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The Magazine By, For, and About Feldenkrais® Practitioners and Trainees
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FEELING, Moving, Sensing, Thinking
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Welcome
In Touch
is a monthly e-newsletter about developing one's competence as a Feldenkrais®
teacher. Issues will contain articles about teaching the Feldenkrais Method® of somatic education,
running your own business, and more.
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From the Editors
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|  | | Photo by Chris Lawton on Unsplash | |
How do we as Feldenkrais® practitioners include an awareness of the emotions in our work? Sensing, moving, thinking are all explicitly part of the process of teaching. Feelings are not directly addressed unless a student expresses them. And how do feelings play into our own learning? In the IFF Competency Profile, competency 2.2 - Personal Development (See the Resources in this issue) invites us to explore our own emotional development.
This issue offers some ways Practitioners have woven their own personal development in the evolution of their practice as well as offering food for thought from Feldenkrais' writing. Molly Tipping shares how a client's question caused her to take a deeper look at Moshe's writings--and the world around us--to learn about anger. Meg Rinaldi traces a key aspect of her development as a practitioner---becoming comfortable supporting the emotional experiences of students. And we all probably experienced the lesson called "Equalizing the Nostrils" in our training. You may be inspired to try the lesson again after reading Carol McAmis' explanation of its connection with voice, this "elaborate dance of breath, tone, and feeling".
We hope these articles and resources provide inspiration for your personal and professional development.
--Lavinia, Mary and LeeAnn
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Anger, Aggression, Love, and Learning
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| | Photo by JR Korpa on Unsplash |
By Molly Tipping
A number of years ago a client, Daniel, who I had been seeing for pain and anxiety following a car accident, asked me "What is the Feldenkrais® perspective on anger?"
When we first spoke about anger, my response was general and not altogether different from what I might say on anxiety.
'It is an experience of emotional impotence that affects an individual's posture, muscular patterns, and their ability to achieve what they want. When we understand our patterns and habits and find greater choice in our actions we can have a more mature experience with it.'
But Daniel's question sent me back to Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais' documented legacy to see what he said on the subject and to my delight he did have much to say.
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Molly Tipping is a Feldenkrais Practitioner specializing in anxiety, and emotional potency. Molly also works with tertiary (WAAPA) and professional dancers, singers and actors and has recently been supporting Australia's Olympic skateboarding team for Japan 2021.
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Meeting Emotions with Empathy
By Margaret Rinaldi
Two weeks after my Feldenkrais® training ended in August 2000, I taught my first public class on 9/11/2001. I was in Boulder, Colorado, with twelve earnest, freaked out people on my converted living room floor. I'd called around to cancel the class but people wanted to be there. What I saw immediately is that while I could guide them through a lesson, I could not meet the intensity of their emotional reactions: fear and grief. I was kind, but I was also triggered. It was an extreme situation reminding me that for years as a medical massage therapist this capacity to meet and support the psycho emotional process in people was missing for me as well.
Yet, I wasn't called to become a psychotherapist.
Through the years I'd heard about Hakomi Body Centered work. In 2015 I attended a public Hakomi workshop and was inspired to continue all the way through the Seattle practitioners' training, becoming certified in 2018. Ron Kurtz, the founder of Hakomi, studied with Moshe.
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I am grateful and humbled by a vocational journey that is deeply satisfying and provides endless opportunities for my own growth and healing. You can reach me at: [email protected] My website is: www.bodycenteredinquiry.com
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The Soma Sings!
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| | Photo by Simon Maennling on Unsplash |
By Carol McAmis
How are human beings able to create different sounds so that no two singers or speakers sound alike? How do we learn to coordinate our ear, tongue, jaw, and expressions to accomplish this? Why is the relationship of the tongue, jaw and mouth so special and amazing for human communication? Moshe Feldenkrais knew all about this and more and left us with a gem of a lesson, "Equalizing the Nostrils" (AY #5) that many people learn in training, but few take advantage of unless they work with speakers or singers. This lesson uncovers the intimate relationships of the articulators of the voice and gives us a way to explore through a series of constraints some of the more delicate movements of language articulation that are particularly effective for singers and speakers of all types.
The human voice, in speech and singing, is created through an elaborate dance of breath, tone, and feeling that brings all aspects of our being together in somatic, whole person singing. While we can isolate and focus awareness on specific parts of the vocal instrument, we must always keep in mind that we are speaking of a whole-person experience: body, mind, heart, and soul all coming together to create a captivating array of tone colors in myriads of musical styles and cultural expressions.
