Movement Lessons to Move Well and Feel Better
Patricia Wahl, GCFP
Who was Moshe Feldenkrais?
Physicist, Engineer, Judo Master and Author
© International Feldenkrais® Federation Archive
Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais, D.Sc. (1904-1984), is the creator of the Feldenkrais Method. He began his career as a physicist and engineer, working closely with Frederic-Joliot Curie, at the Curie Institute in Paris. Feldenkrais was also a Judo master and at one point taught self-defense moves to the Israeli Army. Judo was a passion of his, and he wrote many books on the subject. After a soccer knee injury, he looked for ways to heal himself, so as to avoid surgery which had been recommended to him. His curiosity about human biomechanics, combined with a curiosity of motor-development (his pediatrician wife surely influenced him), and neuroplasticity (the brain's ability to learn new things), sparked his development of the method that bears his name.
​
Dr. Feldenkrais wrote many books, including, Awareness Through Movement,The Potent Self and The Case of Nora. He trained a small group of students before he passed away to carry on his work. Today, there are over 6,000 Feldenkrais Practitioners around the globe. The Feldenkrais Method is movement education and is a part of the field of somatic education. Dr. Feldenkrais was ahead of his time as he did not treat just someone's symptom, his lessons addressed the whole person.
"Make the impossible possible, the possible easy, and the easy elegant." -Moshe Feldenkrais