The Feldenkrais Journal #10 Children

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THE FELDENKRAIS IOUR\.{L

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Children

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THIS IOURNAL IS DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY

OF

GABRIELLA SEGAL YARON WHO TOUCHED SO MANY WITH HER KNOWLEDGE, HER CLARITY AND HER IOY

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THE FELDENKRAIS JOURNAL NO. 10

Elizabeth Beringer

Remembering Gaby

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'Mosne oNCE DESCRtnEu Gabyas aspringof freshrvater, referringespecially to her abundant creativity. This image of Gaby has ah,r,ays sta-ved with me, as it captures her vibrancy and natural enthusiasm. Gaby Yaron died this Iune after 35 years of practicing the Feldenkrais Method. She was a masterful teacher rtho inspired, toucired and enlivened an extraordinary number of students n ho had rhe good fortune to come in contact with her hands and her heart. Gabywas born in Rumania on March 20,tgz3.At the age of trr'relve she enrolled in the Music Academy in Bucharest and began seriottsiy studying the piano. In rg4r, at the age of eighteen, she emigrated with her familv to Palestine. She lived for a short time on a Kibbutz and then began teaching piano in Haifa. Shortly after this, at the age of nineteen, she r,vas married and the couple moved to Tel Aviv. Her only child, Amir, was born in 1955. Gaby's flrst husband died before Gaby became invoh,ed in the Method and for many of her students, knowing Victor, Gaby's second husband, rvas an inseparable part of knorving Gaby. Victor was also born in Rumania. FIe and Gaby were distant relations, their grandmothers being sisters, but as there was ten years difference betrveen them they had not had much contact in Rumania. \.\rhen \rictor came to Israel in rg44 ire found Gaby and her flrst husband there and they deveioped a nice friendship. Much later both Gabv and Victor lost their spouses and in t97z they were married. In the late rgso's Gabywas having some health problems and sought out Moshe for private lessons. Later she became an avid attendee of his Alexander Yanai aru classes. As Victor says, "She was charmed by his Nlethod and became a Feldenkrais-coholic." After severalyears of attending classes Gaby felt ripe to teach and Moshe agreed. Her first students were some neighbors'uvho she had to teach at night after the1, closed their shop. Soon other neighbors joined in and after some time she had to expand onto her terrace to accommodate the growing groups. In r967 Moshe organized the flrst training program in Israel and Gaby was one of the first to sign up. In the course she paired up with Batia Fabian and they developed a ciose r,r,orking relationship, practicing together each to stttdy Saturday. During this time Gaby also traveled to Haifa twice a "veek anatomy at the Rothchild Hospital. After the training r,r,as completed in 1969, Moshe asked Gaby to visit him once a r^"'eek and trade sessions and work together to explore ner,v lessons. Moshe would shou, Gabv ne\v movements and have her describe to him how she feit. Over tl-re next rveek she would take the new work into her practice and then discr.rss hor,l'it r,r,ent with Moshe at their next meeting. Gaby often remembered this as an especially important and rich time in the development of her Feldenkrais career. Gaby developed a full and active practice in Functional Integration and at its peak had a lveekly class schedule ofrB classes. She had a studio in Tel Aviv that bustled with activitvwhere she gave both her individual lessons and the ATM classes. Over the )rears Gaby developed a reputation as an effective and generous practitioner of the Method. She rvas especially

