feeling uncomfortable or threatened in any way, you should
leave immediately and look elsewhere. Watch out for any therapies that don't respect your value system or where you feel that
your autonomy isn't respected. Even though you're going to an expert or practitioner for their guidance, you should
always feel safe and that the process involves a free exchange of ideas
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