Chronic Pain, Medical Imaging, Feldenkrais and New Possibilities

Just last week, I was working with a client who had a serious accident several years ago. He came to my office racked with non-specific and chronic pain. During the session, he quietly observed, “For the first time, in a very long time, I am completely pain free.”  During his rehab, he had received all kinds of opinions about their expectations of his diminished life.  

It was a wondrous moment (though not an isolated incident in my office) to also hear him say, “Maybe I don’t have all the limitations I thought I had. “ 

Before we continue, I invite you to read this paragraph from Todd Hargrove’s book “A Guide to Better Movement.”

“The study of pain has advanced a great deal in the last fifty years, but unfortunately it has been slow to have an impact on the way pain is commonly treated.  Much of what has been learned is surprising and counterintuitive. And it is very consistent with the primary theme of this book—that the source of physical dysfunction is sometimes located more in the nervous system than the body. “

Are you afraid to believe this could be possible? That the pain you experience and your xray/MRI images aren’t necessarily correlated?  Egads. 

And if you choose to explore this idea, are you a little bit nervous that what you’ve been told all these years might not have been the most helpful to you? It can be tough to accept that you may have lost time pursuing a path that wasn’t as effective as you’d hoped.

What if there were a scientifically supported method in which you can empower yourself to take charge of how you live and move in your body?

Good news— there is!  And it’s been around since the 1950s. Only it has a strange name and there aren’t enough professionals who practice it to go around.

It’s The Feldenkrais Method.

Different treatment modalities address a variety of healing needs and all are important. No modality does it all. Either does Feldenkrais.  But what Feldenkrais does, it does spectacularly well. 

The Feldenkrais Method gives you specific practices to create change in the neurological loops that create pain. And when you delve into this type of practice, you will reduce chronic pain and improve many other health challenges – disturbed sleep, chronic anxiety, general mood, breathing difficulties.

Feldenkrais offers the breadth of practice that mentors YOU in creating and sustaining your own change and improvement. 

Will everybody be curious to understand how pain is created in their nervous system—and do something about it? 

I so wish, but no. This kind of exploration and willingness to question the status quo doesn’t speak to everyone. For some people, treatments, injections etc keep them going well enough. This traditional option is sufficient but institutionally does not foster independence and choice—and the freedom, vitality and joy that come from having choice.  

The people who walk through my office door and stay are “The Curious.” They are hungry for new information and yearn to understand their living, moving, changing bodies.  Helping my clients discover their own potency to improve their own lives is very meaningful work. 

Certainly, I’m one person. If one hundred of you called me today, my schedule could not handle it.  I’d love to help everybody, but not everybody is looking for me.  

But maybe you are. 

If any of these describe you and you live in the Central New Jersey area, contact me, hopefully sooner than later.

• If you’ve been told that you’re going to be where you are (and worse) for the rest of your life. 
• If you are open to looking at your experience of pain through a different (scientific) window. 
• If you’ve been told that the changes/pain/limitations you are experiencing are age related and there is nothing you can do.
• If you want to feel hopeful. 

If you are too far away from the Central New Jersey area, please go Feldenkrais.com and do a practitioner search.

Working together, you and I can help you reclaim your life.  Contact me. 

Love, Linda