FELDENKRAIS^® IN UKIAH

In Awareness Through Movement (ATM) lessons, the FELDENKRAIS teacher verbally guides you through a sequence of movements. Some lessons are done sitting in a chair, while most are done lying and/or sitting on the floor and occasionally in standing. These easy, interesting movements are done gently and slowly with a minimum of effort and a maximum of attention.

You soon discover how you do the movements and notice the quality of changes in your body. You learn to become aware and to abandon habitual patterns that may have been causing stress and pain. Through the subtle ATM lessons you have the opportunity to experience an expanded sense of self and a greater ease of movement.

If you are interested in sponsoring a class in Awareness Through Movement lessons in Inland Mendocino County and have a facility (preferably carpeted) available, contact Karen Poplawski, Feldenkrais Practitioner at 707-462-6570.

Pregnant Pauses is a scientifically proven exercise program developed specifically to change the way women experience pregnancy. Pregnant Pauses alleviates pain and discomfort while increasing energy to ultimately provide an overall healthier pregnancy.

Pregnant Pauses improves your quality of life while helping you adjust to the changes occurring through each stage of your pregnancy. By doing small, gentle movements you will be amazed at how easily you'll be able to do everyday tasks such as rolling over in bed, getting up or down; sleeping, breathing and moving more freely....even learning how to do Kegel exercises in an easier, more efficient way. You will be guided to a new understanding of how your body works and how you can move! This program is easy and available to all women throughout their entire pregnancy.

Pregnant Pauses, developed by Alan Questel, is a direct application of the Feldenkrais Method of Somatic Education. For more information please go to Pregnant Pauses

In a typical Functional Integration (FI) session you lie fully clothed on a low table (similar to a massage table but lower and wider) while the practitioner touches and moves you in gentle, non-invasive ways. The intent of this touch is to explore your neuromuscular organization and to have a tactile, nonverbal conversation with your central nervous system about how you organize yourself for movement.

We often think about our limitations as structural deficiencies--muscles too tight or too weak, nerve damage, joint misalignment, the wear and tear of growing older. Structural deficiencies require mechanical correction, if they can be corrected at all. So we turn to exercise to strenghten "weak" muscles, deep tissue massage to relax "tight" muscles, drugs, forceful manipulations, or even surgery. These are forceful interventions, and we come to think of force as a necessary component of healing and change.

Functional Integration is based on an altogether different perspective-- focusing on behavior and neuromuscular organization rather than structure. Limitations arise from the ways we use ourselves. Functional Integration sessions are a source of new experience-- a change for your nervous system to move beyond the narrow range of patterns to which you habitually confine yourself. This facilitates learning and change.

Karen Poplawski and Peggy Agnew, Feldenkrais Practitioners are available for private sessions. Please contact Karen at 707-462-6570 or Peggy at 707-743-1295 for an appointment.

An ATM class

Click here to see a video Click here to download two to a page flyer.

Karen and Dhruv at the Free Children's Clinic in Oakland

Hi, I'm Karen Poplawski. I graduated from the Berkeley Feldenkrais Practitioner Training in May, 2002 and the Anat Baniel Method for Children Training based on the work of Dr. Feldenkrais in 2003. Since finishing my second year of training I have been offering Awareness Through Movement classes through the City of Ukiah's Community Services Department. I see children and adults for individual Feldenkrais lessons. I have also supervised and donated my time at the Free Children's Clinic in Ukiah, Cotati and Oakland. Although the Feldenkrais Method has been taught in the United States since the late 1970's I only became aware of it after reading a wonderful book called 'Discovering the Body's Wisdom' in 1998. When I read this book my attention was caught by the description of Moshe Feldenkrais and his way of working with movement lessons to improve all aspects of human functioning. I started doing the Awareness Through Movement lessons myself (I did them from audio tape since there were no classes offered in Ukiah at that time) and found myself benefiting tremendously from them. A problem that I was having with pain in my shoulder when reaching for things behind me went away. I started to experience a sense of empowerment and a better understanding of how to move in a way that started to make my life much easier and more pleasureable. I jumped at the opportunity to do a workshop and then signed up for the training and now here I am sharing this wonderful wealth of movement lessons with others. If you have or know anyone who has a child with problems with movement or a neurological disorder such as cerebral palsy, please have them contact me for more information. This method can make a world of difference for a child with difficulty sitting, crawling and/or walking and I would love to be a help in making that difference happen.

Peggy Agnew is a graduate of the Delman/Questel Feldenkrais Pracitioner Training program. She has been teaching Awareness Through Movement through the City of Ukiah since 2001 and at Mendocino Community College since Fall 2007. A Registered Yoga Teacher, she teaches yoga classes as well as private sessions. She offers individual yoga sessions as well as a combination of Yoga and Feldenkrais in addition to the Functional Integration sessions. She is a Certified Bones for Life instructor, a Feldenkrais based method for improving the strength of bones. This system was developed by Ruthie Alon, a long-time student of Moshe Feldenkrais.

So when I took her for an Anat Baniel "lesson", I wasn't sure she'd even let a therapist touch her! And I wasn't sure how the treatment could help. Karen Poplawski was her therapist and I was glad that Karen started the lesson slowly and carefully and casually. Soon my daughter was happily sitting on the treatment table or in Karen's lap, busily playing with toys while Karen did the therapy. The therapy itself seemed very subtle. I almost couldn't tell that Karen was doing anything, but at times I could see that she was touching Jenny's back, or tipping her this way or that slightly. I remember thinking that what Karen was doing was so subtle and comfortable that a child would have no reason to dislike it or "fight" it.

Soon the lesson was over and we headed to a playground for some playtime before the long drive home. This was where I realized something big must have happened in that quiet little lesson. My daughter had always been hesitant and cautious on playground equipment, giving up on things easily, and rather scared of the other kids. But after her lesson, Jenny climbed all over an enormous "play structure" -- she wanted to go everywhere, try everything, go down the slides *without* mom, etc. She decided she was going to climb up the inside of a sort of plastic climbing tunnel and away she went, way up out of my reach, climbing out of the tunnel right into the middle of some noisy big kids who were running around!

It was delightful to see her bold, determined, and enjoying herself like this! (I admit I also thought, "This is gonna take some getting used to!") What the therapy seemed to do for her was help her feel much more sure of herself, much more confident in using her body. Also much more willing to try new things and keep at them til she succeeded.