Feldenkrais on his method for children with cerebral palsy - Interview from 1981

In his video you will hear Dr. sc. Moshe Feldenkrais exposing a few decisive criteria charcterizing his successful work with cerebral palsy infants and young children, criteria which in fact are not different from any other kind of functional skill learning:
1. Repetition and invariance,
2. Learning process resulting thrugh the invariant repetitions contrary to any reflex-based therapy,
2. good mood of the both, practitioner and the child, resulting from a good feeling of the both during the sessions,
3. individual approach between the practitioner and the child, an approach which is diametrically opposed to any impersonal, the so called medical approach based only on reflections and unable to initiate any learning processes,
4. personal affection and enthusiasm resulting in spontaneous friendship (the "you and me" concept of Martin Buber).

[@limeykl]

This man was a blessing to the world!

[@BD-gd9fe]

More than de Vinci

[@KenAkiyama]

This video had a profound impact on me when i first saw it, years ago. One seemingly small piece of my puzzle that inspired an epiphany within me and my practice.

[@ImprovingAbility]

I like those old TV interviews, they are so much more pleasurable to watch than the modern loud and hipster style ones

[@renatofdearaujo8997]

oh, that's exactly how i feel about it !!!

[@maryonmaass]

Yes, it's so relaxing...

[@anonymousunremarkable2749]

Alfons, you do excellent, non-hipster, videos as well. Thank you.

[@josecabral7701]

They were more, let's say, Human.

[@alanhall6909]

We used his techniques on my brother to redevelop his brain/body connections during and after a 2 year coma.

[@enikoadam2981]

Thank you very much! I am very much emotionally moved. This is amazing, how much he wants to help others with the knowledge and wisdom, he has. Thank you again!🙏✨

[@JDInsp]

wonderful to listen to Moshe and watch his work again, thank you

[@benp1722]

It's great to hear the man himself analyse his own work in a way that makes it understandable to the viewer. The development of the child Jonathan before the eyes of the viewer was comprehensible and visible. There are many great soundbites in this clip. It would be great if there were a transcript.

[@stevenkarthur7569]

Ben, if you click 'More" under the play window, an option for transcript appears and produces it. It's true on all KZbin videos.

[@BD-gd9fe]

Just watching this heals

[@katrinapatterson5754]

Share this with all parents that you know. A friend of mine in the UK with a young child told me that many of their friends don't like their babies to crawl because they get in the way and they want them to go straight to standing! Babies need to crawl as Dr Feldenkrais emphasises. Too many children are transported for too long in pushchairs.

[@Mahrimae]

Speaking as a person who skipped crawling I have a few learning disabilities in sequencing that I think are related, so yes. Don't skip it for convenience or pride.

[@peggyhakanson3139]

The patterning exercises he demonstrates work not only for Feldenkrais method, but other methods used for persons with brain damage and other disabilities.

[@lilo3154]

Vielen Dank für's hochladen des Videos.Es ist schön M.F .live sehen zu können inkl.der leicht verständlichen Erklärungen seiner Vorgehensweise.

[@MrVincent537]

