ROMYNA MENENDEZ..... THE FELDENKRAIS METHOD

My name is Romyna Elena and I come from Italy, I am very excited to be living in Bristol. I was born in Peru, but I grew up in Italy and specifically in Rome. I started working and studying in 2002 at “SAPIENZA” University of Rome, until 2005. I highly appreciated the work of my mentor, as at this time I was introduced to Feldrenkrais method and I began my study and training in this discipline. I studied 4 years with RUTHY ALON, in Florence. I could see the potential that this form of movement based therapy could have for the rehab patients and was excited to learn more about this discipline in order to develop a treatment program, designed to address postural dysfunctions, alleviate chronic neck/back/shoulder/knee issues, and balance re-education. Each patient is given an individualized assessment and is taught how to support their bodies from centre, stabilizing through the myofascial lines of movement. I worked in Italy for the Israelitico Hospital for 7 years and I learned to work with elder people in the geriatrics department. I became a senior therapist in the geriatric medical unit of the “Israelitico Hospital” in 2006, developing a keen interest in working with the elderly. Three years ago I started collaborating with Professor Costanzo Giuseppe at “Sapienza University” in Rome, one of the most foremost renowned doctors in vertebral diseases global scenario. He asked me to work with his patients with vertebral diseases and post-surgery as well. I have moved to Bristol to follow my husband and his career and I have no problem to moving again in order to improve my skills and learn new rehabilitation methods.

                                                                                                              Romyna Elena Menendez

                                                                                                        44, Tudor road BS15 8SF

                                                                                                       Hanham - Parish Bristol.

                                                                                                        07445 5250006

                                                                                                              r_romyna@hotmail.com

 

 

BENEFITS FELDENKRAIS BRISTOL

THE FELDENKRAIS METHOD is an intriguingly gentle, pleasurable learning process that profoundly enhances the functioning of the body/mind. It is beneficial both for people seeking to improve their general well-being and for people with specific conditions.

On the one hand, the Feldenkrais Method
• improves posture, flexibility, coordination
• widens perception and creativity
• enhances personal growth, physical and emotional well-being
• refines performance skills for athletes, actors, dancers, and musicians
• increases your ability to experience or re-discover your capacity for pleasure
• develops greater thinking capabilities

On the other hand, this method

• aids in effortless breathing
• helps you to release emotional blockages
• eliminates pain and movement restrictions
• improves function in individuals with:

• neuro-muscular disorders such as stroke, spinal injury, cerebral palsy • muscular-skeletal problems such as chronic neck- and back pain, sciatica • repetitive strain syndrome • stress related to past or present trauma

MOSHE FELDENKRAIS (1904-1984)

Developed the Feldenkrais Method out of his unique understanding of such diverse fields as physics, neuro-science, the martial arts (he earned a Black Belt in Judo in 1936), learning processes, cybernetics, linguistics and body mechanics. He was an eminent physicist, and a close associate of the Nobel Laureate Frederic Joliot-Curie in Paris before he became one of the world's foremost authorities on sensory-motor functioning.

During World War II, Dr. Feldenkrais suffered crippling knee injuries and was given little chance of ever recovering. He literally taught himself to walk again--without pain--and it was during this process that he developed his unique system of accessing the power of the nervous system to improve human functioning.

Applying his understanding of the role of body movement in the functioning of body and mind, during the last forty years of his life Moshe Feldenkrais taught his method throughout Europe and the United States. He personally trained a small number of practicioners, to continue his work. Today there are nearly 3,000 certified Feldenkrais teachers around the globe.

FELDENKRAIS METHOD Bristol

THE FELDENKRAIS METHOD is a revolutionary neuro-muscular therapy that promotes unprecedented improvements in the efficiency, coordination, and ease of body movement. It is a unique experiential demonstration of how even the subtlest levels of faulty muscular habit can exacerbate or cause a variety of physical complaints, or simply restrict even high levels of performance and well-being. The rapidity of detection and un-learning of faulty, damaging movement patterns, which the technique achieves, is facilitated by its unique and precise mirroring of the organic ways infants learn to move in the first place. Involved is a very subtle, pleasurable, exploratory form of bodily manipulation that hightens communication between brain and muscles. This supplies the brain with the information it needs for creating a wider and more harmonious repertoire of movement possibilities. Along with the alleviation of many symptoms, the recipient commonly experiences euphoric feelings of lightness, ease, and mental clarity.

The Feldenkrais Method includes two ways of working with people:

1. FUNCTIONAL INTEGRATION® (FI) is a one-on-one approach to working with people. The practicioner uses gentle touch in guiding your movements delicately as you lie or sit in comfortable clothing on a low, padded table. With precised handling, the practicioner conveys new or forgotten movement options, new neuro-muscular patterns in the place of often outmoded, faulty habits. The very detection and gentle exploration of minute resistances in movement patterns offer a unique, painless way of guiding you to a liberation from them, thus helping you to discover a broad range of options from which to choose and making space for your innate spontaneity. This process is a thoroughly nourishing and liberating one, melting useless defenses and offering a profound sense of relief and enhanced well-being on the physical, mental, and emotional levels.

2. AWARENESS THROUGH MOVEMENT® (ATM) is based on a sequence of exercises which are verbally directed by the practicioner and explored by the student on one's own. ATM consists of thousands of carefully constructed exercises, creating a setting for the exploration and refinement of specific movements, breaking up old habits, and instilling new or forgotten patterns of thinking, moving and feeling by the student. The discovery of the ways of limiting oneself unconsciously through unchallenged muscular patterns leads not only to a healthier body functioning but, owing to the subtle connections between muscular and mental/emotional patterns, also to a freer, more spontaneous personality.

POSTURE AND FELDENKRAIS METHOD BRISTOL

Muscles are not meant to support weight directly, but to align the skeleton to support the body in gravity and to generate the forces necessary for movement and interaction with the surrounding environment. A good natural balance produces a skeletal alignment (posture) that may seem similar to that prescribed by proper posture as described above, but that is maintained in a very different way. Proper posture is produced by continuous effort, natural balance can be relaxed and effortless.

Three interlocking factors contribute to postural problems -- poor balance, unnecessary effort, and lack of self-awareness. This lack of self-awareness is widespread in contemporary society. Few people are aware of how poor their balance is or how much unnecessary tension they carry. Habitual tensions in the ribcage and neck pull the head and torso forward, worsening balance. Poor balance adds tension, as muscles contract to support off-center weight. Excessive tension serves to reduce awareness, closing the cycle of mutually reinforcing feedback among the three.

The key to improving posture lies not in effortful adherence to an external ideal of proper posture, but in increasing self-awareness, which leads to reduced tension and improved balance. The Feldenkrais Method® of somatic (body) education, developed by Israeli scientist Moshe Feldenkrais, DSc, provides excellent tools with which to accomplish this.

The Feldenkrais Method uses gentle touch, movement, and directed attention to increase self-awareness and help you return to to the easy, fluid movement and balance that are your natural birthright. The Method is taught in two forms. In group Awareness Through Movement® lessons you are verbally guided through gentle movement sequences which help you learn to move easily and efficiently. Individual Functional Integration® lessons add the element of touch as a teaching tool, and are more responsive to your individual situation and limitations.

As you learn to move with greater awareness and fluidity, your body will naturally align and balance itself in gravity. Good posture emerges as a byproduct of fluid aware movement, rather than something to be achieved through effortful striving.