The individual lesson

Functional Integration – FI

 

The Feldenkrais method-The individual lesson/treatment

 

By: Rinat Levin – Chervin

 

“You cannot teach anything. What you can do, is help someone discover it for himself” – Galileo Galilei

 

The observed improvements following the individual lesson/treatment are various, physical and mental. They are expressed in a better posture, coordination, orientation, breathing, flexibility, freedom of movement and mood.

 

What is Functional Integration – FI – the individual lesson/treatment?

 

Functional integration is performed through non - verbal communication. Duringa lesson/treatment, the Teacher/instructor physically mobilizes, with his hands, the student’s body. By doing this, he/she causes an increase in the student’s awareness to his body, organs, joints, breathing, ability and ranges of movement.

  

The Teacher brings the student, through his hands, into a condition of learning and understanding. The movements are induced by the Teacher through rotating, pressing and gently flexing various parts of the body. The Teacher guides the student as to how he needs to move and rearrange him self, in order to utilize himself better. The lesson/treatment is performed effortlessly and painlessly. It takes the human being into consideration as a whole system.

 

The Teacher is well trained to listen to the person and respond to his needs, through the touch of his hands, and the sense conveyed by them. The touch is he mediator, and the movement is the information/message. There is a great importance to the quality of movement, and the pace of the manipulation exerted by the Teacher, in each situation, person and problem at hand.

 

A lesson/treatment through functional integration lasts about ¾ of an hour, while considering what needs to be done, and the dosage that this particular student’s neural system can take in.

 

The lesson/treatment is performed on a bed, special table or a chair, and is carried out in various body positions: lying on the back/ side/ stomach, sitting, standing and more. After a thorough screenning of the student, the Teacher begins the lesson. He sets an initial position, which is suitable to that student and his particular disorder.

 

The Teacher begins to mobilize the person in various sequences of movements, in a gradual and continuous manner, in order to improve certain functions of that person: bending forward better, various ways of getting up from a lying down to a sitting position, flexibilizing the back muscles and lengthening the spinal cord, improving the mobility of the hip joints, the knees and the shoulders, flexibilizing the thorax muscles, exercising breathing in different paces according to daily situations, balancing between the flexors and extensors muscles, strengthening the abdomen muscles, developing one’s coordination, and more.

 

Three real life cases    

 

Here are three very interesting people who I taught and work with using Functional Integration. The pace and manner of lesson/treatment were specifically suited to each person and each problem. The results and the learning of each person on his body and mind were unique to that person. The names were altered, and bear no connection with the people appearing in the photographs.

 

 

Dr. Cohen

 

Dr. Cohen, a 55 year old female physician, came after 20 years of suffering from bulimia (an eating disorder characterized by uncontrollable binge eating) and depression.  For the past few years, she is no longer bulimic. She eats normally, thanks to a series of psychological and psychiatric lesson/treatments, and some effective acupuncture lesson/treatments. However, in the past few months she lost 3-4 kilos, and still suffers from restlessness, anxiety, depression, constipation, heartburn and oesophagus pain.  

 

Some of the best doctors have made her undergo various physiological checks of the digestive system, the oesophagus muscle, liver scan, and heart and heart performance under strain checks. All the checks findings were normal. Her voice was husky and strained, her breathing shallow and short. Her way of sitting was bent and tense. In our conversation, she emphasized her achievements in life raised 2 daughters, excelled in her studies and her job, and said that she was very active, diligently exercising every morning on the floor and riding on exercycle.

 

She said she had a strong will to get rid of the problems and pains, and is prepared to do everything to improve her condition. She then turned to me two big, wide open, wishful eyes and asked: “do you think you can help me?” I replied positively, and added that she will need to be attentive to the message transmitted through my hands and to the movements through which I will guide her, and while doing so she will have to notice the changes in them. She nodded and said: “you are giving me a lot of hope and energy”.

 

In the first lessons, her body was very strained and tense. I began the first lesson by laying my hands on that area of her back corresponding to the location of the oesophagus, while she lay on her side. She noted that this area was very sensitive and that this is the area where the acupuncturist always treats with the needles. The muscle tone in that area was tremendous. Her ribs hardly moved and her breathing was barely noticeable. I pressed the vertebrae, contracted and gently pressed the muscles in that area. I moved the shoulder joint, the hip and the ribs in relation to that area. I worked with her on making sounds and moving the jaw and the mouth while exhaling, which she found quite amusing.  

 

When I moved her shoulder joints in circular movements, I found great difficulty in her movement and very limited ranges of movement, and she said:  “I am holding the shoulder so hard, I wish I could let go”. The hip joints movement was stiff. When rolling her pelvis, the body squeaked and bumped. Her neck was strained, and when lifting her head, she did not easily let go of bearing her head’s weight, even when requested to do so.

  

After the lesson, she said she felt calmer and more relaxed, and when standing she felt longer and more stable. I suggested some improvements to her home exercises.