Die Schüler und Schüler von Schülern von Schülern von Schülern von Schülern von Feldenkrais machen alles kompliziert und auch unverständlich, weil sie ihr eigenes nicht Verstehen der Methode hinter einem Schein von etwas "Hochwissenschaftlich" verstecken wollen, wofür man jahrelang "lernen soll", um 20 Jahre lang durch ein Akkreditierungssystem und sogenannte "Advanced Trainings", die einen noch mehr verwirren und von der wahren Feldenkrais Methode verfremdet, zusätzliches Geld kassiert werden kann. Ohne so eine Verwirrung würde diese Methode nicht so unverschämt teuer verkauft werden können. In der ganzen Welt wird z. B. seit einigen Jahrzehnten (anfangend nach dem Tod von Moshe Feldenkrais) von den neuen Anwender der "Feldenkrais" Methode erzählt, dass einem behinderten Kind genügt es, eine Stunde Feldenkrais pro Woche oder sogar nur zwei bis fünf Tage jeden zweiten Monat, "weil die Wirkung der Methode so stark ist, dass mehr Anwendung nur schädlich sein kann und auch weil die Wirkung von selbst weiter wirkt". Diese Erzählungen sind nur um den Eltern behinderter Kinder leichter zu ermöglichen, die astronomischen Preise (von 150 € bis 500 $ und mehr) für eine halbe Stunde Behandlung bei einem der älteren wie neueren Stars in der Feldenkrais-Szene auszugeben. Welche normalen sterbenden Menschen werden für eine halbe Stunde "Therapie" nach den aus der Feldenkrais Methode umbenannten und "weiterentwickelten" Methoden dieser "Stars" täglich, monatelang wenn auch nicht sogar jahrelang solche Preise zahlen können? Wenn ein Säugling seine Muttersprache nur mit der Häufigkeit hören würde, mit der die Feldenkrais Methode von den heutigen Vertretern dieser Methode empfohlen wird, wie würde dieses Kind seine „Muttersprache“ später sprechen können? Niemand konnte bis heute die von Pawlow erkannten Lerngesetze, die für Feldenkrais als wichtigste Grundlage zu seiner Methode waren, durch Wundertricks überholen oder wiederlegen. In Italien wurde mir im 2002 erzählt, dass die Eltern nicht einmal dürfen, bei der Behandlung ihres Kindes sein. Die Eltern müssen in einem anderen Zimmer abwarten, bis die Behandlung zu Ende geht, „weil diese Methode nicht ohne eine Ausbildung angeschaut werden darf…“ “Feldenkrais trainings do not prepare or teach people in any way to work with children and certainly not Special Needs Children. Feldenkrais Trainings are institutionalized programs that train the students to work with Adults in groups and individually. The trainings are very general and do not teach specifications. If you are interested in understanding development and working with a SNC child a 4 year Feldenkrais training will not prepare you for this in any way. There is no Feldenkrais for Children. If so it is either very superficial or people that had other training (i.e. Pediatric PT or Bobath) try to mix and call it Feldenkrais for children or are child educators." Das ist die Meinung eines Trainers in der Feldenkrais Methode, der seit 25 Jahren in der „Feldenkrais Szene“ als "Trainer"-Star hochgeklettert ist. Der Mann hat auch wohl Recht: Es gibt heutzutage kein Feldenkrais mehr für Kinder. Was heute als Feldenkrais verkauft wird, ist schon sehr lange her kein Feldenkrais mehr. "Wahre Worte sind nicht schön, schöne Worte sind nicht wahr." Lao-Tse

[@MrVincent537]

