Awareness Through Movement® Teacher Training, a 2.5-year Course

There is nothing I recommend more highly for people who seek to deepen their awareness and enrich their lives than a Feldenkrais training.

Throughout my life I have sought out different means of self-discovery and the development of awareness, not as a hobby but as my primary focus. As many of you know, I now teach meditation and have had a deep engagement with various branches of this ancient path for decades. I also teach martial arts after a lifetime of serious practice. From meditation and martial arts to academic philosophy and psychology, I have found many great teachers and a lot of wonderful experiences. Out of all of that education there is nothing I recommend more highly for people who seek to deepen their awareness and enrich their lives than a Feldenkrais training program.

The New England Awareness Through Movement Teacher Training, a 2.5-year program that I’m co-directing with two partners, will begin this June. Feldenkrais training programs provide the best opportunity available for deep immersion in Awareness Through Movement. We are holding this training in Brattleboro, Vermont, a great location in which to go deeply into ATM with easy access to the beauty of nature. We will be meeting in multiple segments of varying length (from three to about ten days each) for about ninety days total over a bit more than two years. This is a rare opportunity to become a Feldenkrais teacher or just to immerse yourself in the method for your own growth and benefit.

My partners are Elizabeth Beringer, who is one of the world’s most experienced Feldenkrais Trainers, and Sheri Cohen, a teacher with vast experience in many movement modalities, especially dance, who also brings decades of experience in the Feldenkrais Method. The three of us will be joined by a visiting faculty of great Feldenkrais teachers from around the world.

If you’re interested in this opportunity you can consult the Training’s website for details, and also check out the public pre-training events we’re holding to give people a chance to meet and learn from the co-directors before the training begins.

The start of the training is less than three months away, and we are still dealing with the effects of the pandemic. The first segment will be held online over three days via Zoom, a format that will make it easy for most people to participate. We are hoping to have the first in-person segment in mid August, depending on the pandemic.

Robert Valdez Jr. at the Feldenkrais Awareness Summit

Free Online Event with Robert

Our own Robert Valdez Jr. will be appearing on a panel during the upcoming Feldenkrais Awareness Summit, a free event. Below is a message from Robert about the summit and his panel.

Use this link to sign up for the summit: https://robertvaldez--futurelifenow.thrivecart.com/2021-unlimited-move-better-feel-better/

— Josh

Dear 5 Lines Community,

I’m excited to share that I will be a panelist at this year’s 2021 Move Better, Feel Better: Feldenkrais Awareness Summit. Look for me on Wednesday, May 5th 6pm EDT as part of the Active Lifestyle themed Live Panel Discussion. I’d certainly love to have your support and think you’ll enjoy what we uncover.

Not only that, but I believe that you’d actually find much of the rest of the summit useful too. They’ve pulled together some interesting and profound topics and brought in experts in their field to offer their insights.

The summit runs from May 1st through May 10th so make sure to register today and claim your FREE spot.

The registration for the 2021 Move Better, Feel Better: A Feldenkrais Awareness Summit will open on April 1.

One of the things I’m most excited to be a part of is their opening day. They’re trying something new (and I mean it’s never been done before – by anyone!). On May 1st, there will be a full day of Awareness Through Movement®. A full 24 hours devoted to movement with 22 instructors from around the world, a keynote address, and a question and answer session. If you’ve never experienced the Feldenkrais Method® before, this is a must. If you have and are a fan, then I’m sure you’re getting excited, too. Check out the schedule PDF I've included.

I truly believe you’ll find a lot of value in this event, which is why I’m recommending it. Join us and discover new ways to move better and feel better.

If you have questions about the summit, you can email support@futurelifenow. Otherwise, I plan to see YOU at the summit!


All the best,
Robert

P.S. The above is an affiliate link. While you will attend the summit at no cost, some people may upgrade to have recordings after the summit is over. In that case, I may receive a commission for referring you.

The Story of 5 Lines Fitness

5 Lines Fitness is my answer to the oft-asked question of what kind of exercise people should do.

Feldenkrais people often want to know what kind of exercise they can do that doesn’t go against the basic “principles” of the method (a method of no principles). Repetitive, mechanical movements are often frowned upon by Feldenkrais teachers despite our proclaimed lack of rules and principles. Movements where you isolate muscles (lifting weights, or doing pushups and sit-ups) are by their very nature inefficient from a Feldenkraisian point of view. Even when done “well” performing these movements is still practicing bad habits. Meanwhile, everyone’s favorite exercise, Yoga, pushes the joints to extremes and has other problems. in my opinion lifting weights and yoga are equally antithetical to Feldenkrais.

I don’t think weight lifting or yoga are very healthy, but that doesn’t mean not do to them.

Before all the yoga people and weight lifters abandon this post, please understand that I don’t think that just because something goes against Feldenkraisian thinking means you shouldn’t do it. Most things in the world are not Feldenkrais, but some of them are very worthwhile anyway. What I can’t abide, however, is the idea that the efficiency of a well-performed push-up is like the efficiency Feldenkrais spoke about. It’s just not the same thing. I also can’t abide the idea that yoga and Feldenkrais are in some kind of happy unity. They aren’t. People like yoga and they like how it makes them feel. I think that’s fine and, in fact, 5 Lines Fitness goes against Feldenkraisian thinking in some similar ways (not as much). Having said that, the theory behind yoga (such as it is) is unquestionably antithetical to what we find in Feldenkrais. If you don’t see that, you’re confused.

The theory behind 5 Lines Fitness is also not identical to Feldenkrais. However, as long as we are aware of the distinctions and not just mucking things together, we can still do what we want.