 

When she came to the second lesson, she said she felt much better, almost free of pain, but she was afraid that the pains would return, and had neither the time nor the energy to handle that.

 

During the lesson, she told me she has a friend who tells her: “You never rest. You are always worried, tense and hard as steel. From the sound of your voice, people always think you are sick or have a cold”.

 

At the end of the lesson, while lying on her back, she said she wanted to go to the toilets to evacuate her bowels. She was also a bit flatulent and apologized for it, but I commented that it was a good thing, a wonderful sign that she lets her body be a little more relaxed and free. Indeed, I noticed during the lesson as well, that she lets her muscle tone be a little lower, and the movement of her joints easier.

 

When she sat, she started crying and said:

 

“this is something new and pleasant that I never felt before. I thought that my body is beyond salvage, that there is no hope for me. I treated my body like it was a wreck, a piece of junk, I cannot believe I have reached such state”.

 

When she stood up, she was smiling already. Her feeling was good, again she said she felt longer and more stable, and told me again about her morning exercises. After the fourth lesson she called me excitedly and said: “I had a wonderful week, no pains, no worries, no tension, no anxiety. Even the morphine my doctor husband gave me once, at a time of distress, did not help me as much as your lessons did.

 

Danny

 

Danny, a young man of 26 years, was injured in a car accident. His brain was damaged and he was in a state of coma for about half a year. His condition was considered “vegetative”, and the doctors gave up hope for his return to partial or full functioning. In spite of this, his parents decided to try every possible way to change his state and improve his functioning. His parents transferred him to a private hospital and tried several alternative methods, such as: reflexology, healing and other, but no progress was observed. They came to me following a recommendation made by the hospital where the Feldenkrais method is being practice.             

 

On our first meeting at the hospital, Danny lay in bed with his hands strongly crossed on his chest, his fists closed-tight, all sweaty. His right leg was bent, so that the knee was very close to the stomach, and the angle between the hip and the thigh, very acute. This leg was turned left, on top of the left leg, without any support beneath it, and the pelvis lay stiffly rotated to the left. The hip joint was extremely rigid.

 

His mother told me that he had a severe pressure wound under his right knee, resulting from bending it so strongly, and that a few months ago he was operated to remove the tendon (had a tendonectomy surgery) on one side of the leg. She added that another tendonectomy surgery was being considered, to remove the tendon on the other side. His left leg was laid long on the bed, and his big toe stretched towards the face, while all other toes faced the other way, in one line with the rest of the body (this is the “Babinsky sign” – a sign of an injured lateral corticospinal tract). The vision in his right eye was normal. His left eye would open and move but its vision was impaired.

       

Danny did not talk, just groaned. He sighed faint, meaningless sighs when he felt pain, or when it was hard to breathe. He breathed through a cannula ( a sort of pipe which inserted through an opening at the bottom of the throat) as well as through his mouth and nose. He was not able to eat by himself. His way of sitting in a wheelchair was sloppy, his back bent to the right, and his head falling backwards to the right.    

 

During the lessons, I stimulated Danny’s nervous system as much as possible, in order to arouse new paths for conveyance of impulses and information. I worked on his feet through my hands and an artificial floor.

 

In the beginning, Danny hardly let me touch his feet. He would groan and open his big eyes. With time, step by step with the improvement in the movement of the joints in his toes, ankles, knees and hips, he let me touch his feet. I would ask him to raise and stretch his leg long, and he would do it. I worked with a big rubber ball, on which I leaned his leg, and taught him to voluntarily exert power and let go. He learned to push the ball and cease, upon my request, and learned to place his right leg bent, in a widely spaced angle, without leaning to the left.

 

After several weeks the pressure wound healed. The doctors re-examined Danny and were marveled to find his tremendous progress. They reported an improvement in his responsiveness to stimuli, and recommended not to perform surgery to remove the second tendon.

 

Together with my work on his feet, I worked on his very strained upper body. In the beginning I worked by pressing and contracting towards the center of the body, like his natural posture at present.

 

After his muscle tone was lowered, I was able to move his arms in lengthening motions, and circular motions, moving them right and left, moving along the center of the body towards the face and forehead, move his hands from right to left on his mouth, and even perform some movements independently, by himself.         

 

The nurses told me that when I was not around, Danny exercised alone the movements I do with him during the lesson. I prepared for Danny an audiocassette for practice when I am not around. Along that I  began to work with him on combined movements of legs and arms together.

 

Danny reached a state where, at time of rest, he lay with his arms long and calm, his breathing easier and his thorax more relaxed and free. Following the improvement in his breathing, the doctors recommended to remove the cannula and close the opening at the bottom of his throat.

 

I have been treating Danny for half a year, twice a week, and he began drawing, writing letters and numbers and extending his hand in greeting. His way of sitting in the wheelchair improved, he sits more upright, no longer needs the support previously needed to hold his head from its right side. He controls salivation, his toes are relaxed and the Babinsky sign is barely noticeable.