Approximately between 16:40 and 18:24 Feldenkrais makes at least two claims which I wish to comment in order to make clear, that after Feldenkrais' death his method took not just the path Feldenkrais himself wished that it will happen. 1. Anat Baniel boasts herself about her ABM as follows: “Noting that movement and awareness of self are primary tools for communicating with the brain and bringing about the potential for learning and change, I expanded the application of the same scientific principles of Feldenkrais’ work to include not only body and movement, but also emotional, intellectual, and spiritual development.” This kind of defilement and offence at the address of her teacher needs no comment anymore. 2. In the statute of all the Feldenkrais Guilds in the world since Feldenkrais' death is written black on white that no Feldenkrais practitioners is allowed to make any promises. Why? Because some of his first pupils still assert to have "further developed" what once was Feldenkrais method? 3. Concerning the frequency of the sessions in Functional Integration especially for children like the one in this video the following texts are written by mothers of children with special needs about what they have bin told concerning the frequency of the sessions: a. "I have heard from many parents that a Feldenkrais treatment can temporarily lead to a kind of overstimulation. Parents report that some children become temporarily hyperactive, some even lose their routines as long as the brain processes new information after the treatment. Therefore, many avoid a daily treatment, or if they already have an intensive treatment of several days, then leave the child at least two weeks after the therapy to rest and do nothing with it." b. "From the lecturer, a therapist from Italy, I have understood that the 4-year Feldenkrais training which is being done here, in Europe, is not at all sufficient to work with children. This is why many people make an additional education in America or in Germany, so they can learn about the development of children. But I have heard from you that Moshe Feldenkrais also worked very well with children. Apparently one learns that nowadays no more ..." c. "I know that children are intensively treated by a Feldenkrais therapist (for example, twice a day for five days, or once a day for ten days), and the intensive course is repeated at regular intervals of 2-4 months. What is your opinion about such a treatment scheme?" _________________________________________________ None of those "new concepts" in the application of the Feldenkrais method or it's effect have something in common with functional Integration of the real Feldenkrais method, but rather more with functional desintegration. A real application of the Feldenkrais method to infants creates no "overstimulation", but assist the child to learn and develop his functions "in need" as if the child would develop naturaly, through a learning process similar to that which healthy children experience, i. e. through many, many very small steps of descovering and integrating new functional abilities, exactely in the same way a newborn child learns his mother-tongue, a continous learning process all day long named also as low-tension-learning which Feldenkrais called it also "organic learning".. Here is what Feldenkrais writes on organic learning in his book "The Elusive Obvious": "The nervous system of an embryo, a baby, or a child is wired in, so to speak, through the senses, feelings, and kinaesthetic sensations caused by the spatial, temporal, filial, and social, as well as cultural, environment. But organic, juvenile learning, involving a complex structure and various associated functions and taking several years, cannot be without errors and failures in perfection. Organic learning is individual, and without a teacher who is striving for results within a certain time, it lasts as long as the learner keeps at it.This organic learning is slow and unconcerned with any judgment as to achievement of good or bad results. It has no obvious purpose or goal. It is guided only by the sensation of satisfaction when each attempt feels less awkward as the result of avoiding a former minor error which felt unpleasant or difficult. Pushed by parents or anyone to repeat any initial success, the learner may regress, and further progress can be delayed by days, even weeks, or not occur at all. Development of bodily structures coincides with the learner’s attempt to function in his environment. The baby will only continue rolling from side to side as long as no nervous structures linking the eyes, ears, and neck muscles have matured sufficiently to make other movement possible. [ Feldenkrais, The Elusive Obvious, 30-31] It is worthwhile to accentuate the main thing in this quotation which is since the death of Moshe Feldenkrais just perverted: "Organic learning is individual, and without a teacher who is striving for results within a certain time, it lasts as long as the learner keeps at it." In other words when the learner does not "keep at it" no learning happens.

[@richardk1ify]

Watched and read with interest. Paul, in your opinion, what is an effective frequency of lessons with our local practitioner? Thanks

[@yolandamartinez9765]

That was so amazing!

[@christinavonheidenstam3206]

Amazing mirackle

[@MrVincent537]

I would like very much to know whose are the seven (inbetween ten)thumbs down. Did they came from those who assert that once a week Feldenkrais session is enough in order to take 400 to 800 $ for a half an hour "Feldenkrais" or from those in the Vojta league?

[@jgbdickcleland]

Wonderful video.

[@l.p.4168]

A great Man.

[@l.p.4168]

Amazing

[@salvoscuba]

Grande uomo

[@MrVincent537]

Have some of the Feldenkrais pupils until today helped a child or an infant with cerebral palsy to get completely rid of it's "special needs"? Why such a vital Information as this interview with Feldenkrais was for decades hidden from the big public? The answer is very simple: such information disturbs the business of those claiming today that their version of the Feldenkrais method is the correct one, namely, two or four sesssions in two monthes are enough for a child with special needs to improve his functional abilities.

[@Mahrimae]

the answer lies in the results as can be known by the reputation of the practitioner or simple observation of a child who does or does not improve under the tutelage of an individual practitioner. word of mouth is very important but so is direct experience. anat banyal, whatever I may think of her personally, does seem to get positive results for her clients and her methods are proven... though some seem to apply them better than she does.

[@peggyhakanson3139]

The classes have improved mobility for many of the participants I work with at a nonprofit for persons living with cerebral palsy and other disabilities. It also has helped my colleague... another teacher here who lives with cerebral palsy. Nothing can totally undo what happens with this condition...but it can stave off the use of a walker or wheelchair for much longer than if this method is not used.

[@laurapeppiatt7637]

@@Mahrimae Anat uses Feldenkrais method. She was his student.

[@Mahrimae]

@@laurapeppiatt7637 of course. She's just one example of an individual who created her own method after learning his.

[@AnneCozean1]

6:10 and 13:43