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Carol McAmis is a recently retired professor of voice at Ithaca College, Ithaca NY where she served on the faculty for 40 years. While there, she taught one of the first ATM® classes for musicians for 30 years, was a key member of the seminal "Healthy Musicians Workshop" at Ithaca College for sixteen years, and developed her own approach to teaching voice using the Feldenkrais Method® of somatic education, "The MultiDimensional Singer". Carol may be reached at [email protected].
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Call for Submissions
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| | | Photo by Trent Erwin on Unsplash | |
Have you enjoyed the thoughtful articles and insights of your colleagues in this and other In Touch and SenseAbility issues? Do you write a newsletter or blog? Do you have an ATM® lesson, a podcast, or Zoom interview that would be of interest to your colleagues? This is an invitation to share your expertise with your community.
See below for the publication themes for both SenseAbility and In Touch for the remainder of the year. SenseAbility offers articles for the general public which can be shared with your clients and students, plus used for social media and newsletter posts. Each time an article gets shared, your name and professional information goes out to thousands of readers. In Touch offers articles and resources for practitioners
Upcoming Themes
November: Balance and Equilibrium
December: Pre and Post Surgery: Stories and Strategies
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Next Zoom Cafe for Recent Grads and New
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Practitioners
There was a recent orientation Zoom cafe for the graduates of 2019/2020. Participants would like to learn more about competencies, mentoring and other available resources. The next Zoom cafe, Tuesday, October 20, will go deeper, and all are invited to attend. Register by clicking here.
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Resources for Professional and Personal Development
H ow can Feldenkrais® practitioners continue to expand self image and find the resources to support their own professional and personal growth? This month and next we are highlighting the Personal Dimension section of the IFF Competency Profile:
Competency 2.2: Personal Development
MORE RESOURCES
From the authors in this issue:
Recommended resources from "Meeting Emotions with Empathy" in the order mentioned:
Body Centered Psychotherapy/The Hakomi Method: The Integrated Use of Mindfulness, Nonviolence & The Body, (Life Rhythm, Revised Edition 2013)
A General Theory of Love by Thomas Lewis, M.D., Fari Amini, M.D. & Richard Lannon, M.D. (Vintage Books, First Edition January 2001).
The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma. Bessel Van Der Kolk, MD. (Penguin Books, 2014)
Additional resources for "The Soma Sings!": In No Particular Order
Carol McAmis has a self-published practice tool kit for singers that is based on the educational principles of Feldenkrais ATM® lessons:
The Singer's PlayBox(tm).
Anatomy of the Voice: How to Enhance and Project Your Best Voice. Blandine Calais-Germain and François Germain. Healing Arts Press, ©2016. The Singing Athlete: Brain-Based Training for Your Voice. Andrew Byrne. ABStudio, ©2020.
The Ear and the Voice. Alfred A. Tomatis. Scarecrow Press, Inc. ©1987.
When Listening Comes Alive: A Guide to Effective Learning and Communication. Paul Madaule. © Paul Madaule, 1993.
The Performer's Voice: Realizing Your Vocal Potential. Meribeth Bunch Dayme. W.W. Norton & Co., ©2005. Singing with Your Whole Self: The Feldenkrais Method® and Singers. Samuel H. Nelson and Elizabeth Blades-Zeller. Scarecrow Press, Inc. © 2002.
So You Want to Sing With Awareness: A Guide for Performers. A Project of the National Association of Teachers of Singing. Edited by Matthew Hoch. Rowman and Littlefield. © 2020 Referenced in the article: The Flower Essence Repertory: A Comprehensive Guide to the Flower Essences researched by Dr. Edward Bach and by the Flower Essence Society. Patricia Kaminski and Richard Katz, ©1996 The Flower Essence Society
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In Touch Editorial Policy
All articles reflect the individual views of the authors if signed, and the view of the editorial staff, if unsigned. Unless an article explicitly states that it is reporting a Guild policy, it does not reflect any official point of view adopted by the Feldenkrais Guild® of North America.
All Fedenkrais Method® images ©Robert Golden. Used with permission.
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©2020, FGNA. All rights reserved.
The following are service marks or certification marks of the Feldenkrais Guild® of North America: Feldenkrais®, Feldenkrais Method®, Functional Integration®, Awareness Through Movement®, ATM®, FI®, Guild Certified Feldenkrais Teacher®, and Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner(CM).
The following are trademarks, service marks or certification marks of the Feldenkrais Guild® of North America:
L'intégration Fonctionnelle(SM), Prise De Conscience Par Le Mouvement(SM), Friends Of Feldenkrais(SM), Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner(CM), Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement Teacher(CM), Feldenkrais™ and The Feldenkrais Journal™.
Amazon Affiliate Program
The Feldenkrais Guild of North America is an Amazon affiliate. Affiliate links may appear in this email. When you click on the link to purchase a product, FGNA may receive a portion of your transaction.
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