Steve read my post on Martin Weiner's death last year and offered to send his thoughts and workshop notes from some experiences he had with Marty.
I quickly agreed and have posted them below. Enjoy.
I recently ran across Ryan's year-old blog post on the suicide of Marty Weiner and thought it was nicely done. I too have been struggling to make sense of his death, and of Jack Hegge’s as well. As did Ryan, I have reached my own conclusions, which have allowed me to not only to have no judgement but rather still treasure the legacy of these two men. Along those lines, I decided to share some information to post online. I hope you find it useful.
When Marty was in Ojai I attended a number of his workshops including an "overnighter". I take sparse notes in the moment, but later type them out in detail using my memory to fill in the picture. Maybe since I type so fast (having been employed in jobs requiring typing many years) my notes can be excruciatingly - or delightfully - thorough, depending on your viewpoint. I would guess there are few in the Feldenkrais community who have been so - probably neurotically obsessed with taking extensive notes (as if that means I really learned the material -- not).
Those workshops with Marty marked a turning point in my Feldenkrais practice, where I began to trust my imagination to guide me. I finally learned to somewhat relax as the client walks in the door, being comfortable “not knowing what to do” as Marty was trying to teach us. The role playing in his workshops was so helpful! But all that an much more is fully described in these notes of mine, of Marty’s workshops.
