In these lessons, which focus on creating easier use of your arms, shoulders, hands and neck, you are guided through a series of very specific, slow and unfamiliar movements. The lessons, most of which we do in lying, help you uncover habit patterns which cause limitation and strain, and your nervous system learns instead new possibilities of moving. The outcome is that long-held patterns of muscular tension dissolve, giving you more options for how to move (and think) with more ease. Then, in your everyday activities, in sporting, working and creative life, there is greater ease and poise, improved posture, more pleasure in moving, better balance and less effort.

As human beings we live only a very small percentage of our potential. Through our upbringing and social conditioning we sacrifice much of our spontaneity and authentic passion. In other words, we try to become what we are not. Because these limitations and inhibitions are mirrored into the body with a corresponding restriction in the vocabulary of movement and expression, the journey towards full potential and maturity can be cultivated through the medium of movement.

Awareness through movement is a mindfulness-in-movement tool that improves the way you function. The tools of movement and awareness are combined and, over time, yield these fruits:

• Improved posture, flexibility and co-ordination
• Increased functioning affected by injury
• Enjoyment of a well-functioning body into older age
• Enhanced self-awareness and well being
• Improved ease in creative/sporting/musical performance
• Reduced stress and prevent overuse & injury

People say:

"My experience (of the workshops) was always a pleasurable one; each session was a special time reserved for me and how I manage my body... The act of focusing on the minutiae of the body and the less-is-more approach to movement, I found cleansing because it was so contrary to the way I normally use my body in my professional work."

- Julian Raphael, Wellington Community Choir director

"After doing Rachel's classes in workshops, I notice the difference not only in my body but in my whole sense of wellbeing. My body feels taller, broader, and more balanced and I feel more naturalness and ease. If I’m driving my hands rest lightly on the steering wheel of the car. I feel a:: if I have been meditating for an hour and my body/mind is much more present

- Sally Latham, Wellington counsellor and psychotherapist

"After many years practicing Feldenkrais, I still find that I have new insights at every workshop... Sensations and memories of sessions often come unbidden in everyday life, usually to remind me that an easier more relaxed way will get a movement or task accomplished without the need to stretch, strain or overwork muscle groups."

- D. Y., Victoria University administrator