a FELDENKRAIS AUSTRALIA Journal of the Australian Feldenkrais Guild Inc. December 2016 NNEEUURROOPPLLAASSTTIICCIITTYY:: SSUUSSAANN HHIILLLLIIEERR FFRRAANNKK WWIILLDDMMAANN FRASSEETTHH DDEELLLLIINNGGEERR ZZOORRAANN KKOOVVIICCHH a EDITORIAL ABOUT By Ralph A Hadden FELDENKRAIS AUSTRALIA It’s been a year of And the general public is interested so I’m hoping that Feldenkrais Australia is the journal of the major changes for me, the information in this issue will enable Feldenkrais Australian Feldenkrais Guild, Inc and is intended mostly positive but still practitioners to respond articulately to enquiries about for Feldenkrais Method® practitioners and trainee rather demanding. I neuroplasticity from their clients. practitioners. Content is copyright © 2016 by started the year living in the leafy Melbourne suburb AFG Inc. The Feldenkrais Australia journal is mostly What I’m reading: The Handbook: Surviving and of Blackburn, comfortable in a roomy house with made available to members via the internet, with Living with Climate Change by Jane Rawson and James a pleasant garden. And now I find myself happily some members receiving a hard copy, at their Whitmore (Transit Lounge 2015). The authors say let’s living in a small apartment right in the middle of request. The journal appears approximately twice do all we can to support environmental sustainability Melbourne CBD. I’m sure my Feldenkrais learning a year (though only once this year). but we must also accept that climate change is going greatly contributed to my ability to flow with all the to happen, to a greater or lesser degree. So it would Next issue is planned for May-June 2017; deadline changes. I’ve christened my new space by purchasing be wise to prepare for the calamities that are likely to for material is 31st March. a standing desk and this journal has been composed occur in the coming years. Scary reading. with me standing (and sitting, it adjusts to different The theme for the next issue is Sexuality. levels) at this desk. It has made deskwork much more And for light entertainment, the latest in the Rivers of Contributions are invited, on this or any other topic. sustainable. London series by Ben Aaronovitch, The Hanging Tree Please address all correspondence to the editor, (Audible 2016). I’ve read all the books in this diverting The theme for this issue is Neuroplasticity. The term Ralph A Hadden: series as audio books, read delightfully by Kobna is almost overused now but it is an important area of Email: [email protected] Holdbrook-Smith. emerging scientific research that does a great job in Mail: Feldenkrais Australia, AFG explaining what our work does at a neurological level. 205/296 Flinders Street Melbourne VIC 3000 Cover: Found on the website of PD Resources: THE EDITOR https://pdresources.wordpress.com/2015/10/02/change-is-a- Ralph Hadden (Sydney 1990, Assistant Trainer 2012) practises in Melbourne. choice-nurturing-neuroplasticity-in-your-life/ a CONTENTS GOINGS ON TRAININGS ALL ABOUT ARMS 01 SEAUS 1 36 THE ART OF FUNCTIONAL SEAUS 2 37 INTEGRATION® (WA) 01 PERTH 3 37 THE ART OF FUNCTIONAL NEW ZEALAND 5 37 INTEGRATION® (NSW) 02 A UNIFYING FIELD 02 PAST ISSUES 38 DISCOVERING PATTERNS IN NEXT ISSUE 39 FUNCTIONAL INTEGRATION® 02 AFG INC ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING? 02 ADS 40 TRILOGY 1 02 FEATURES : NEUROPLASTICITY NEUROPLASTICITY AND THE ADVERTISING RATES FELDENKRAIS METHOD 03 AFG MEMBER NON-MEMBER YOUR BRAIN ON FELDENKRAIS 06 Full page: $150 $250 THE DANCER WITHIN 15 Half page: $80 $150 AWARENESS THROUGH Quarter page: $60 $75 MOVEMENT, SELF-DIRECTED Business card size: $30 $60 LEARNING, ATTENTION, AND NEUROPLASTICITY 24 Appearance of an advertisement in this journal is not an endorsement by AFG Inc. of the advertiser or NEUROPLASTIC (?) ATMs and FIs 33 their products/services. a GOINGS ON ALL ABOUT ARMS THE ART OF FUNCTIONAL 2017 INTEGRATION®: Public workshop presented by USA trainer, Arlyn CONSTRUCTING AN Zones (Amherst 1983): Re-organize the way you IMAGE OF ACTION use your arms and hands to reach for, lift up, hold on, push away, let go… The use of the arms is Advanced Training with Arlyn Zones (Amherst 1983, both simple and complex. The simplicity comes trainer 1994), for practitioners. Arlyn will take some from clarifying the connection of the arms to a of the ideas found in Awareness Through Movement® spine and ribs which