Practitioner Advanced Training with Jeff Haller & Roger Russell: Feldenkrais & the Brain

Join Jeff Haller and Roger Russell for this very special Advanced Training!

When crafting his remarkable lessons, Moshé Feldenkrais seized upon the realization that our experience of movement is the foundation of our sense of ourselves. His understanding of how our brain coordinates our movement is embedded in every Feldenkrais lesson.

In this Advanced Training, you will increase your understanding of the neurological foundations of the Feldenkrais Method, and learn how Feldenkrais refines the functioning of our nervous system at every level—from the prefrontal cortex to the spinal cord and the muscles—offering a means of learning nimble movement, keen body perception, and refined self-awareness.

Through ATMs, FI practice, and lectures, this workshop will examine four central themes:

• The neurology of awareness: How our intentions, our imagination, our emotions play key roles in effective learning.
• Making and unmaking habits: Habitual ways of acting can be both useful and burdensome. How do our brains re-arrange our habits quickly and efficiently when guided by the process of awareness?
• The motor side of the Weber-Fechner principle: While this principle of sensory physiology is well known, there is another side of the medallion that nails down the argument. Easy movement is the key to refined self-perception. How is this built into how our brains work?
• How attention changes sensory acuity: Attention orchestrates how the brain’s sensory and motor centers are mobilized for fluent action. Feldenkrais teachers recognize that it pays to practice skillful attention. How do the brain’s attention networks help us mobilize an alert, open focus and agile curiosity for easy learning?

Each of these themes is part of an entire Coordination Cascade of neurological processes that unfold in each and every Feldenkrais lesson—it can only get easier for you to teach if you have a basic understanding of how this cascade functions.

Roger Russell had the luck to learn the Feldenkrais Method with Moshé Feldenkrais in San Francisco and Amherst, 1975-1981. He is a physical therapist and movement scientist, and a Feldenkrais Trainer since 1997. He helped lead two Feldenkrais and science symposia for the FEFNA and FGNA: "Movement and the Development of Sense of Self" (Seattle 2004) and "Embodying Neuroscience" (San Mateo 2012). An American, he lives in Heidelberg, Germany, where he is co-director of the Feldenkrais Zentrum Heidelberg. He teaches Trainings and Advanced Trainings in Europe including a series of seminars, "Feldenkrais and the Brain."

Cost: $695 until September 10; $825 after. Includes 10% nonrefundable deposit.

Space is limited! Register quickly to ensure your spot.