The Blue Studio – Feldenkrais

Feldenkrais is so relaxing and it helps relieve my headaches and back pain. Elaine Dove is a highly skilled Feldenkrais teacher and a wise and gifted healer.

Feldenkrais classes fixed the neck pain I had after years and years of trying everything else. It’s good stuff.
It’s hard to explain what it is though. Basically it’s learning how to move differently and learning how not to hurt yourself when you move. So it’s different than say fitness training or Pilates or physical therapy.
In my case I had horrible neck pain in my 20s because of some injuries I had gotten in dance classes (I thought). I spent about a gazillion dollars on chiropractic and massage and all the usual stuff. Things would get better temporarily and then they would get worse and I’d be back in the same old place again. It was expensive and at some point I had to quit studying dance because everything just hurt too much. Someone then told me about a Feldenkrais class and I was desperate so I went to it.
It turned out that about 95% of my problem was that I had this really tightly wound way of holding my shoulders and neck that I thought was the «right» way to be because I had been taught it so much in dance classes. So what was happening was that the natural curve of my neck was flattened out and it was pulling on my shoulders and messing up my back. The reason chiropractic and other stuff didn’t help was because it was a postural and movement habit that I would go back into every time I stood up and every time I did any kind of movement. I didn’t know any other way to be. I just knew it hurt, a lot.
Anyway, it took a long time because I was so injured to start with, but I was able to learn better movement patterns and my pain went away. I was not only able get back to dance, I was able to do things like learn how to swim and rock climb and other stuff I would have never been able to do if I hadn’t learned how to take care of my body and how to move.
I can really say that in a lot of ways Feldenkrais not only solved my problem but sort of saved my life, because I am nearly 40 and I am still active and trying new things which is super important to my happiness. I know lots of people who got hurt doing a sport or a class and just stopped trying to do anything. Thankfully I found something that would help.

It is very hard to describe Feldenkrais. The Blue Studio website does so better than I could.
Elaine Dove teaches this subtle and wonderful process with patience and presence. If you are in joint or muscle pain, or just want to learn to move more freely, try this method. It was a real revelation for me.