The Feldenkrais center is a nomadic center active primarily in Athens that organises weekly lessons and workshops at different venues with the aim of disseminating the Feldenkrais method to the general public; a method that focuses on human development through movement.
Group lessons (Awareness through movement), workshops on specific themes (walking, rolling, turning, lower back, neck, shoulders etc.) of the Feldenkrais method as well as one to one lessons (Functional Integration) are taught by Mariela Nestora Certified Feldenkrais practitioner (Greece 1 training with educational director Ruty Bar) and other certified practitioners.
Contact us or join our newsletter for information on weekly lessons, upcoming workshops or to book an appointment for one to one lesson of the Feldenkrais method. Lessons are taught in Greek, English and French.
Group lessons (Awareness through movement), workshops on specific themes (walking, rolling, turning, lower back, neck, shoulders etc.) of the Feldenkrais method as well as one to one lessons (Functional Integration) are taught by Mariela Nestora Certified Feldenkrais practitioner (Greece 1 training with educational director Ruty Bar) and other certified practitioners.
Contact us or join our newsletter for information on weekly lessons, upcoming workshops or to book an appointment for one to one lesson of the Feldenkrais method. Lessons are taught in Greek, English and French.
What is the Feldenkrais Method of Somatic education?
The Feldenkrais Method® of somatic education is a practice, a process and a system for self-improvement. It is a form of somatic education which means it uses movement and real-time awareness of your own body sensations to guide you toward the positive changes you seek.
The Feldenkrais Method® is a form of somatic education that uses gentle movement and directed attention to improve movement and enhance human functioning. This organic approach to learning asks the student to listen to herself - to move within a range of comfort, to move without unnecessary effort. Instead of copying others, the student learns to slow down and listen to herself. In this way, we become aware of what we are doing, rather than what we think we are doing hence we are able to do what we want.
The Feldenkrais Method is based on principles of physics, biomechanics and an empirical understanding of learning and human development. By expanding the self-image through movement sequences, the Method enables you to include more of yourself in your functioning movements. Students become more aware of their habitual neuromuscular patterns and rigidities and expand options for new ways of moving. You experience improvements in balance, breathing, coordination, flexibility, cognition, and outlook. Feldenkrais is beneficial, whether you are seeking pain relief, dealing with conditions of the central nervous system (multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, stroke), or extending your abilities, improving skill and enhancing creativity. Through lessons in this method you can enjoy greater ease of movement, an increased sense of vitality and feelings of peaceful relaxation. After a session you often feel taller and lighter, breathe more freely and find that your discomforts have eased.
Through this Method you can increase your ease and range of motion, improve your flexibility and coordination and rediscover your innate capacity for graceful, efficient movement.
"The aim is a body that is organized to move with minimum effort and maximum efficiency, not through muscular strength, but increased consciousness of how it works." Moshe Feldenkrais
Who can benefit from the Feldenkrais Method?
Anyone—young or old, physically challenged or physically fit—can benefit from the Method. Feldenkrais is beneficial for those experiencing chronic or acute pain of the back, neck, shoulder, hip, legs or knee, as well as for healthy individuals who wish to enhance their self-image. The Method has been very helpful in dealing with central nervous system conditions such as multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, and stroke. Musicians, actors and artists can extend their abilities and enhance creativity. Many seniors enjoy using it to retain or regain their ability to move without strain or discomfort.
Through lessons in this method you can enjoy greater ease of movement, an increased sense of vitality and feelings of peaceful relaxation. After a session you often feel taller and lighter, breathe more freely and find that your discomforts have eased. You experience relaxation and feel more centered and balanced.
Feldenkrais method is taught in two complimentary ways:
Awareness Through Movement® group lessons and Functional Integration® private sessions
Awareness Through Movement® group lessons and Functional Integration® lessons (one-on-one) are slow, gentle explorations of movement that can be done by anyone, at any level and last one hour. In both the group and one to one sessions students improve their awareness and human potential.
Awareness through movement - group lessons
Feldenkrais method group lessons-Awareness Through Movement- are mostly taught on a mat, lying on the floor or sitting. They consist of verbally directed movement sequences and each lesson is usually organized around a particular function.
In Awareness Through Movement lessons, people engage in precisely structured movement explorations that involve thinking, sensing, moving, and imagining. Many are based on developmental movements and ordinary functional activities, others on explorations of joint, muscle, and postural relationships. The lessons consist of comfortable, easy movements that gradually evolve into movements of greater range and complexity. There are hundreds of Awareness Through Movement lessons for all levels of movement ability.