are mobile, supportive and lessons and apply them to the work in Functional adaptable. The complexity comes from the need to Integration®. Participants will be given a few ATM integrate the clear use of the fingers and wrists into lessons to study prior to the workshop to help the action of the arms. In this one day workshop, move easily into the various strategies utilized in we will explore, improve and clarify these many FI. Sponsored by the AFG (WA Div) Inc. interesting interconnections. This workshop comes in the middle of a Perth 3 training segment. When: Saturday, Sunday 22, 23 January, 10am-5pm Practitioners who attend the training for a week will Where: Royal Park Hall, 180 Charles Street be able to attend the public workshop for $100. West Perth WA When: Sunday 15 January, 10.30am-4.30pm Cost: AFG member $380, non-member $560 Where: Mount Hawthorn Main Hall, 197 Contact: Shelley Kiiveri 0402 957 350 Scarborough Beach Road, Mount Hawthorn, WA [email protected] Cost: $190, early bird by 30 December $150 Contact: Sara Elderfield 0415 363 313, [email protected] 11 FFeellddeennkkrraaiiss AAuussttrraalliiaa JJoouurrnnaall DDeecceemmbbeerr 22001166 a GOINGS ON 2017 THE ART OF FUNCTIONAL A UNIFYING FIELD AFG INC ANNUAL INTEGRATION®: GENERAL MEETING Public workshop presented by Anastasi Siotas (Sydney CONSTRUCTING AN 1997), organized by AFG(Vic) Inc. Looking at the Details to be announced IMAGE OF ACTION body as a tensegrity structure where only tension When: Saturday 25 February and compression exist in the system, where there Advanced Training with Arlyn Zones (Amherst 1983, are no shears, bending movements or levers, just Where: Fullarton Park Community Centre, 411 trainer 1994), for practitioners. Arlyn will take some simple tension and compression, in a self-organising, Fullarton Road, Fullerton, SA of the ideas found in Awareness Through Movement® hierarchical, load distributing and low energy lessons and apply them to the work in Functional consuming structure. Integration®. Participants will be given a few ATM lessons to study prior to the workshop to help When: Saturday 11 February, 10am-5pm TRILOGY 1 move easily into the various strategies utilized in Where: Abbotsford Convent, 1 St Heliers St, FI. Sponsored by the AFG (NSW Div) Inc. Advanced Training with Larry Goldfarb (Amherst 1983. Abbotsford, VIC When: Friday, Saturday, Sunday 27-29 January, When: 25-29 June Cost: $150, early bird $120 before 7 January 10am-5pm Where: Auckland NZ Contact: Naomi Richards, [email protected] Where: Mindful Action Studio, Suite 8, level 2, Contact: Bev Barclay, [email protected] 345 Pacific Highway, North Sydney NSW DISCOVERING PATTERNS IN Cost: AFG member $540 (early bird $480 by 28 December), non-member $700 FUNCTIONAL INTEGRATION® Contact: Maxine Bachmayer 0417 215 661, Advanced Training with Jeff Haller (Amherst 1983). [email protected] When: 12-14 February Where: Auckland NZ Cost: NZ$325 Contact: Bev Barclay, [email protected] Feldenkrais Australia Journal December 2016 2 a FEATURE : NEUROPLASTICITY NEUROPLASTICITY AND THE FELDENKRAIS Wrestling with the METHOD fiendishly difficult DA By Susan Hillier PhD cryptic crossword last week (The Age, Sydney Susan is a Feldenkrais practitioner (Melbourne 1991), Morning Herald 8 December) I was delighted to crack Trainer (2013), physiotherapist and Associate Professor one clue. 3 Down: It helps you rethink audit of recent in Neuroscience and Rehabilitation at University bank fiddle – it’s typical. The answer was, I’m sure you of South Australia in Adelaide. She presented a all got it (ha, ha!): NEUROPLASTICITY. (Don’t worry, workshop for AFG(Vic) Inc in November last year, you have to be a cryptic crossword fanatic to figure Neuroplasticity, the Brain & Feldenkrais. This article that out, and even if you are it’s rather difficult.) draws on her workshop presentation. That it should be a crossword answer is an indication The term ‘neuroplasticity,’ or neural plasticity, has of how “neuroplasticity” has entered popular culture, become ubiquitous in the media recently. Fortunately popularised particularly by Norman Doidge in his for our species it is (and always has been) ubiquitous in books and media appearances. But we Feldenkrais our nervous system. practitioners feel that we have been “doing” At the most basic level, the term alludes to the neuroplasticity forever, it’s just now that