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respected lor her nrork with children. In 1975, Gabv r,t'ent to assist Moshe in the Sar.r Francisco training program along with Mia Segal and Yochanon R\rverant. \'ictor was not very happy with the prospect of Gab-v leaving for r\\.o months to u,ork in California each summer. But he says, "She knew how to conr-ince me in her gentle manner. She was a very optimistic person and \\lth her unforgettable smile and her peace of mind she could convince a ' . . tiger. This rras the beginning of a new era in Gaby's Feldenkrais career, as she began to be knor,r.n outside of Israei. After the San Francisco training ended she rr as inrited to teach Advanced Trainings in California and also Iarge pr-rbiic rlorkshops. Soon she was receiving invitations not only from \orth -\merica, but aiso from Europe. She assisted Moshe throughout the Arnherst trair-ring and n hen Moshe lvas unable to continue teaching she rvas naturallv chosen as one of the first trainers. In 1981, Gabr-began directing the first European training in Munich with Char-a Sheli-rar-. At this stage Gab.v was receiving more and more workshop inr-itations and aiso reqlrests about directing other trainings. The result rvas that she \vas spending more and more time outside of Israel and separated from \Iictor. In 1984 Victor retired from his r.vork as a partner in a chemical compan\r in order to travei r,r,ith Gabv, helping to manage and coordinate all the teaching and trar.eling. Once her husband cor.rld travel along with her, Gabv began teaching outside of Israel a majority of the 1rear. We all remember Gabv lbr her incredible stamina, norvhere was this more evident than in her teaching schedule. During this period Gaby was teaching in programs in at least ten countlies spread over three continents. Since she rvas fluent in French, German, English, Hebrew and Rumanian, Gabywas able to teach students in their or,rm langr,rages in a tremendous variety of contexts. I remember at one point in the early'gos Gabv sayng that up untii then, she had taught in er.ery training programl Certainly Gaby, with her seeminglv boundless energy and natural generosity, touched an extraordinary nurnber of students. Gab-v's son Amir developed a career as a veterinarian and was married, to Iris, in r989. Gaby and Victor's first grandchild, Itai, was born in rggr and their second, Noa, a little girl , rvhom she never met was born in April of this veaL. Tlr,o years aElo Gaby began to have serious problems with her circulation. She pr-rrsued many different approaches to the probiem, including various surgeries. Her difficulties r,vorsened, but she continued teaching as she could. In Aprii she did her last teaching-a master class in Ludwigshaven on Lake Constance in Germany. Although she r,vas in continuous pain s}'re taught a course full of the virtuosity and good humor that she r'r,as knou,n for. Tlr,o months later Gaby died at Nlassachussetts Generai Hospital in Boston after an unsuccessful surgery. As her students, lriends and colleagues we \vere not prepared for her death. Gab-v's energy and enthusiasm made it difficult to imagine that she \\-as as ill as she was. I spoke \'vith her days before she died and she was full of buoyancy, positive feelings about healing and plans for her upcoming risit r,rdth us in California. The news of her death was a shock that many of u. al'e rLill assimilating. \\-eeks iater l rvas giving a lesson to another practitioner. As I was working, s}-re mentioned Gaby and I realized, as I had so many times over the past fe\\-\\.eeks, that the lesson I lr,as giving (or the -q.rr,r I rvas teaching) I had learned lrorn Gabv. As the lesson continued we reflected on r,r,hat a wonderful lr.a\-tiris is to be remernbered; through touch and movement, in action and interaction, Gab-v's lessons continue in ours. And for this we rvill always be grateful.

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THE FELDENKRAIS IOURNAL NO. 10

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The Feldenkrais Iournal number ro

Thble of Contents 6

A Letter from the Editors

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Gustave SusanCharbonneau

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TheCaseofChristy DonnaRay-Reese

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"The Guiding Spirit

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MovementasaModeloflearning ChavaShelhav

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Implications of Intervention Strategies Carla Oswald Reed

inell Human Interactions

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Respect" fanet Loops

47 BabyB S.D.Pinto 52

BookReview: ADynamicSystemsApproach to the Deuelopment of Cognition & Action Carl Ginsburg

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Contributors

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THE FELDENKRAIS JOURNAL NO.

WINTER T995

TO

A Letter from the Editors

November rgg5

Dear Colleagues, We are pleased to introduce this issue of the Journal focusing on children. Ideally these articles wili afford you i,r'ith much "food lor thought" and, more importantly, "food for action." The contributors to the issue bring years of experience working r,r,ith children to their rvriting, rvhich expresses itself in a wealth of both theoretical and practical ideas. We encourage you to study the articles and experiment with the ideas in your own work. A common thread that u,ear.es throughout this issue is the emphasis on relationship. The i,r,riters express, both explicitly and impiicitly, the importance ol creating a relationship that fosters each child's unique development. In these writings we see that it is the child's sensitivit-v that can help show us the rvay to a more global perception of what's needed. There was an unusually enthusiastic response to this Journal theme. As r,ve worked on this issue we learned of many interesting and diverse projects involving children in addition to the ones presented here. Some of these r,r,ilI be presented in the next Journal. We welcome additional submissions ofarticles or letters to the editor. We wouid like to thank the members of the editorial board r,r,ho reviewed the articles and worked.nvith many of the authors to hone their rvriting. Thanks also to Elizabeth Weiss and Margery Cantor for their ongoing contributions to the Journal process. We r,vould especially like to'"velcome Amanda McCov onto the Journal team as the nerv mattaging editor. A flnal thanks goes to Kathe Zemach-Bersin for gathering the artw'ork for this issue and to the children-Talia Cooper, |oe.v Rosenthal, Ariella Zemach- Bersin and T aly a Zemach - B ersin-lr,ho s e drarvings appear in these pages. Please note that the pictures u.ere created independently of the text and are not intended as literal illustrations to the articles. Sincerely,

