Functional Integration

Functional Integration is the individual, hands-on lesson in the Feldenkrais Method, a movement-learning approach developed by Moshé Feldenkrais. In a session, you usually lie or sit, fully clothed, on a low padded table while a trained practitioner uses gentle, slow touch and light movement of your limbs, trunk, or head. The aim is to help you notice how you currently move, and to offer your nervous system new options, rather than to correct or manipulate your body.

It is one of two ways of teaching the method. The other, Awareness Through Movement, is a verbally guided lesson usually given to groups, in which you carry out slow, small movements yourself. Functional Integration is tailored to one person, so the practitioner can follow your pattern, your pain, or your particular goal, such as moving with less effort, improving balance, or playing an instrument or sport more comfortably.

Research on the Feldenkrais Method is growing but modest. Reviews report some benefit for balance in older adults and for pain and function in spinal pain, but most trials are small, at high risk of bias, and many test Awareness Through Movement or mix the two, so Functional Integration is rarely tested alone. It is generally low risk and gentle, and it complements, but does not replace, medical assessment.

The Feldenkrais Method was developed by Moshé Feldenkrais (1904-1984), who trained as an engineer and physicist, studied and taught judo, moved to Palestine as a teenager, later studied and worked in Paris, and settled in Israel. Accounts say he developed his approach in the 1940s while working to recover from a serious knee problem, observing how he moved and rebuilding his own movement patterns. From the 1950s he taught in Tel Aviv, and his work became widely known partly through his work with the Israeli prime minister David Ben-Gurion. From the late 1950s he taught in Europe and North America.

Feldenkrais taught his method in two forms. Awareness Through Movement is a verbally guided lesson, usually for groups, while Functional Integration is a hands-on, one-to-one lesson in which the practitioner uses touch and gentle movement to communicate with the student. He gave early teacher training in Tel Aviv from 1969, and the best-known professional trainings took place in San Francisco from 1975 to 1978 and in Amherst, Massachusetts, from 1980 to 1984, certifying several hundred practitioners. Today practitioners complete multi-year, accredited trainings, and professional associations in many countries set standards, but the title is not regulated in most places, so credentials vary. Feldenkrais described his work as education, not therapy.