neuroscience brain’s capacity to change – plastic means change or is providing an explanation for what is happening in adaptation in this context. Most biological tissue is our work. Perhaps it’s now an over-used buzzword in plastic - changeable - in response to use (or disuse), up pop psychology and business management courses, to a point. Why the term has captured the imagination but we have clients coming to us through its popularity. of the public is that there was a widely held belief that So I am hoping that the articles below will help us give our nervous system (brain and spinal cord in particular) an intelligent and constructive response to enquiries was fixed, unchangeable and finite in structure and from our clients. RAH. 33 FFeellddeennkkrraaiiss AAuussttrraalliiaa JJoouurrnnaall DDeecceemmbbeerr 22001166 a NEUROPLASTICITY AND THE FELDENKRAIS METHOD By Susan Hillier PhD therefore in function. This was in keeping with old What neuroplasticity offers us are some clues about the experience to believe the behavioural… personal theories of brain organisation (such as hierarchical physiological (i.e. cellular) changes that underpin these experience is not convincing enough. and reflex models) which led to narratives of hard- human behaviours – learning, memory and adaptation So what does this mean for us as Feldenkrais wired, reflex modulation, ‘inexorable development and and the relationship to task and environment. practitioners? It means we can talk somewhat sensibly decline’ models – somewhat suggestive of the fixed, Somehow we need to understand the cellular about the experience that we offer on the table or hard wiring of the electrical system of a house. These the floor and its likely impact at a cellular or nervous reflex models were never satisfactory for the human system level. If that helps convince people, that is condition as they could not explain our capacity marvelous. for learning, for invention, for adaptation at will. Nor could they explain our feed-forward/feedback, Can we use it to market ourselves? Well up to interdependent relationship to the environment and the a point. People are now ringing me asking if I activities that we engage in. “do neuroplasticity therapy”. This is a nonsense interpretation of the term, but some practitioners of other modalities are promulgating this. My flip (but unspoken) response is “Yes… and so does my piano teacher”. It is what the brain does. Full stop. It changes. Whether we do anything or not. In fact if we do nothing, the brain changes and not for the better necessarily. There are basic principles of neural firing at a synaptic level that supposedly underpin memory and forgetting, learning and un-learning. The strength of connections (communications) between neurons in a simplistic way matches the strength of the thought, or act or Susan Hillier’s Neuroplasticity workshop at Balwyn Community Centre for AFG (Vic). November 2015 percept or emotion. If we practice those connections, Feldenkrais Australia Journal December 2016 4 a NEUROPLASTICITY AND THE FELDENKRAIS METHOD By Susan Hillier PhD the thought or act or percept or emotion gets more neuroimaging but it is still pretty inexact. Why do As Feldenkrais practitioners, you should now be predictable (habitual); if we don’t practice, then the we believe CT Scans more than we believe our own seeing the genius of Moshe, as ATM and FI have these thought or act or percept or emotion is less likely to be experience (that is a question for another day). principles as a basis. We are interested in repeated repeated, or is lost. And the thought or act or percept explorations of moving and sensing, in relation to Anyway, what we currently understand that seems to or emotion can be maladaptive. Neuroplastic change meaningful functions, where we attend and engage, promote neuroplastic change is based on a few key is not especially related to ‘good’ or ‘bad’. It is simply where we use experience and novelty in equal principles. And note a lot of this comes from animal change, based on what is practised. Neuroplasticity measure. We explore change by becoming aware of models so is simplistic. is quite ecumenical in that sense. If you practice the the process of change and the need or potential for piano only using two fingers, that is what you get good Firstly, things like repetition and intensity matters – that change. Beautiful