Rachel Hamstra, GCFP

Rachel is an incredible Feldenkrais bodyworker. I’ve personally done sessions with Rachel and found it to be some of the most profound healing my body, posture and joints have ever received. Highly recommended!

I was in a middle of a meditation while on retreat last January when I kept thinking ‘Feldenkrais’ over and over. I’ve had a lot of difficulties in the past with neck and back pain from car accidents. So when I finished my retreat and got back home I knew that I needed to find a Feldenkrais practitioner. I searched on the Eastside where I live and nothing resonated for me so I naturally looked in Seattle. I found Rachel Hamstra’s website, which then led me to M’illumino for three individual sessions. I had heard of Feldenkrais before at my spiritual community but had never experienced it so I had no idea what to expect.
I highly recommend Rachel Hamstra and doing individual sessions with her. Her personality and expertise in the Feldenkrais Method were excellent. With each individual session I had with her I learned something new about my body. I got to practice how to move after each session and continue to practice throughout the week. Rachel offers handy packages where you can save money. The best deal is for six sessions. Her office space is perfect for what she does, and I always felt calm and relaxed after each session was finished. After my second session a friend was waiting for me outside and he exclaimed that I was even walking different and looked like I had so much more energy than just an hour earlier.
I learned how to sit properly in my first session. I exclaimed, how can I be 41 years old and not know how to sit the right way? I learned some tips and tricks to help relax my body, which just helps me in every aspect of life.
I will definitely be back and recommending Rachel Hamstra to all my friends for her excellent Feldenkrais work.

I’ve been working with Rachel for two years. In that time, we’ve retrained my neck and shoulders so that they don’t automatically go into «computer worker hunch» every time I approach a computer. We’ve retrained my legs and feet so I don’t tweak my knee all the time. And we’ve increased my body awareness so not only do I feel more comfortable and at ease, I can flat-​out prevent a lot of the tightness and pain that my old patterns of moving used to create.

My friend gifted me a Feldenkrais session with Rachel. I am a Nia instructor, and I was particularly curious about Feldenkrais because it is one of the 9 movement forms infused into Nia. I figured that through a session I’d get a taste of it and learn something new about the body. Rachel’s session completely exceeded my expectations. I’ve had many forms of body work and I can’t remember a time when I felt such a drastic change in my body so quickly.
She started by asking me about my trouble spots, and we decided to work on the alignment of my legs and feet, particularly while walking. I have piriformis tightness which irritates my sciatic nerve, and the natural turnout of my leg makes this muscle tighter, causing greater sciatic nerve irritation. Rachel first had me walk naturally around the room, and then spent most of the session introducing little movements and adjustments to my body. The movements were very gentle. As she worked, Rachel clearly explained what she was doing and encouraged me to ask any questions I had.
After she finished the adjustments, Rachel had me walk around the room one more time, giving no instruction on «how» I should walk. I sensed more ease and grounding as I walked, and when I looked down at my feet, they were parallel (my feet almost always turn out when I walk). I didn’t feel like I was forcing them in a parallel position at all. In fact, Rachel had me try out my typical walk, and it didn’t feel natural anymore! Without pushing or forcing, Rachel introduce a new movement pattern and more ease into my body. As a final test, I sat on the floor in a straddle (my feet completely flop to the sides whenever I am in this position). I was amazed that my heels now made total contact with the floor and my feet pointed up instead of out. Again, Rachel had me try my typical position with my legs turned out, and my body told me it did not want to do that anymore! I was and am so amazed that after just an hour, movement patterns that I had since I was a kid were altered. It’s been over a week since Rachel’s session, and the new patterns have stayed put. I also feel like I have the tools and awareness now to maintain what I have learned.
If you have any sort of chronic pain or are just looking for more awareness of your body, I strongly recommend paying Rachel a visit. You will not be disappointed.

Deeply intuitive, Rachel spotted that I might benefit from a Feldenkrais lesson while I was teaching her dance class. I work as a dancer professionally, and have for over ten years. During our lesson, Rachel was incredibly generous with the information and treatment she provided. I had no experience with Feldenkrais up to that point, but Rachel’s work has really shifted my paradigm about the healing potential of the method. She seemed to know exactly what my body wanted and needed and, always with the highest standards of bodywork ethics, sought my consent to work together to great physical benefit on my part. I would highly recommend a session with Rachel, both for acute injury or for regular body maintenance.

Rachel’s Feldenkrais practice has changed the way I dance. Chronic back pain has kept me from doing what I love most, but now I have hope! Rachel understands my needs as a dancer, and has helped me be able to move efficiently and pain-​free. In just a few weeks, I went from being unable to tie my shoelaces to getting through an entire dance class without pain. I am experiencing better alignment, energy, range of motion, and moods. The subtle changes have made an enormous impact!

Rachel’s Feldenkrais sessions never cease to amaze me. I walk in with a nondescript pain that appeared out of nowhere and she sits me down, has a little chat with my bones and muscles and then poof! It’s a million times better or even gone all together! And the whole time my brain is like «these little movements couldn’t possibly fix this big horrible pain!» Yeah, well brain, you’re wrong cause you’re not a bone whisperer like Rachel.

Rachel is exceptional. As a massage therapist I’ve received a lot of bodywork, so I do not say this lightly. Her work is subtle (you sometimes barely feel what she’s doing), but it is very effective.
The first time I received a lesson from her we worked on my feet. I walk a lot, and had always suspected that my gait was off kilter somehow because of the odd wear pattern in all my shoes. Over the course of our first lesson Rachel was able to accurately identify the issue and give my body the information it needed to improve my movement patterns. I bought new shoes soon after that because I was so acutely aware of how the old pattern had thrown my body off balance, and haven’t had issues with shoes wearing asymmetrically since. Every lesson I have had with her has yielded high-​quality, lasting results. I feel confident referring my own clients to Rachel because I trust that they will have a similarly wonderful experience.

I had a Feldenkrais lesson from Rachel while she was still in training, but even then, she was professional, pleasant, and effective.
My lesson was for a shoulder that was sore from a couple of years-​old bout of calcific tendonitis that still causes me pain from time to time, and makes the shoulder and surrounding area prone to knots and other distress.
Rachel started by having me walk around to observe the natural movement of my arms, then had me lay on my side, and began working on my healthy shoulder, explaining that the connection between the two sides of the body means that moving the one that is unimpaired makes it easier for the brain to accept the new ways of moving on the other side. Then she moved on to the other side, and finished by having me walk again, and showing me in the mirror the difference in how relaxed and lower the placement of my shoulders were, particularly on the injured side. The difference that was startling, because I wasn’t doing it on purpose, and it was visibly and significantly lower on the injured side.
All her manipulations were extremely gentle, even more gentle than the physical therapy I had originally done at the time of injury. Rather than forcibly moving or massaging, it is more of a guide for how to move, in slow, repetitive motions. It was very relaxing.