Feldenkrais and Erickson: Some Shared Processes
Milton H. Erickson and Moshe Feldenkrais met only once in the early 1970s when Milton was in his early 70s and Moshe his late 60s. And though the meeting was short and they did not have a chance to collaborate or study together, both men shared several ideas in common.
Observing Children as Models for Learning
Both Erickson and Feldenkrais learned crucial lessons by watching how children move and discover:
Milton H. Erickson closely observed his siblings, especially his baby sister, learning to stand and walk. His observations shaped his own recovery from polio, as he realized that focusing on minute sensations and movements could help him regain mobility.
Moshe Feldenkrais, whose wife was a pediatrician, observed infants in her practice. And Moshe based many of his “Awareness Through Movement” sessions on children’s developmental patterns, recognizing that the nervous system continuously learns from subtle, exploratory movements.
Through these observations, both men concluded that the human brain naturally seeks out better ways to move, adapt, and function—even under challenging circumstances.
Feldenkrais Relearning to Walk After a Knee Injury
Feldenkrais’s belief in the power of developmental emerged from a personal crisis.
In his mid-twenties, he badly injured his knee playing soccer, leaving him incapacitated. For months, he avoided putting weight on his “bad” knee—until the day he slipped and injured his “good” leg. The next day after injuring his "good" knee, he found that his previously injured knee could support him again. He later wrote:
“For fear of ridicule, I spoke to nobody and remained unsure of what had happened. I was convinced there was something mentally wrong with me, as the healing of the knee in hours was unthinkable, and yet the mishap to the good knee had improved the sick one.”
This puzzling experience eventually led him to the work of Russian neurophysiologist Alexander A. Speransky, who demonstrated that the nervous system itself could change independently of the muscles and joints. Feldenkrais integrated this understanding into his method, showing that purposeful action—no matter how small—could spark profound shifts in movement and awareness.
Milton H. Erickson: Polio, Imagination, and the Power of Action
As I mentioned above, Erickson faced a similar challenge after contracting polio at age 17. He was paralyzed and confined to a rocking chair. The prognosis was that he was never going to walk agian. Yet his mind remained active, and he chose to fight despair by experimenting with the faintest muscle twitches:
He would stare at his hand for hours, recalling the feeling of familiar movements, such as gripping a fork or knife, and eventually he produced tiny, uncoordinated movements.
Over time, these movements grew more controlled, and he gradually relearned to stand and walk by repeatedly imagining and attempting each movement.
Erickson went on to become a renowned psychiatrist and the founder of Ericksonian hypnosis, further applying these principles of learning through developmental action, focused attention, and self-directed learning to help clients overcome emotional and physical challenges.
A Shared Understanding: Action Is Key to Change
What fundamentally unites Feldenkrais and Erickson is their belief that purposeful developmental action—guided by heightened awareness—is a major key to altering how we move, feel, and think.
Their respective journeys highlight several overlapping insights:
Movement and Mindset Intersect
Both men used active exploration of movement—real or imagined—to rewire the nervous system, proving that the brain has the capacity to reorganize itself well into adulthood.
Childlike Curiosity Enhances Learning
By studying children and their natural, unselfconscious learning process, they discovered that small movements and playful experimentation can unlock significant change.
Adversity as a Catalyst for Discovery
Each man confronted a debilitating injury that forced him to rethink traditional views of recovery. Instead of giving in to hopelessness, they leveraged experimental action to find new paths toward healing.
Although Milton H. Erickson and Moshe Feldenkrais never formally collaborated, and they each reached insights independently from each other, their methods reveal a shared understanding of the power of action. Long before the advent of neuroscience, the both recognized that the human nervous system is not a fixed mechanism but a dynamic system capable of learning and adaptation. By harnessing imagination, experimentation, and mindful movement, they pioneered innovative ways for people to recover from injuries, overcome limitations, and enhance their capacity for growth at any age.
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