stuff. at. If you practice feeling pain, likely you will get really is to say how many times or how much we practise, A lot more could be said about long term potentiation good at feeling pain. If you practise attending to your and that the practise needs to be challenging. Nerves or depression, synaptic hypereffectiveness or foot, you will get really good at noticing your foot. And that fire together, wire together. Secondly, specificity supersensitivity, cortical and functional reorganisation, because we have rivalry for brain activity as a feature seems to matter – what you train is what you gain. connectomics* or the role of the support cells in their of the neuroplastic suite, you will probably get good Two fingered piano practice doesn’t improve your care of the neurons during processes of change. But I at attending to your foot at the expense of attending to five fingered skills. Thirdly salience also seems to am not convinced it is germane to our work. Our work something else. matter – if what you practice has meaning to you, this is experiential and our role is to inspire our clients in seems to improve the chances of change. This links If we are going to use these understandings, we their capacity to change, using their experience as their to motivation and engagement as well as intention need to look to the literature to understand what evidence and their guide. Norman Doidge is a terrific and attention. Finally, age matters – there is no doubt underpins neuroplastic change in a way that serves us “inspirer” – we have to translate his text into individual that younger brains are more plastic. However this is well as humans. We are still not good at ‘measuring’ empowerment. Otherwise this area will become offset by experience, where older brains have learnt neuroplasticity. We are still stuck in the research rut dogged by passive techniques and medications and how to change. This is supported by the evolving that we can really only infer learning (change) has widgets that only serve to lose the pivotal element of understanding of cognitive reserve, meaning that it happened based on the observation or measurement self-efficacy that underpins positive brain changes. matters if you have trained your brain to be a good that behaviour has changed. We can try to link learner in your more formative years. Onward and upward, with our faith in our human that to changes on neurophysiological measures or potential strengthened! Like our synapses. 5 Feldenkrais Australia Journal December 2016 a NEUROPLASTICITY AND THE FELDENKRAIS METHOD By Susan Hillier PhD YOUR BRAIN ON FELDENKRAIS Further reading – some of the above comes Principles of Neuroplasticity, Learning, from sources such as the following article: and the Feldenkrais Method Principles of Experience-Dependent Neural By Wildman GCFT, PhD Plasticity: Implications for Rehabilitation After Brain Damage. Jeffrey A. Kleim and Theresa A. “The delay between thought Frank Wildman (San Francisco Jones. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing 1977), American practitioner and trainer, is well known and action provides the basis for Research, February 2008, Vol. 51, S225-S239. to Australian feldies for introducing the Feldenkrais awareness.” doi:10.1044/1092-4388(2008/018) Method® to Australia, from 1979 onwards, and Moshe Feldenkrais *Connectomics is the production and study directing the first few training programs offered in of connectomes: comprehensive maps of Australia. Based in Berkeley, California, he has taught “If you leap too quickly, you can’t connections within an organism’s nervous in and directed many training programs and advanced system, typically its brain or eye. (Wikipedia).  trainings all around the world. Frank has written books look before you leap.” and produced numerous CD and DVD programs. Norman Doidge, MD He offers here some thoughts on neuroplasticity for Feldenkrais practitioners. This is the first in a planned Many people think movement sciences began with series of articles by Frank on neuroplasticity. RAH. physical therapy or athletic training, but actually it Frank’s website: http://feldenkraisinstitute.org was entirely developed in the field of psychology with an understanding that you don’t just move better and Neuroplasticity has been the big hot topic in new you don’t just overcome trauma or pain, you have to learning theories