FELDENKRAIS PROFESSIONAL TRAINING PROGRAM®
The Feldenkrais Professional Training Program® is a process teaching the basic techniques and theoretical concepts of the Method.
The course offers the tools needed to understand and practice the Method, transmitting the skills to guide A.T..M.®groups and F.I.®lessons with the public.
Thanks to the personal experience of hundreds of A.T.M.®lessons, students develop their sensitivity, their self-awareness, and their capacity to observe. The ability to use their hands in a way that is both sensitive and technically precise is taught through practice and individual supervision.
The Course lasts four years, forty work days each year (Roma 8calendar), in addition to I.F.®, observations, study groups and supervisions between segments.
The Course follows the international guidelines for Feldenkrais Training Programs and is recognized by the European Feldenkrais Training Accreditation Board as well as by the Associazione Italiana Insegnanti del Metodo Feldenkrais®. As a result, the certificate awarded at the end of the Feldenkrais Training Course is recognized by all Feldenkrais organizations around the world.
In the interest of enriching and stimulating the learning process, we welcome the participation of people over the age of eighteen, of diverse ages, backgrounds, professions and disciplines.
Today, the Feldenkrais Method is known and practiced all over the world, and indeed its fields of application continue to expand.
The Training Course for Teachers is open to all those who:
- Seek to improve their own quality of life
- Seek greater self-awareness for their personal evolution or to deepen or expand the horizons of their practice
- Work in the health sector to enrich their tools for introspection and therapeutic intervention (rehabilitation, speech, and psychomotor therapists, osteopaths, psychologists, doctors, nurses, etc.)
- Seek to improve their own artistic expression and creativity, integrating ideas and execution, sensation and expressive forms (actors, directors, musicians, singers, dancers, choreographers, painters, sculptors, etc.)
- Seek to improve their own performance in sports, increasing their own abilities and/or those of a team (athletes, trainers, experts in sport disciplines, etc.)
- Work in the educational sector to provide an original approach to the understanding of learning processes (teachers, educators, etc.)
The Training Course program is based on didactic materials created and refined by Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais. Throughout the course, students will have a chance to become familiar with and acquire original materials by Dr. Feldenkrais – both writings and videos – which he used in trainings and workshops with the public. Students shall study Dr. Feldenkrais’ books and a variety of materials related to the subjects being studied. In addition to discussing the issues raised in the readings, the training will feature conferences with experts in various fields, who will further expand student’s horizons.
Study plan
The course takes place over four years, forty work days a year, five hours a day (plus FI observations), for a total of more than 800 hours. Each year is divided into four segments. Students’ “Awareness Through Movement” teaching is supervised at the end of the second year, after which they can begin to lead ATM lessons as trainees. Supervisions of “Functional Integration” with the public begin in the third year. At the end of the fourth, a FPTP certificate is awarded, recognized by Feldenkrais organizations around the world.
During the first year of training, students become familiar with the Method’s aspects and guiding principles. .
The experiential work is based on ATMs which serve to develop students’ awareness of themselves and their own movement patterns; they acquire the bases of Functional Integration and attend lessons on the Method’s theoretical aspects. Through these means, their awareness of new ways of thinking, feeling and acting is developed, while through observation of themselves and others, students’ ability to perceive the body’s movements is intensified and their understanding of the learning process deepened.
Functional Integration is taught by means of clear and specific explanations and examples. The demonstrations and teaching of Functional Integration take place in person or through videos, using a human skeleton, studying cases external to the class and working together in pairs or groups.
One of the main areas of study during the second year of the training is the pedagogical aspects of teaching ATMs. The group analyzes the structure of lessons and learns to recognize the functional issues in each and the principles guiding them. Students learn to connect different types of lessons to respond to the needs of different types of clients.
To help learn to teach, students receive constant supervision. At the end of the second year, each student conducts an ATM and receives feedback from the teacher on his or her performance and understanding of the work. Upon completion of the year, students are authorized to teach “Awareness Through Movement”.
Finally, study of Functional Integration continues in greater depth during the second year.
The third year of training is geared to helping students increase their skills related to Functional Integration®. They learn to develop a series of FI lessons based on the principles of the Method and on functional patterns and clearly defined issues demonstrated during the course by the teaching staff. Beginning in this year, students deepen their understanding of the way in which functional ideas can be transferred from the ATMs to Functional Integration.
Over the year, students practice giving FI lessons to people from outside the training course, under the supervision of the teaching staff. Videos of Dr. Feldenkrais giving lessons to both children and adults are shown and discussed. The third-year program also includes more complex ATM lessons and the development of a project of a series of ATMs to teach to the public which, when completed, will be discussed in the course.
The fourth year of the course is designed to deepen the knowledge students have acquired in the previous three years and to study functional patterns and very specific or particularly difficult issues that might be encountered in more advanced Functional Integration® situations. People from outside the course who serve as part of the public are invited to the course so that students can observe members of the teaching staff give FI lessons to people with very specific needs and difficulties, including learning disabilities.
Over the course of the year, students continue to practice giving FI lessons to people outside the training course, under the supervision of the teaching staff.In these periods of supervision, students receive individual feedback regarding their skills, their sensitivity and their observations through a series of discussions that ensures the support necessary for each student to continue to progress still further. At the end of the fourth year, each student who has satisfied the requirements of the program receives a Feldenkrais Method Training Course certificate.
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