Swimming and Walking are good (except swimming can be pretty hard on the shoulders for a lot of people)

I asked Mark Reese the question about exercise in about 1992, and he suggested walking. I know he also felt that swimming was reasonably good exercise. That’s a pretty limited selection of things. Many Feldenkrais teachers also extoll the virtues of practicing martial arts, and certainly I am one of them. Having said that, training in martial arts is a path for people who don’t mind pain. The movements of Judo, Aikido or Jiu Jitsu are fantastically efficient, functional and good for you - that is, if you’re used to them. If you’re not accustomed to doing those movements, adapting yourself to them can be extremely difficult and even damaging. Additionally, the reality of training in martial arts is that health and well-being are not the primary focus, except in a self-preservation kind of way, and the culture of the martial arts school is often imbued with a pretty typical no-pain-no-gain attitude that can really counteract the health benefits of the efficient movements.

Tai Chi is great! But… is it exercise?

I grew up doing martial arts, and for a period of years in my teens and twenties I dedicated my life to martial arts training - literally several hours a day under a traditional master. (The picture at the top of this post is me in 2019 - I’m the one with the long hair helping that nice man sense the contact his back is about to make with the floor). If you are burning with a passion to practice martial arts, then I’m completely in support of you. You’ll discover how your injuries and pains teach you a lot, but if you are just looking for good exercise and don’t want to get injured or punched in the face, then the martial arts dojo is maybe not the place for you.

Dance can be good, but… it often requires difficult movements and postures that can lead to injury and bad habits.

So, what do we do?

In about 1998 I started teaching an early morning class at my Aikido dojo (I was then chief instructor at a dojo in Northampton, Massachusetts) that was entirely devoted to just the traditional Aikido warmups in combination with some Feldenkraisian principles, like staying in the easy range of motion and breaking difficult movements down into simpler pieces. I used to call the class Stoutness Exercises, because that’s what Winnie-the-Pooh called it when he got up in the morning and touched his toes ten times and did some deep knee bends. Over the years I’ve developed and refined a routine, and a way of doing my stoutness exercises that leaves me invigorated.

It’s all stolen… well, the foundation of it was all stolen from martial arts and other things. I think I’ve added something of my own by now.

Of course I’ve stolen a lot of what I do in 5 Lines Fitness (including the name) from Feldenkrais as well as from my Aikido master and from several other sources. I didn’t invent any of it myself to begin with. However, over the years I’ve added things and made discoveries that I think make 5 Lines Fitness quite unique. We use martial movement as well as primitive and even animalistic movement to access a very powerful self-use. We use the imagination to discover movements and attitudes that life in modern society doesn’t generally evoke in us. We practice a combined inner and outer focus that students often find helps them to bring the ease of ATM into their daily activities, and we roll around on the floor a lot.

Almost anyone can do 5 Lines Fitness. For people who are injured, debilitated or just want to go very gently we have developed the Neuro-Regulate class. This class slowly and gently introduces many of the movements we do in the other classes. For those who want to do something a bit more vigorous, the Intro Fitness class is perfect. You’ll leave it feeling invigorated and refreshed. When you’re ready for the next step, you can join the regular Fitness class where we do a lot of the basic things you learned in Intro, but where we are always doing new things and exploring new ideas in functional movement. Also, we go faster and work a bit harder.

Nothing can replace doing ATM

Exercise is exercise. It’s not Feldenkrais. We aren’t trying to combine Feldenkrais with exercise to make something we think is “better than Feldenkrais.” What we are doing is using some wisdom from the Feldenkrais Method to make exercising better than it would be without it. In 5 Lines Fitness, we break all the Feldenkrais “rules.” We stretch. We make effort. We demonstrate the way to do a thing, rather than having you discover it on your own. It’s just not Feldenkrais at all, and it isn’t trying to be, but it’s a good way to exercise for people who want to do something vigorous and healthy that isn’t in opposition to what they do with Feldenkrais, and it owes a lot to the Feldenkrais Method… and martial arts… and yoga… and some other things I won’t tell you. ; )

Joshua Wolk

“The work I've done with Josh has made my body feel ten years younger.”
– Tom Cocotos, Visual Artist

Education:
J.D. from Boston University, B.A. in Political Science from Amherst College

Movement Background:

6th degree black belt in Aikido, ordained instructor of ancient Japanese shinto exercise and meditation form

Founder:

5 Lines Fitness

Certification:

Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner (CM)
Feldenkrais Guild of North America, 1994

About:

Josh became interested in Feldenkrais after realizing that his sessions in the Method were vastly improving his Aikido practice. After years of striving to embody a culturally foreign way of moving in a traditional Japanese apprenticeship, Josh was amazed when Feldenkrais helped him discover that his most deeply embedded movement habits could be changed. It was then that he began a decades-long study of neuroplasticity and its transformative potential. Josh's capacity to effect so much change in people rests on his study, practical applications, and deep understanding of bio-mechanics. Through confident yet gentle touch, he communicates with a nervous system in a way that inspires that nervous system to reorganize for the better.

Motivation:

Josh says, “The Feldenkrais Method has taught me how to make my most difficult struggles into my most powerful assets. I wouldn't be capable of helping others if I didn't know what it was to struggle with pain, habit, and the seemingly impossible task of changing our most deeply rooted tendencies.”

Stephanie Winters

The impact of decades of international touring as a professional cellist led Stephanie to take action to become trained in techniques that transformed her fitness and wellbeing. Three years ‘in the trenches’ as a personal trainer, group fitness instructor, and Feldenkrais® Practioner at a large community center in Manhattan convinced her of the value of these disciplines as well as the need for approaching movement in a more organic way. She holds nine certifications in fitness and health and has been practicing 5 Lines Fitness since 2017. 

Stephanie is a Guild® Certified Feldenkrais® Practitioner. She is a member of Feldenkrais® Guild of North America (FGNA) and Feldenkrais® Guild of Sweden (SFAF).