and movement sciences, seeming learn how to move better and learn your way out of to hold out the promise of great specificity and pain. (When I first taught the Feldenkrais Method in understanding of how people could move more easily, Australia, there were no physical therapists or sports learn faster, or simply feel better. Psychologists and people who were interested, so I taught a 2 year movement scientists became interested in applying program to psychologists and counselors at Sydney principles of neuroplasticity to their work with patients. University.) Feldenkrais Australia Journal December 2016 6 a YOUR BRAIN ON FELDENKRAIS By Frank Wildman As a Feldenkrais practitioner and trainer, I also felt (There are no surgical procedures required for an practical—and have gone a long ways in confirming that applying the principles of neuroplasticity could fMRI. You simply lay down in the imaging device and the principles of Moshe Feldenkrais’ Method. An be of tremendous benefit for improving movement. have electrical and blood flow light up different areas essential component of the Feldenkrais Method is However, I have also begun to feel that understanding of the brain depending on what the animal has been neuro-differentiation, which Norman Doidge, MD the principles of the Feldenkrais Method might be exercising.) describes as one of the key ingredients of neuroplastic sufficient to help us understand how learning and the healing in his book, The Brain’s Way of Healing. Even though fMRIs have become much more precise, brain and body work together. a study published last month in the Proceedings of the Why Do We Have a Brain? The New Phrenology National Academy of Sciences “uncovered flaws in Brains came into existence because of the need for In the early parts of the last century and before, it was the software researchers rely on to analyze fMRI data. animals to move. The environmental pressure was widely believed in scientific circles that bumps on your The glitch can cause false positives — suggesting brain Move or Die—sense a danger, a food source, or a head directly revealed characteristics of your brain and activity where there is none — up to 70 percent of the mate, figure out how to escape or connect, or risk not personality. Today, researchers consider the flashes of time…. When you divide the brain into bitty bits and surviving. blood going to different parts of the brain as a far more make millions of calculations according to a bunch of For an organism to move, it has to first sense where to direct and accurate representation of the various brain inferences, there are abundant opportunities for error, go. In other words, it has to find an orientation, which states that define who we are and how we could reach particularly when you are relying on software to do could be completely unconscious in simple organisms. further to discover our potential. much of the work. This was made glaringly apparent But no matter how simple or complex the life of an back in 2009, when a graduate student conducted an Recently, the art of brain imaging, through fMRIs organism becomes, its survival depends on the ability fMRI scan of a dead salmon and found neural activity (functional magnetic resonance imaging) has become to detect pressure, temperature, nutrient flow, light, in its brain when it was shown photographs of humans more precise and differentiated. A lot of research has vibration, sound, oxygen content of any given locale, in social situations. Again, it was a salmon. And it been done on states of mind while meditating, be etc. Sensing and determining where to go and how was dead.” [Citation: New York Times, Do You Believe it Buddhist style meditation or general mindfulness to move occurs after detection of the environment. in God, or Is That a Software Glitch by Kate Murphy, meditation. There are also many studies of physical The more complex the possible orientations of an August 27, 2016, http://nyti.ms/2bs6jev] exercise in relation to brain states, but mostly these organism, the more combinations of sensations can studies have been done on mice, rats, and more Despite this potential for glitches, in recent years, be focused on actions in the environment that lead recently on some larger mammals and primates. fMRIs have become more discrete, differentiated, and to survival. 7 Feldenkrais Australia Journal December 2016