Functional Integration Lessons - one to one
In one to one sessions (Functional Integration) the student is on a special Feldenkrais bed, fully clothed. With gentle touch, the teacher moves the student proposing paths and connections while a dialogue between teacher and student unfolds through movement. Functional Integration is a hands-on form of tactile, kinesthetic communication. The Feldenkrais practitioner communicates to the student how he/she organizes his/her body through gentle touching and movement and how to move in more expanded functional motor patterns. Functional Integration is usually performed with the student lying on a table designed specifically for the work. It can also be done with the student in sitting or standing positions. At times, various props are used in an effort to support the person’s body configuration or to facilitate certain movements.
In Functional Integration, the practitioner/teacher develops a lesson for the student, custom-tailored to the unique configuration of that particular person, at that particular moment. Through rapport and respect for the student’s abilities, qualities and integrity, the practitioner/teacher creates an environment in which the student can learn comfortably.
Functional Integration Lessons offered in Greek, English and French.
Who was Moshe Feldenkrais?
Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais (1904-1984) studied intensively in psychology, neurophysiology and other health-related disciplines to integrate and refine his ideas into the system now known as the Feldenkrais Method.
Moshe Feldenkrais graduated from l’Ecole des Travaux Publiques de Paris in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering and earned his Doctor of Science in Physics from the Sorbonne in Paris- where he assisted Nobel Prize winner Joliot-Curie in early nuclear research. In Paris, M. Feldenkrais met Jigaro Kano, the creator of modern Judo, became one of the first Europeans to earn a Black Belt in Judo and to introduce Judo in the West through his teaching and books on the subject.
After suffering crippling knee injuries, Moshe Feldenkrais used his own body as his laboratory and merged his acquired knowledge with his deep curiosity about biology, perinatal development, cybernetics, linguistics and systems theory. He taught himself to walk again and in the process developed an extraordinary system for accessing the power of the central nervous system to improve human functioning.
"Learning to undo unnecessary habits will have a more lasting effect than trying to correct your posture from outside, using additional muscular effort, such as pushing your shoulders back into a military pose. As soon as you forget to monitor such a movement, it will be dropped. But if you learn to sense your range of comfort, you will find yourself staying within that range more often. " Moshe Feldenkrais
Feldenkrais method is NOT ..
The Feldenkrais Method is not a treatment, adjustment, or exercise program. Instead, it is based on decades of research to give you the means to help yourself.
By expanding the self-image through movement sequences, the Feldenkrias Method enables you to include more of yourself in your movements, becoming more aware of habitual neuromuscular patterns and expanding options for new ways of moving. Unlike yoga, Feldenkrais Method® does not require flexibility, or stretching in fact its innovative movements help yoga students improve in their practice.
The teacher
Mariela Nestora is a Feldenkrais practitioner since 2015, graduated from the four year training program with Ruty Bar (accredited by the EuroTAb & IFF -International Feldenkrais Federation) and founder member of the Feldenkrais Center in Athens Greece.
The Feldenkrais Method® of somatic education is a practice, a process and a system for self-improvement. It is a form of somatic education which means it uses movement and real-time awareness of your own body sensations to guide you toward the positive changes you seek.
The Feldenkrais Method® is a form of somatic education that uses gentle movement and directed attention to improve movement and enhance human functioning. This organic approach to learning asks the student to listen to herself - to move within a range of comfort, to move without unnecessary effort. Instead of copying others, the student learns to slow down and listen to herself. In this way, we become aware of what we are doing, rather than what we think we are doing hence we are able to do what we want.
The Feldenkrais Method is based on principles of physics, biomechanics and an empirical understanding of learning and human development. By expanding the self-image through movement sequences, the Method enables you to include more of yourself in your functioning movements. Students become more aware of their habitual neuromuscular patterns and rigidities and expand options for new ways of moving. You experience improvements in balance, breathing, coordination, flexibility, cognition, and outlook. Feldenkrais is beneficial, whether you are seeking pain relief, dealing with conditions of the central nervous system (multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, stroke), or extending your abilities, improving skill and enhancing creativity. Through lessons in this method you can enjoy greater ease of movement, an increased sense of vitality and feelings of peaceful relaxation. After a session you often feel taller and lighter, breathe more freely and find that your discomforts have eased.
Through this Method you can increase your ease and range of motion, improve your flexibility and coordination and rediscover your innate capacity for graceful, efficient movement.
"The aim is a body that is organized to move with minimum effort and maximum efficiency, not through muscular strength, but increased consciousness of how it works." Moshe Feldenkrais
Who can benefit from the Feldenkrais Method?
