MOVEMENT, PLAY, DISCOVERY, TRIAL-AND-ERROR, LAUGHTER, NEW THINKING, EXPLORATION, ADAPTATION, CREATIVITY, RESILIENCE
These are things that your brain is hard-wired to do from the moment it starts to function in the womb. They underlie everything that we are, all that we think, all that we are capable of.
Your brain is hardwired to attend to its environment. This process of attention, fueled by information from the senses, allowed us all as embryos to begin to know our world. Getting to know our world allows us to to get around in it, make predictions about it, to grow our knowledge of it, as our brains mature and develop, to grow our own individual and idiosyncratic kind of wisdom. From the very beginning, till the very end, our curious brain, within our moving body, is aware, attentive, inventive and changing, in order to keep us effective in our world.
I believe that we can all do the things we to do in a better, more enjoyable, more satisfying way if we so desire. We have the right to chose the uses to which we put our body and our mind. And we are helped by a brain that is capable of near limitless reorganisation, at any time of our lives. Things which were impossible yesterday, become possible today, easy tomorrow and go on to become part of the elegance that is our daily flow. Our bodythinking abilities help us to find our way from discomfort to comfort and ease – if we are patient and trusting.
As human beings, we are heir to a near limitless range of choices in thought and action – unless, of course, we manage to devise ways to limit ourselves. Our bodies are built, genetically, physically and cognitively, to be unrestricted in the way that we can adapt when we encounter obstacles in our surrounding world.
Obstacles however – physical, mental and psychological – are an unavoidable part of life. And as such, they are not our enemy, if we learn to use them well. They enable us to explore and expand the range of our ability to cope. Obstacles are important for our sense of our self, they allow us to find a deep-seated and satisfying ingenuity.
The only faculty be are born with is curiosity. Operating in every cell of our body, curiosity drives us to find work-arounds in all sort of areas of our lives. Successfully finding our way around an obstacle adds a zing to our sense of our self. The Feldenkrais Method® is a unique and innovative way to help us understand what a successful work-around looks and feels like. At one and the same time, we ‘solve’ the question before us and we are satisfied that we have done it. Our sense of our self changes, grows and develops. No matter how old we are!
Bertolt Brecht, the great post-war German dramatist and poet wrote:
One can, with the last breath of one’s life, change everything!
Using Awareness Through Movement® and Functional Integration®, I have worked with people with disabilities, professional performers, mothers, fathers, elders, children, writers, therapists, teachers, skiers, mountain-climbers, swimmers……
My work focuses on shedding light on processes of change, exploring how we grow to a life-enhancing awareness of ourselves as change-makers in our own world. The goal is our most satisfying life. For me a satisfying life is one that ever-changing, ever-inspiring and marked by the ability to do well enough what needs to be done to make the next step with confidence.
Feldenkrais® is a practical philosophy – a system of thought and action that lives in the collective, everyday and physical world of all of us. As we move, we think, and as a result we learn. As we learn we are satisfied, our curiosity is inspired – and we grow wise.
In the world of right now we are being challenged to navigate the times with serenity and ingenuity. Let the creative, practical and inventive physical world of The Feldenkrais Method® help you to do this!
How my classes work
During a 45-60 minute ATM lesson, guided by my voice, you spend time in a deepening, personal, sensory and observational study of yourself. As the class continues you experience the increasingly pleasing and loud presence of your own curiosity.
This curiosity has been with you since the very beginning, but it gets drowned out by other kinds of voices – necessity, obligation, schedules, the ideas of others and so on. Feldenkrais creates a haven, free from these other kinds of voices, in which you are allowed to make your own discoveries.
The more you experience the unique and highly personal environment that Feldenkrais creates around and within you, the more the voice of your individuality becomes available for you to hear once again. Each class is different, starting with a focus in one area of your body. By the end your whole self is in movement. You begin to describe yourself differently to yourself. By enriching your movement, accompanied by your active observation of yourself during a class, you are enhancing your thinking about how you relate to the world you move around in.
Classes each week will follow the same broad movement theme, set at the beginning of the term. However, the approach differs from group to group as I adapt to each assembly of individuals. This means that if ever you chose to do three classes in a week, you would experience the same material from very different perspectives – further extending the range of your thinking and moving.
Working with Alan over the last few months has been an intriguing and enriching experience. The movements take us into a heightened state of awareness of ourselves and our surroundings which we almost never experience in our chaotic lives . Alan’s dedication and passion for his work enhance the experience.
GC, Bombay
I am a Senior Practitioner of The Feldenkrais Method®, teaching Awareness Through Movement® and Functional Integration® since the turn of the century. I am a member of the UK Feldenkrais Guild.
I completed a full and accredited training under Dr Feldenkrais’s student and biographer, the late Dr Mark Reese. He led an elite team of trainers who each brought a different ‘take’ on The Feldenkrais Method®. During the four years of our training we were fully schooled in the particular and detailed quality of touch, speech and sensitive personal engagement that Dr Feldenkrais established.
I am an award-winning theatre director, actor and an educator in the area of arts education. I specialise in the devising, development and delivery of arts education projects that meld an arts-based creative approach with philosophy of somatic learning. You can read more about me here.
All material contained in this website is © Alan Caig Wilson & The BodyThink Process.
As a member of the Guild I am identified by the post-nominal FG(UK) and as a member I commit to an ongoing programme of personal and professional development.
All UK Feldenkrais Guild members are required to be fully insured as practitioners of The Feldenkrais Method®.
Only accredited members of the Guild can use the Feldenkrais trademark, the post-nominal and advertise their work using the terms Feldenkrais®, The Feldenkrais Method®, Awareness Through Movement® and Functional Integration®.