What is Feldenkrais?
Who was Moshe Feldenkrais?
Moshe Feldenkrais (1904-1989), was a distinguished scientist and engineer, whose career included work at the Curie Institute in Paris in the 1930's. He was a respected Judo instructor, and a founder of the Ju Jitsu Club in Paris.
He was the originator of the Feldenkrais Method®. He suffered crippling knee injuries. Despite being given little hope of ever walking normally, Feldenkrais refused surgery and instead applied his extensive knowledge of anatomy, physiology, psychology and engineering, as well as his mastery of martial arts, to healing his own knee.
Moshe used his own body as a way to explore how he could combine his acquired knowledge with a deep curiosity about how humans work. He taught himself to walk again and in the process developed an extraordinary system for accessing the power of the central nervous system. He recognised the vital importance of working with the whole body and indeed the whole self to improve human functioning and achieve lasting, radical change.