Move and Feel Better | Holistic Pain Relief

Symptoms Question: hip pain at night lying on side

A not uncommon question I hear, what to do about when you have a hip pain at night lying on side? One thing that clients often tell me is that their hips or bony, too wide, or the surface too firm. Another reason given is an injury somewhere in the joint.

Over time, there can be degeneration in the joint, or injury from accidents, but hip pain can also come about through inefficient movement patterns under stress, that strain the hip.

Also, let’s look at what happens when you lie on your side. Read More…

The Key to Changing Habits

Habits are necessary in life, especially in movement, and they come from experience. Things like how you move, your posture, and the way you sit up can be looked at like habits! People often ask why Feldenkrais is so effective at changing habits, and here, I’d like to offer a key.

The key? Making the invisible visible. Read More…

See My Paper on Somatic Practice and Body Memory, in Aging & Mental Health!

I wanted to let you know that my qualitative paper on the PLIE study has recently published in the peer-reviewed journal Aging and Mental Health. This paper contributes to the literature on how implicit memory, which involves body memory, as well as other types of memory that do not involve facts or recalled information, are impacted by mind body therapies like the Feldenkrais Method. As many of you know, I played a key role in developing a somatic and relational group intervention for people with dementia, as part of the PLIE study, run by the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Medicine and the Institute of Aging at the San Francisco Veteran’s Association. Check it out!

Back from Advanced Studies with Somatic Experiencing(R) Touch for Trauma Therapists Trainer Kathy Kain, 9 days this February

Hey Folks, just letting you know that during the month of February, I was away due to spending 9 days total in training – with advanced Somatic Experiencing(R) trainer Kathy Kain, who offers work related to touch for trauma healing and early developmental challenges, as well as an additional day studying with Somatic Experiencing(R) trainer Dave Berger on working with concussions. My schedule was more limited during that time, but please know, these studies were to support you! Also, I am now back.

For those of you curious what this is, these approaches work to support recovery from trauma held in the various body systems Read More…

Feldenkrais and Mind Body Exercise Helps People With Chronic Pain and Dementia to Find Relief

Have you been concentrating and thinking hard about standing up straight, moving the right way, and trying to get out of pain? While thinking so hard can help, it is a lot of work and I’m here to say, let’s relax the mind look for a better way! I often like to say in Feldenkrais change happens by feeling, and sometimes thinking just gets in the way.

That’s one reason that Feldenkrais appears to be so helpful for people with memory loss. Read More…

More Neuroscientists Endorse Feldenkrais – a Long History

Dr Norman Doidge’s recent book The Brain’s Way of Healing, endorsing and describing how Feldenkrais uses neuroplasticity for pain relief, is the latest in a history of neuroplasticity researchers endorsing Feldenkrais. I thought I would share two other pioneers in the field of neuroplasticity who have highly recognized the Feldenkrais Method®… Read More…

New Book with Dr Norman Doidge, Featuring Feldenkrais for Pain Relief!

So you’ve seen some results, but you’re wondering, how exactly does learning to relieve pain really work? Now, if you’re interested to learn more about how Feldenkrais and neuroplasticity, I have a book to recommend!

So come check out a new book by Dr Norman Doidges, MD, neuroplasticity expert and New York Times best-selling author of The Brain that Changes Itself, who has now published The Brain’s Way of Healing: Discoveries and Recoveries from the Frontiers of Neuroplasticity. Read More…

Simple Neck Pain Exercises – the Feldenkrais Way!

I recently wrote about how working with neck pain with by looking at whole body connections, using Feldenkrais, can be used to accelerate your recovery.

Here, I will just offer a few simple exercises to introduce of how you can work with your neck beyond thinking of just your neck to how your neck shoulders back and spine work together. Read More…

Tips for Neck Pain Relief with Feldenkrais(R)

An Alternate Way to Exercise… Make Whole-body Connections

Client who see me often already seen a lot of practitioners for some aching part of their body, like their neck. They might have tried massage, physical therapy or chiropractic, or some other work with the muscles of the neck. Yet when clients get into more severe pain, they find even even the gentlest touch to their neck can easily irritate them, and they want more than temporary relie.

As a Feldenkrais practitioner, I offer a way of working that works to create lasting change. Read More…

The Essence of Neuroplasticity Might Just Be— Finding Pleasure!  

Are you wondering how to have less pain, and does the idea that your brain can change appeal to you? Well, it might be exciting to learn that pleasure and focusing on the good feelings can help you relieve pain. No, I don’t mean positive thinking, per se.

I just heard the renowned neuroscientist Michael Merzenich speak about his new book on pain relief, as it relates to his research in neuroplasticity. Here, I’ll share the basics. Read More…