In IOPS you develop four important pillars of skill:  

Foundational Knowledge: Studying and testing the principles, strategies, and modalities that inform the Feldenkrais Method®.

Self-Organization: Embodying and using the functional principles and processes in your own lived experience. Being a live example for your clients.

Assessment: Determining what your client wants, needs, and can use when you work with them.

Execution: Creating and supporting the context and conditions that help your clients with how they function, move, and act, fulfilling their desired outcomes.

This will be done through a deep investigation over four units. Each unit is supported by its own video recordings and will be covered at length in the online classes as well.  

Unit 1

DISCOVERING PATTERNS
IN FUNCTIONAL INTEGRATION

Movement habits manifest in patterns that are well-rehearsed and deeply grooved. A skillful practitioner helps their client improve how they function. In order to do so, they help their client detect, for themselves, how their habits are initiated and maintained, and provide them with the educational conditions for them to learn how to improve to a higher quality of functioning.

This way of teaching is possible if the practitioner has the sensitivity to detect what their clients actually do, so they can guide their clients' learning. While many practitioners are familiar with patterns of movement (side-bending, twisting, rotation, lengthening), in IOPS you learn how the specific patterns of support from the ground generate these patterns. We will examine the foundational relationship you maintain with the surfaces on which you move, and you will acquire a far more detailed, specific and functionally complete image of how movement patterns are connected to the ground forces that support them.

Unit 2

DISCOVERING THE ROOTS
OF INTERNAL STRENGTH

Clear and specific support from the ground allows you to stand with stability, yet move without hesitation. This standing is foundational to the initiation of all upright movement activities, be they sports, dance, martial arts, or work-related. Our studies will include:

• Developing a clear sense of standing with stability;

• Maximizing the use of your skeleton for support;

• Directing movement from the floor through your limbs;

• Improving the shoulder functions relative to this upright support. 

• Refining the use of the breath as both a measurement and direct component of ground support; 

• Learning how to meet the needs of people who are in high-performance activities.

Unit 3

PERSPECTIVES ON WALKING 

In Amherst, Moshe noted, “In walking we feel the head of the fourth metatarsal.” This comment was a part of a longer talk and no further reference was made to the statement. What does it mean? It is a concept that has significant effects on the functions of walking, and we will work to discover what he meant. 

• What of your foot can be considered structural and what is proprioceptive? 

• How does the fourth metatarsal of the foot become a conscious part of your walking, and what functional changes does that evoke? 

• How are the arches of your feet formed while moving and what is the timing of how they are formed?

• How do you transmit force from the foot through the skeleton in walking? 

• How do you determine how and when to make the transition from one foot to the other? 

• How are the head and torso coordinated with the legs to support elegant, easy walking? 

• What can you do in Functional Integration to further people’s ability to walk with pleasure?

Unit 4

CRAFTING FUNCTIONAL
INTEGRATION LESSONS 

This module puts it all together and looks at the entire process of giving Functional Integration lessons—from the time the client walks into our office to when they walk out.

The primary motive of a Feldenkrais practitioner is to help people become self-reliant in a changing world. We don’t treat conditions or problems. As Moshe said, “lf you continue to treat a problem, then you will have a problem for life.” Students of the Feldenkrais Method learn how to learn, so that they can continue to make the necessary modifications in their own behaviors to fit the ever-changing conditions in which they live. We work with people so they can live in a way that is comfortable and relevant to them.

Continue to read the Prerequisites