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Arlyn Zones Special Guest Editor

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Elizabeth Beringer

Editor

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Susan Charbonneau

GTJSTAVE

ustave is certainly the youngest student with whom I've had ,ffi the chance to work. He was two weeks old when a friend of if his mother asked me to see him. Havingworked mostlywith {g '\\ adult clientele, I was hesitant at first-torn between my -{lU#f}*u,uncertainty of how to work with an infant and my interest in such an unusual request. Fortunately, my interest outweighed my concerns and I agreed to see what I could do. Gustave, from birth, and very likely even as he was swimming in the rvomb, had a tendency to Iook to his left. Nothing was pathologically w,rong and there \vas no pain involved, but this preference was clearly interfering with his breast feeding. His mother, Nicole, would start with his favored side, and eventually offer the other breast. But Gustave would stubbornly ignore the second breast, looking to his left until, overcome with hunger and frustration, he became inconsoiable. This scenario occurred many times and Nicole r,vas becoming anxious. \\hat did Gustarre need in order to discover that his world was much more generous than he had experienced up until now?All he had to do was turn his head to the right to discover that mommy had, O joy, two breasts!

HIS FIRST LESSON Gustave u.as asleep r.".hen he arrived at his first lesson. And since it was winter, he u.as bundled from head to toe. So gently, we placed him on his back

and began remoring his layers of clothing. Still peacefuliy sleeping, his head, covered n-ith dorvny red, was turned to the left. \\hile he slept I began to ro11 his head from left to right to feel if there was a difference in the quality of his movement. The movement was, in fact, less flr-rid to the right. The mobilitywas there; however, it was under-utilized. \\ras it possible to flnd the discrepancy in movement between the right and the 1eft side somervhere else in his body organization? I played with his legs for a lerv moments, but found nothing unusual. Then, r,r,hile pulling each of his arms fonvard I r-roticed that movement with his left arm was restricted. I did all of this r-en- delicately, not only because I did not want to disturb his

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sleep, but also because I was impressed b-v his tin-v tbrm. Suddenly m1, hands seemed enormous. I then directed my attention to the mobility of his pelr.is, starting a little dance, inviting him to ro11 a little to the left and a little to the right. My idea was to stay "far from the problem" and to er,entuallv explore all the possible movements of the pelr.is. Could the head-pe1r.is connection, speciflcally in the action of roiling on the stomach, erist so eariv in development? At this point, Gustarre'ur,oke up and seemed to enjov this game. I gradually in-

creased the amplitude of tl-re rotation to have access to the ribcage mobility rria the peir'-is. 81,then, Gustave rvas wide awake and listening. Next, I asked Nicole to go from one side of Gustave to the other several times, each time calling him to attract his attention. Each time she did this, I initiated a rotation from his pelr.is. We then tried a similar strategy, inviting him to follow Nicole's hand movement from side to side. We r,r'ere able to observe a certain hesitation to roil his head to the right, the direction

which was neither famiiiar nor spontaneous. Then I picked up Gustave and I held him. Of course, he laid his right cheek on my shoulder. We repeated our little dance of rotating the pelvis slowly from one side to the other. All of a sudden, to the surprise of his mother, he spontaneously turned his head to the other side. He had iust completed the motor pattern that I was initiating from his peivisl I ended this flrst lesson suggesting that Nicole repeat some of the games/ movements which we had just done and that she vary Gustave's position in his crib. I was surprised by the fact that Gustar.e, at such a very young age, alreadl, had developed his

or,tryr

habits and preferences. Bv the same token, at

this early age, his nervous svstem was also endor,ved with amazing plasticity.

