Getting Grounded Gracefully
A program to improve balance and prevent falls in older people.
Getting Grounded Gracefully is based on lessons from the Feldenkrais Method.
The Feldenkrais Method is named after it's founder Dr Moshe Feldenkrais (1904-1984). Dr Feldenkrais was trained in physics, mechanical and electrical engineering and was also a highly accomplished martial artist being one of the first westerners to receive a black belt in Judo.
The Method is an educational system which engages a person in an investigation of the way they function and how they might expand their ability to function. Through an investigation of how the body organises for movement, it addresses habitual patterns of movement and expands a person's self-image. The process involves exploring novel movement sequences which bring attention to parts of the self which may be out of awareness and excluded from a person's functioning. The result is a heightened self-awareness, an expansion of a person's repertoire of movement and improved functioning where the whole body cooperates in movement.
For more information on the Feldenkrais Method follow the following links:
www.feldenkrais.org.au
www.feldenkrais.com
Acknowledgements & Links
Development of Getting Grounded Gracefully would not have been possible without the pioneering work of Dr Moshe Feldenkrais. As Dr Feldenkrais said, “the aim of the work is to make the impossible possible, the possible easy, and the easy elegant.” This could be the motto of Getting Grounded Gracefully.
The lessons in the Program are taken from many different sources. I would particularly like to thank Feldenkrais Practitioners, Richard Yin & Annie Cosgrove, for the wonderful transcripts of their lessons in “The Balance Master Series for Elder Citizens”.
I would like to thank Moreland Community Health Service and, in particular, Mr Duane Bell. Without their support and encouragement the development of Getting Grounded Gracefully would not have been possible.
I would also like to thank the following Feldenkrais Trainers whose work has also contributed to the Program. They can be contacted at the addresses below. I would recommend their work as they have some wonderful lessons to draw upon.
Alan Questel http://www.uncommonsensing.com/
Larry Goldfarb http://www.mindinmotion-online.com/
Dr Frank Wildman http://www.feldenkraisinstitute.org/
Mark Reese http://www.feldenkraislearning.com/