 

 Chaim

 

Chaim, a 52 year old, senior industrial manager, came to me complaining about lower back pain which also projected pain onto his left leg. He reported difficulty in walking, especially at work when supervising working teams. He was visibly limping, dragging his left leg. When walking, his body leaned to the right.

 

In his walking, I noticed heaviness, “parasitic” movements accompanying his motion, and a lot of fear from falling down or from pain, which kept bothering him.       

 

He even told me that he felt disabled, as if physically handicapped “you may find it amusing, but I am not able to dance at social events” 

 

In our first lesson, I noticed that the movement of his pelvis, to various directions while lying on his side, are tense and not free. His feet and fingers were stiff and almost impossible to move. His movements were very typical to disc herniation.

 

When I moved his shoulders, I found that his upper body was freer, with relatively good mobility from shoulders to ribs. In spite of this, his breathing was very shallow. I revived his breathing by moving the ribs and thorax.

 

After that, I moved on to activating the shoulder and hip joints by slightly pulling and pressing one towards the other and one along with the other, in order to create motion between the vertebrae, and in order to project from these movements and put them later into practice when walking. I moved his shoulders and ribs, then we practiced hip and shoulder movement of opposite sides, while standing and walking. I taught him a few ways of walking, some of which put a grin on his face.

 

When I guided him to a “normal” way of walking, with opposite side arm (shoulder) and leg (pelvis), he faced inconvenience and difficulties, and even stopped breathing. It was a wonderful trial and error test, and when I explained that this is really a regular way of walking, he was surprised and tried to prove himself by repeating the movements again. I requested him to do the clumsiest, least spectacular movement, and avoid trying hard or putting any effort. He was a bit confused and perplexed, then started moving and performed it more efficiently and easily, than before.      

   

In the following lessons, we worked in a kneeling position (the knees lean on the floor, spaced at body width, with stomach leaning on the bed, from waist to head), and lying on the side. Through gentle movements, I illustrated to him alternative possibilities of movements of his back vertebrae, in different situations, using patterns that were habitual and familiar to him, as well as directions that were new to him.

 

One lesson, Chaim told me that his doctors indeed confirmed that he had two adjoining, herniated discs (between the S1-L5 and the L4-L5 vertebras), and that there was pressure exerted on a nerve, thus causing his pains. They recommended him to rest, work fewer hours per day, not exercise, take various pain killing medicines, and stretch. He went on: “I keep coming to you despite doctors instructions. I do not take medicines, and do not stretch. After every lesson, I feel better, and I think this is the right way for me”.

 

After 6 lessons, Chaim’s movement and walking coordination improved. His awareness to the way he moves grew. The limping, fear and pain were gone and he returned to normal functioning at work and in social life.

 

The Feldenkrais method, therefore, deals with internal learning processes, of “know yourself” (words attributed to Socrates). The way of learning is like that of a baby learning to roll or crawl for the first time. The form of learning is that of trial and error. The person learns to move while sensing and thinking, which in turn increase his awareness and his sensitiveness to his breathing, movement and the different relations between the various body systems. The Teacher mobilized the student through gentle, complex movements which are neither mechanic nor aggressive. Functional integration is a task of instant information processing.

 

Sensing and thinking while moving, and activating the nervous system, initiate internal processes, which are expressed in the preservation and useful maintenance of the “correct” habits. Along that the teacher offer new possibilities for changing the “incorrect” habits, and enable the student to notice the differences between them. This way of learning is not the kind of learning based on repetition, or storage of information.

 

The observed outcomes are various and specific to the individual or case at hand: in various cases of back and orthopedic problems, the students report an ample solution. The pain is gone, the flexibility and mobility return to areas of once limited mobility, the breathing improves, the student stands more upright and learns new, possible alternatives for movement, in which he can activate his body in a better, more vital way in his everyday life. Among cerebral palsy (CP) patients and those with neurological problems, there is an observed improvement in the freedom of movement, fewer convulsions, increased control on salivation, urination and movement, and better responsiveness to internal and external stimuli. In mental problems such as anxiety, depression, nervous stomach and general stress, one can observe an increased self-confidence, better mood and self image, and increased mental /emotional stability, along with the improvement in physical posture.       

 

Freedom in movement, and lower muscle tone in previously tense, contracted areas, bring about a sensation of calmness, peace, relief and deeper understanding of the self responsive causes to the problem.   

    

To sum up, the Feldenkrais method is an educational method to improve man’s motor skills, by developing his awareness to his body and the way he moves.

 

The method is essential for those who suffer from orthopedic problems (scoliosis, disc eruption, spondylosis, knee problems, back pains, neck pains, flat feet etc.), neurological illnesses (Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis etc.), brain injuries (due to car accidents, cerebral palsy etc.), mental problems (anxiety, post traumatic syndrome, depression, bulimia, nervous stomach etc.), and other.

 

 

Published in: “Briut al-burya”, an Israeli magazine of alternative medicine.