Hi Hans, great to hear from you, as always. Over the last 4 years I have been doing less online Feldenkrais work and more online psychotherapy work for the same reason – It pays the bills! And I have many more colleagues in the psychotherapy world who have big email list and who have written books and such and they are good resources in promoting events and making them more successful.

Feldenkrais is such a small niche and well, I have offended many of the “big” names with my blog posts and such so there is less opportunity for me. But…Feldenkrais always seems to make a come back in my life.

I am moving more and more to identifying and marketing Feldenkrais principles and not the method itself. I think various types of Feldenkrais-based concepts and ideas can make a big splash. But the Feldenkrais name, at least in the United States carries a bit of baggage.

cheers!

Ryan

Thanks Margit. Your comment really resonated with me as it mirrors something that I have been dealing with for quite some time which is how to think about what I do and how to label it. I am a Feldenkrais practitioner, a coach, a therapist, a marketer? How do I label myself and stay focused?

Getting my work out to people is a bit easier as I can create different websites and projects to reach different groups of people. But pulling it all together for my own self-image can be a bit daunting a times.

Thanks for touching base!

I think one of my long term goals is to integrate, and create more of an understanding of how various methods and approaches are a lot more powerful and potent together, and that we can do a lot more stuff, and better work, if we bring more of SE, TRE, and also social skill and conflict management training, into the Feldenkrais work. And also the other way, there is a huge amount of stuff and benefit anyone involved with SE, TRE and such methods would gain from doing a lot of Feldenkrais work, or a training.

Probably the biggest frustration in this regard is that it is a huge amount of work to write books, articles and so on, as well as the fairly rigid systems that built up around all these methods, with their hierarchies, attitudes and so on. On the positive side, there is already many people out there doing these connections, and many in each community with positive attitudes in each direction.

Another frustration over here in small Norway is of course that both Feldenkrais, SE and TRE is quite unknown, and that since my conflict management work and parenting stuff is doing a lot better, and also is very rewarding in terms of being as meaningful as the other work, that is what I have focused on. So, to survive and thrive, the Feldenkrais work has been on a side track for some time.

Another goal is to use more of the parenting stuff to also promote the Feldenkrais and trauma work more.

As I get deeper into my practices, I have found that they evolve, so one challenge is if to stay with the original frame, or how far to let things unfold, grow, and change (which I could also do from within) — how to navigate following and creating space. Follow interests and also let things deepen.

Another challenge has to do with how much to stay in one field, and how much to integrate, which of course changes based on many other factors, the greatest which is curiosity. This is funny/ironic since of course MF was a syncretic living being, like all of us, so the Method is really a nice big fat node.

Finally related to the above, is how I love to study but am so particular about the environments I would like to study in, the vibe of the spaces and people, so it limits the contexts in which I am willing to engage. I guess this is a good thing, too.

I feel a resonance with your posts and also an allegiance / appreciation for the Guild as an anchor through these processes. In encountering your interpretations about network v. hierarchy, I am excited by the spaciousness in the latter to have both porousness and interrelatedness, and also mini-hierarchies that are possibly at a scope of reason, durability.

Also thinking of Maturana’s reciprocal illumination and epigenetics as two views which work hand in hand

thanks

I have finished my basic training as an ABM practitioner and have just finished the Childrens Mastery program. I have been unfolding slowly in my practice and just about to launch a class with the aim of integrating somatic principles of Feldenkrais, ABM, dance,journal writing ,meditation and visualization. What i want to create is a class that presents material in a clear and simple way where people leave feeling energized and good about themselves…. I will let you know how it goes. I feel the experience will open up other questions and challenges for me and it would be great to have a forum to share ideas and questions, triumphs and difficulties. Thank you again for asking this question.

that would be of great value to the community.

a big market for something like that out there.

i’d consult if you need it.

long tail thinking.

-dwight

dwight

Hey Dwight – Great to see your message. And what, we have stopped throwing rocks at each other??! Haha. Thanks for that detailed feedback and ideas. That really resonates with me and I think it is “do able.” I will have much more to say about it soon. cheers!! Ryan

thank you for your “coming out” about your past anger and hostility. i hear ya. yes, we are all part of the same ecosystem, however zany it may be.

thanks for appreciating the bigger picture.

i think what would be valuable to our community would be a video primer on how to best present the work we do, how to talk about it in a way that people will connect with the passion we all have for the FM and not make their eyes glaze over after the first three minutes…..and then how to build on that initial interest to come to classes or for FI’s.

oh, and a better functioning community with rainbows and unicorns.

rock on.

dwight

So far, the things that have worked has been starting up a weekly ATM class, being part of Vital Human Community Clinic here in Portland, practicing FI with neighbors and friends, and soon I’ll be rolling out a website that includes blogging. I’m a fan of Simon Sinek’s idea that “people don’t but WHAT you do…they buy WHY you do what you do”. In that regard, I’m spending more time getting clear about …”who is my ideal client?”…and “who do I connect with that feels easy and not forced?”

Otherwise, I think that the way I live is ‘modeling’ how the FM is continually shaping changing who I am… And it feels good….like a solid foundation is being built.

Hi Wally, thanks a lot for that feedback. I only recently found out that several of my friends thought, many years ago, that I had joined a cult when I was doing my Feldenkrais training. Wow! And Feldenkrais or no, many people are invested in us staying the same, even if the do not realize it. S,

“…to help people see that real change is possible, and that the FM can be used in a kind way to help that happen.”

That is a wonderful goal. I will keep it in mind.

Can I ask, what has worked for you, so far? Is there something that you have said or done with others that has helped?

Ryan