Summary
Wendy Murdock hosts fellow Feldenkrais practitioner Catherine Wycoff, a physical therapist from Belgium who discovered the method through equestrian work. Catherine explains the Feldenkrais Method as a learning approach that uses gentle, slow movements with attention and awareness to rewire the brain for better movement patterns. She distinguishes it from therapy, emphasizing it is a method that teaches you how to move better rather than treating symptoms directly. The discussion covers the Weber-Fechner law from physics, which explains why Feldenkrais lessons are done lying on the floor with minimal muscular effort: reducing the baseline tension allows the nervous system to detect increasingly subtle differences in movement. Catherine explains how the method promotes neuroplasticity, creating new brain cells even in older adults. The conversation connects Feldenkrais principles to working with horses, viewing rider and horse as one integrated system. Both practitioners share how the method differs from the medical model by working at the brain level rather than the muscle level, and going as far away from the injury as possible.
Key Points
- The Feldenkrais Method uses gentle, slow movement with directed attention to rewire the brain for better movement patterns
- It is a method, not a therapy: it teaches you how to learn to move better rather than treating specific injuries
- The Weber-Fechner law explains why lessons are done lying down: reducing muscular effort allows the nervous system to detect subtle differences
- Gentle, slow movements promote the creation of new brain cells even in people aged 60-70+
- Unlike the medical model, Feldenkrais works at the brain level rather than the muscle level, often going as far from the injury as possible
- Feldenkrais was a physicist who applied principles of forces and systems engineering to understanding human movement
- The goal is to become a self-directed learner: you learn how to learn, not specific movements to repeat
- The pelvic clock exercise is a practical self-care tool for undoing tension from travel or daily stress
Key Moments
Feldenkrais rewires the brain through gentle movement
Catherine Wycoff explains how the Feldenkrais Method uses gentle, slow movements with attention to rewire the brain, resulting in increased range of motion, improved flexibility, greater body awareness, and even the creation of new brain cells in older adults.
"what Feldenkrais discovered is that those movements are the ones that can rewire your brain so that you get better movement patterns, so that you move more easily with less pain, with more flexibility."
The Weber-Fechner law explains why lessons are done on the floor
Catherine uses the Weber-Fechner law to explain why Feldenkrais lessons are performed lying down. Just as you can feel a book placed on a tray but not on a piano, reducing baseline muscular effort allows detection of increasingly subtle movement differences.
"if you carry something heavy, like a piano, and somebody puts a book on top of the piano, you will not feel the book. But if you carry something a little bit lighter, like a tray, and somebody puts a book on the tray, you will feel the book."
Working at the brain level rather than the muscle level
As a physical therapist turned Feldenkrais practitioner, Catherine contrasts the medical model of treating the site of pain with the Feldenkrais approach of working at the brain level and viewing the body as an interconnected system where changing one part influences everything.
"focus on what's hurting and treat the area that's hurting. You really relearn to become aware of what you're doing so that you can change it. So you work at the brain level, not at the muscle level."
