Feldenkrais for PD
 

An interesting article in a journal devoted to this singular body re-education technique. Here's an excerpt of some of the techniques. Full url at bottom.
Jon

<<FOCUSING: Directing attention towards the physical requirements of the action, rather than trying to persuade the body to move. If you get “frozen” focus on: “shifting your weight”, “freeing the opposite foot”, “taking a step.”

GROUNDING: Waking up your feet to get more information about weight bearing, feeling the surface you are standing on, and experiencing the feet and ankles as balance sensors.

BALANCING: Practicing and improving balance in a safe environment, learning how to prevent falls, how to protect yourself and fall more softly if you do fall, and how to get up and down from the ground.

WALKING: Exploring cadence, amplitude, tempo, swing between hips and arms, develop rhythmic structures to carry yourself forward, for example, imagining walking to tango, turning to a waltz, finding a marching beat, strutting, swaggering.

ACTION THINKING: Using vivid visual and physical imagery to cue yourself into initiating and completing a desired movement. Using drama and playfulness to amplify emotions and motivate you to move bigger.

SWALLOWING: Experiencing how the voice box lowers when you yawn, and rises when you swallow; noticing how the tongue anchors deep in your throat, and how it profoundly affects breathing, swallowing, and speaking.

VOCALIZING: Using your voice to create good vibrations to wake up the lips, skull, jaw, face, and self-expression.

INCREASING CORE AWARENESS: Developing strength and flexibility in the core, spine, and legs to support yourself. Learning how your pelvis and hips are the center of support, balance, and power.

During an individual or group Feldenkrais® session, the practitioner will suggest specific actions and movement sequences verbally or through hands-on direction, in sitting, standing, or lying positions, or while doing activities, such as walking. Some of this is to assess your specific needs; some of it will be to explore action patterns that may require a novel, or unusual solution. This “problem solving”, is not necessarily stressful or difficult; it is done to shed light on ways of moving that you may not have considered.

Many people with PD are frustrated with the typical generic prescriptions of “exercise therapy’,’ “fall prevention,” or “gait training,” and want to find additional ways to help themselves. There has been an upwelling of political advocacy and fund raising in the last few years to increase research and awareness of PD by nonprofit organizations, such as the Michael J. Fox Foundation. Complementary medicine and mind-body approaches, such as the Feldenkrais Method, are becoming more widely recognized as significantly beneficial to people with both orthopedic and neurological conditions.>>

http://www.feldenkrais.com/method/ar...and_parkinsons

I love Feldenkreis! The first session I went to consisted of lying down and doing all these very slow and relaxed movements, and by coffee break, I was so hungry I wanted a steak dinner. I have no idea what was happening there!

It teaches you how to move correctly which is a very good thing considering what bad habits we pick up over the years. It's like having your wheels aligned so they don't wear unevenly.

I credit Feldenkreis with teaching me to turn over in bed more easily. If the classes weren't so ridiculously expensive in my area, I'd be a regular.