Guidelines for teaching ATM by Yochanan Rywerant

Biographical information about Yochanan Rywerant (1922 -2010)

• Yochanan Rywerant published two books and a monograph about the Feldenkrais Method. The second book, Acquiring the Feldenkrais Profession published in 2000, is an outline of his view of a basic curriculum for teaching teachers. The guidelines below are partly presented in this material. It was a handout in his advanced trainings and a presentation in a systematic way of the teaching of ATM.
• YR began training teachers independently in 1986 and did so until 2010. His basic trainings consisted of 18 weeks condensed basic program where ATM & FI where taught parallel all through the training.
• His first book, The Feldenkrais Method teaching by handling was published in 1983 and is a theoretical outline of many concepts and principals used in the Feldenkrais Method and in FI especially. In the monograph Corollary Discharge the forgotten link, remarks on the body-mind problem, he describes and explores Relative Conjugate Movement, an effective approached often used both in ATM and FI. – Eva Laser

Principles

1. Purposes of the Feldenkrais Method;
2. Insights of sensory nature vs. verbal coaching;
3. Group situation different from classroom situation;
4. Curiosity and interest as learning principles;
5. The form of an ATM lesson;
6. Goal-directedness vs. attention to process;
7. Learning-process associated with raising the level of control;
8. Not “ correcting “faulty” patterns, but clarifying options;
9. The proximal involvement in distally received patterns;
10. Efficiency and easy vs. constraints coming from society (cultural constraints), from habits, trauma, of inadequate self-image;
11. Choosing a central element (chest-pelvis connection, movability of hip joint, of ankle, scapula, upper dorsal vertebrae, or head) then integrating the element’s use with different patterns and ways of functioning.

Strategy

A. Involving the cortex and not arouse the self-defense systems:

1. doing the unusual, but in an acceptable way;
2. respecting limits ( no testing), reducing efforts, “slowly”;
3. reversibility , breathing while moving;
4. doing one side, to perceive differences (not equalizing);
5. doing the other side in imagination;
6. playfulness, increasing speed, group interaction.

B. Orientation in space:

1. perceiving the cardinal directions (gravity!), changing of the front;
2. appreciating distances (static or dynamic) from the walls, neighbors or any other objects;
3. changing the place by moving the pelvis.

C. Clarifying sensory feedback (learning the corollary discharge):

1. visual: looking, following (the bug), pointing out;
2. tactile: what touches me, where am I supported (weight distribution), changes of supporting surfaces, increasing or decreasing pressure on the floor;
3. kinesthetic: what participates in the pattern (efficient or parasitic participation), appreciating effort or ease, balance, using body-parts for balance, moment of inertia, pointing out participation of proximal parts;
4. proposing patterns of action which are related to the immediate environment (not abstracts movements).

Tactics

1. when to talk about change;
2. when to scan;
3. when to interfere: too much speed, to much effort, indication of direction changing into goal;
4. when to change the course of the lesson;
5. how many repetitions;
6. when to tell a story;
7. meta-comments;
8. gradation in complexity within the lesson.

Planning a series of lessons

1. Graduation in complexity within the series;
2. building around a theme with various integrations;
3. choosing a sequence: flexors, extensors, side position, other positions, twisting, combinations, scanning, interspersing themes.

Comments on these guidelines and teaching Feldenkrais (FI/ATM) in general

The Map is not the Territory (a dictum by Korzybski)] author of Science and Sanity, referred to by Moshe Feldenkrais [year 1 June 16 1975 SF]
Yochanan Rywerant comments the dictum May 25 1974

• Use the map for planning ahead;
• There is a difference between the two;
• The map is not instead of the territory;
• The touch make the map clearer;
• Clarifying the map is the same as increased awareness. EvaLaser