Anyone—young or old, physically challenged or physically fit—can benefit from the Method. Feldenkrais is beneficial for those experiencing chronic or acute pain of the back, neck, shoulder, hip, legs or knee, as well as for healthy individuals who wish to enhance their self-image. The Method has been very helpful in dealing with central nervous system conditions such as multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, and stroke. Musicians, actors and artists can extend their abilities and enhance creativity. Many seniors enjoy using it to retain or regain their ability to move without strain or discomfort.
Through lessons in this method you can enjoy greater ease of movement, an increased sense of vitality and feelings of peaceful relaxation. After a session you often feel taller and lighter, breathe more freely and find that your discomforts have eased. You experience relaxation and feel more centered and balanced.
Feldenkrais method is taught in two complimentary ways:
Awareness Through Movement® group lessons and Functional Integration® private sessions
Awareness Through Movement® group lessons and Functional Integration® lessons (one-on-one) are slow, gentle explorations of movement that can be done by anyone, at any level and last one hour. In both the group and one to one sessions students improve their awareness and human potential.
Awareness through movement - group lessons
Feldenkrais method group lessons-Awareness Through Movement- are mostly taught on a mat, lying on the floor or sitting. They consist of verbally directed movement sequences and each lesson is usually organized around a particular function.
In Awareness Through Movement lessons, people engage in precisely structured movement explorations that involve thinking, sensing, moving, and imagining. Many are based on developmental movements and ordinary functional activities, others on explorations of joint, muscle, and postural relationships. The lessons consist of comfortable, easy movements that gradually evolve into movements of greater range and complexity. There are hundreds of Awareness Through Movement lessons for all levels of movement ability.
Functional Integration Lessons - one to one
In one to one sessions (Functional Integration) the student is on a special Feldenkrais bed, fully clothed. With gentle touch, the teacher moves the student proposing paths and connections while a dialogue between teacher and student unfolds through movement. Functional Integration is a hands-on form of tactile, kinesthetic communication. The Feldenkrais practitioner communicates to the student how he/she organizes his/her body through gentle touching and movement and how to move in more expanded functional motor patterns. Functional Integration is usually performed with the student lying on a table designed specifically for the work. It can also be done with the student in sitting or standing positions. At times, various props are used in an effort to support the person’s body configuration or to facilitate certain movements.
In Functional Integration, the practitioner/teacher develops a lesson for the student, custom-tailored to the unique configuration of that particular person, at that particular moment. Through rapport and respect for the student’s abilities, qualities and integrity, the practitioner/teacher creates an environment in which the student can learn comfortably.
Functional Integration Lessons offered in Greek, English and French.
Who was Moshe Feldenkrais?
Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais (1904-1984) studied intensively in psychology, neurophysiology and other health-related disciplines to integrate and refine his ideas into the system now known as the Feldenkrais Method.
Moshe Feldenkrais graduated from l’Ecole des Travaux Publiques de Paris in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering and earned his Doctor of Science in Physics from the Sorbonne in Paris- where he assisted Nobel Prize winner Joliot-Curie in early nuclear research. In Paris, M. Feldenkrais met Jigaro Kano, the creator of modern Judo, became one of the first Europeans to earn a Black Belt in Judo and to introduce Judo in the West through his teaching and books on the subject.
After suffering crippling knee injuries, Moshe Feldenkrais used his own body as his laboratory and merged his acquired knowledge with his deep curiosity about biology, perinatal development, cybernetics, linguistics and systems theory. He taught himself to walk again and in the process developed an extraordinary system for accessing the power of the central nervous system to improve human functioning.
"Learning to undo unnecessary habits will have a more lasting effect than trying to correct your posture from outside, using additional muscular effort, such as pushing your shoulders back into a military pose. As soon as you forget to monitor such a movement, it will be dropped. But if you learn to sense your range of comfort, you will find yourself staying within that range more often. " Moshe Feldenkrais
Feldenkrais method is NOT ..
The Feldenkrais Method is not a treatment, adjustment, or exercise program. Instead, it is based on decades of research to give you the means to help yourself.
By expanding the self-image through movement sequences, the Feldenkrias Method enables you to include more of yourself in your movements, becoming more aware of habitual neuromuscular patterns and expanding options for new ways of moving. Unlike yoga, Feldenkrais Method® does not require flexibility, or stretching in fact its innovative movements help yoga students improve in their practice.
The teacher
Mariela Nestora is a Feldenkrais practitioner since 2015, graduated from the four year training program with Ruty Bar (accredited by the EuroTAb & IFF -International Feldenkrais Federation) and founder member of the Feldenkrais Center in Athens Greece.