HIS SECOND LESSON The next week Gustave arrived much more alert. Nicole seemed calmer and said that breast feeding Gustave haC been easier. I felt that I should reinforce this progress by repeating certain mo\.ements that rve had done the week before and afterwards also explore new options. I began to play lvith Gustave while his mother held him in her arms with his head on her shoulder. With his pelvis entirell, supported by one of my hands we began our little dance-this time with the three of us. I once again rotated the pelvis, then progressed to moving the pelvis in flexion and extension. Graduallv I covered the range of movements of the classic pelvic clock. By then his pelvis was feeling really free. I was curious about the effect of these movements on his neck organization and I also wanted to explore it through more global movements. Feeling more at ease with me, Gustave allor'ved me to take him from his mother's arms to lay him on the table. I needed to check u,hether the discrepanclr felt in the fbrward extension of the arms during the flrst lesson was stiil apparent. It was, but it rvas more subtle. I had him grasp my index fingers rvhich allor,ved me to slor,viv unfold his arms in front of his body. Respecting the small difference in the amplitude of the movement, I alternated bet-"veen the left arm and right arm, extending each untii the rotation appeared in the trunk and the head eventuallr.follorved in the same direction. His preference to turn to the left rvas sti11 there, but -'vas diminishing as we played. Little by little he r,vas becoming familiar n ith this new wav of using his arms to turn his head.

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Gustave, u.ho seemed interested at the start, began to shor,v some impatience at this point. I -"r,as concerned about not over doing it; thirW minutes is a long time lor a baby, so we ended the lesson. Within two lessons, Gustave u,as obr,iouslr.irnproving his capacity to turn his head to the right and use more of his right r.isuai fleld. He had more choices and he rvasn't stuck in a rigid pattern anvmore. And from this point of view, the breast feeding could onlr.become easier. So Nicole and I agreed to wait and see how- Gustave rvould integrate these ner,v experiences. After a ndrile I Iearned that this encouragement to fully utilize his potential of turning his head had been enough to help Gustave experience the generosity of the world. He was nursing nor,r, easiil, on both sides. The lreshness of this encounter, as well as the interest and the pleasure I had, made me forget myr,vorries about not being an expert in the domain of infant reeducation. This experience allowed me to remember that, as Feldenkrais practitioners, rve have the means to intervene in the iearning process of students of any age. We just need to approach gently, ailowing ourselves to feel, obsen e, and sornetimes be surprised, thereby flnding the '"va.v to proceed.

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DonnaRay-Reese

TF{E CASE OT Cf]RTSTY

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":::-:::'': - hrist1, age flr,e, u,,as a beautifui, curiy-headed girl with bionde hair and blue eyes. The vounger oftrvo daughters, both adoptecl, Christy had a sister rvho rvas nine. The girls' mother described them as being as different as night and day. The

. , , older daughter was \relT cooperative, self-contained and appropriately sociable. Christy, on the other hand, r,r,as difficuit to control and sometimes hyperactive-but nonetheless highly verbal, r,ery lor.ing and bright. She had no apparent movement difficulties. Christy and her mother rvere referred to me by their ps-vchotherapist, rvho r,r,as familiar with both my Feldenkrais n ork and my background as a licensed marriage, familrand child counselor. On their first visit, the mother expressed concern about sorne ol Chrisn-'s unusual behavior. It soon became clear that althougir Christ\,lr,as ar-r athletic child-able, for example, to jump and play catch-she had notable gaps in her sensory integration process. \A,4renever Christ-y r'r.as injured, the mother said, she appeared not to know r,r,here she n as hurt-to the point that she u,ould sometimes hit herself on the injured area, seeminglv to further identifi, the area b_v making it hurt more clearly. For example, Chrisfi had recentlr'bruised her leg in a fall, and when irer mother r,vent to her she for-rnd her daughter hitting the bruised area, unable to describe u,hat happened or u,here she r,vas hurt. The mother also reported that her daughter frequentlr- ran into door jambs and r,r,alls, sometimes at full speed. She didn't seem to knorv rvhere she was in space in relation to the r,va11s or doors. Chris\,'s woes were reflected in kindergarten, too, n here her drawing and r,r,riting abilities rvere belorv a\rerage. Her teacher said Christl r'vas displaying the skill level of a tr'vo-vear-old. She n'as harir-rg difficulty learning to \,\,Tite letters and numbers. And she frequentlr.annoyed other children by touching them inappropriateir-. Cl-rrisn seer.ned to lack a clearly defined sense of herself in relationship to both objects ancl people. In response to my inquiry, I was told there n as no er-idence ol serual or other phvsical abuse of the child.

