This particularly subtle and effective
version of the Feldenkrais approach to body-mind learning
has been developed over the course of many years.
Largely thanks to some of my pupils and clients who came
to me with very special needs: for instance. having to cope
with neurological impairment; battling with severe depression
and anxiety; facing up to life-threatening illness etc.
And also thanks to the encouragement gained from learning
that Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais from time to time suggested that
the possible advantages of using a highly supportive medium
should be explored. He envisaged. for instance, working with
somebody floating in highly saline water such as the Dead
Sea.
Having experimented and researched since 1994 (in my private
practice, regular classes and workshops, as well as in seminars
for colleagues), I am now absolutely sure that the medium
of air captured in inflatable balls of varying shapes and
sizes can be used as a viable alternative to strongly saline
water. The Air-Table, for instance, which is easily constructed
from big oval balls held together in a loop, can be used
with extraordinary advantage for both client and practitioner.
This table has proved very useful for
relieving everyday strain and stress; providing insomniacs
with a few hours refreshing sleep; and quite generally "returning people
to themselves", (Several of my clients found the device
so helpful that they now have their own air-divan at home).
Clients with conditions like multiple sclerosis, chronic
fatigue syndrome, cerebral palsy, stroke, and other forms
of brain injury benefit particularly from lying on a gently
yielding surface that supplies their nervous system with
subtle feedback even during the most minimal movements.
'Professional' acknowledgement from one
of my most highly valued colleagues, martial artist and
Feldenkrais Trainer Jeff Haller, came recently after he
had looked at the video DVD documentary "Supported by Air" (See
Resources):
"I wantto tell you I am impressed
and believe you have done original work. Moshe used to
talk about the best medium to give Functional Integration
in would create the feeling of uniform contact and support
for the whole self. You come close to it with the air beds
.....
Advantages of "working with air~ - Minimising effort while maximising awareness
(in both the teacher/practitioner and the "pupil")
- offering a sense of space
- Inviting yielding and letting go
- Increasing clarity and perception
- Enhancing enjoyment
- Allowing the learner to experience Playfulness as a safe
way of testing and expanding the boundaries of her/his present
self - image and repertoire of choices
Feldenkrais on air thus provides new options for teachers/practitioners
interested in broadening their repertoire of professional
strategies and learning-tools:
Creative use of inflated balls triggers,
facilitates, and enhances learning at the interface of
ATM and FI. An ATM becomes a kind of Self-FI with an air
bubble acting as a gentle teacher or "dance"-partner, allowing the
movements to become "rounder", more pleasant, and
fluid.
We usually tell our students that the floor is their best
teacher. When we add a kind of 'assistant-teacher' in the
form of a softly responsive ball, the students will experience
much more quickly what we mean when we talk about effortlessness,
gentleness, ease, playfulness, fluidity, gracefulness, softness,
uniformity, and moving in less mechanical and more organic
ways.
The reason is simple. When a part of the body is supported
by a gently rolling ball its weight is effectively taken
care of. Maybe less obvious but equally important: a mobile
air bubble smoothly carrying an arm or a leg in a chosen
direction seems to have an extraordinary capacity for modelling
the kind of tonus characteristic of a well-organised body
whose parts co-operate in effortless harmony.
Just minimally inflated, a small "Slow Motion Ball" or "Overball" (trade
names used in the UK) can act as a gentle substitute hand,
drawing the pupils' attention to parts of themselves that
have been missing in their kinesthetic self-image and therefore
did not really participate in their movements. Larger balls
with only a minimal amount of air in them can greatly ease
movement for those who may otherwise hardly be able to move
at all.
A FI resembles an A TM with the recipient experiencing more
active participation in the proprioceptive-kinesthetic dialogue
when the practitioner employs one or several air balloons
as learning tool/s, reliable assistants, or additional pair/s
of gently supportive hands.
A small round Overball can be invaluable
as a substitute hand (this time more or less fully inflated),
especially in places where touch might be unacceptable
to a client (for instance in the area of the pubic bone
and between a woman's breasts). Hypersensitive people (such
as women suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome) often
respond much better to the soft contact of a yielding air-bubble
than to a hand. Using this instead of direct physical contact
in such cases can therefore be much more effective since
even the gentlest hand might be experienced as too intrusive,
too demanding. leading to anxious questions such as "What
does she want of me?"
Amazing results can be achieved in the
Artificial Floor Fl if an overball is used as a substitute
for the usual wooden board. Both the lightness and the
way the ball contacts the entire sole of the foot (including
the arch) allow the person's nervous system to receive
the information it is given in a much more open, non-protective
way. When he showed students one of the Raissa videos at
Amherst (June 29,1981) Feldenkrais explained that a polystyrene
board may be preferable to a heavier wooden board because
it allows the practitioner to be more sensitive and more
delicate: "Her brain would
find that she has a hostile floor [when the contact lacks
delicacy] with a body that can't cope with it." An inflated
ball adds another dimension to the experience of the substitute
floor's non-hostility.
Clients who ask to be given "exercises" for
doing at home benefit greatly from using the small round
balls as learning aids - mainly to insure that they do such
exercises slowly and safely. For instance, they might be
asked to pay attention to the way the space between arm and
chest changes while practising gentle side-bending. A ball
rolling up and down along the side of the ribcage and the
inside of the upper arm will ensure that this movement is
done without effort and with enhanced awareness.
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