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A TOTAL LEARNING EXPERIENCE To illustrate mv approach to this difficult case, I've chosen first to summarize the flrst ten of our weekly sessions. I hope this will most easily allow the reader to follor,r,,the unfolding of the work, and how I adapted my methods to Christv, her positive or negative responses and her overall behavior. At our first meeting, Christy didn't lvant to be alone with me, so I invited her mother to stay in the room. Christy's mother rvas quite supportive of the lr,ork, and she stayed in the room during all of our subsequent sessions as well. \'\hen I spoke to Christy initiail-v, she rvould run to her mother for a cuddie or a kiss. I asked her to lie on the Feldenkrais table, but she didn't want to. I asked her to do movements with me, but she refused. Striking on another approach that might invite her participation, I told her that I had something she might be interested in seeing. I briefly left the room and brought backwith me a 36-inch-tall, plastic human skeleton. Christywas intrigued by the skeleton, and she wanted to touch it. I allowed her to handle the skeleton, and when she touched it, I touched her skeleton. \44ren she moved the foot of the skeleton, I gently moved her foot and said, "This is howyour foot moves, too." \.&Ihen she rvas ready, she moved to the knees, so I touched her knees. We continued in this way for several minutes until she had led me to touch most of her body. I then sat the skeleton on the edge of the table. Its feet were dangling, so I put foam cushions under its feet to give it support. Christy was very curious about that. She sat on the edge ofthe table herself, and I placed foam cushions under her feet, too. She asked many questions about her height, the distance between her feet and the floor, and the height of where she was sitting. I put cushions under her pelvis to further raise her feet off the floor. \\lhen she began to tire of this play, I ended the session. I felt that we were offto a good start. I talked separately to her mother, who said she was amazed by Christy's interest in the skeleton and by her curiosiff about the spatial organization of the skeleton and her own body. At our second meeting, I had the skeleton present again, and rnre repeated some of the flrst session's work. I stopped before she grew tired of the skeleton, and I asked if she vrould get on my table or do movements rvith me. She refused and went to her mother. I then asked if she liked to draw. She replied that she did, and I brought out paper and markers. She immediately sat down and began to scribble. At this point in our work, Chrisw's drarving was primitive. consisting mostly of circles and scribbles.* She rvas unable to form letters. She ordered me to drawwith her, rather than asking if I n ould join her. I asked her if she was the teacher. She said she lr,as, and rt e began to play school, with me following her orders. As we began to drar,r,., I asked if I could put a mark on her page. She said yes. Then she began to scribble on my page. I asked her to stop, because she hadn't asked me first. She looked surprised, but she then asked permission. I consented, and she scribbled on my page. I had intentionally set up a protocol for asking permission and following directions. I knew this was an area of difficuln- for Christl', one in which she often went fonvard without the permissior-r of others around her.

BEING THE TEACHER I began our third session by asking Christy if she wanted to play school.

She

said she did

- if she could be the teacher. I agreed, and she began to tell me what to do. After allowing her to be in charge, I asked if it was my turn to be * The

drauings mentioned do not appear in this article.

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the teacher. She agreed to that, and we continued working with paper and pen. Then I said, "Now it's table time. Crawl onto my table, and I will gently move vou." She scrambled over lo her mother. I repeated that it was table time, and that I r,r'ould touch her verv gently, with her permission. I explained to her that the touching rvouid feel good and that she could ask me to stop il she didn't like it. She flnall-v jumped onto the table. I touched her briefl.v, perhaps for fir,e minutes, mostlv r'trorking with her feet and legs, promoting oscillation movements to the head, using the gentle rocking motion to capture her attention and to quiet her. Functionally speaking, these movements helped her clarify the relationship betr'veen her feet, pelvis and head. This develops better balance and spatial awareness' \\rhen Chrisry appeared to want to stop, I ended the session. Our fourth meeting was very much like the third. I noticed that when we were drawing and playing school, sometimes Christy was very strict with me an