Deep Embodiment

The FELDENKRAIS METHOD®
of Somatic Education

What I’m after isn’t flexible bodies but flexible brains.
What I’m after is to restore each person to their human dignity.

– Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais

 

Developed by Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais, physicist, engineer, and judo master, The Feldenkrais Method is grounded in movement science, brain research, psychology and the martial arts. Far ahead of his time, his insights were revolutionary…breathing new life into our understanding the relationship of movement, thinking, feeling, and sensing, and to the role of Awareness in restoring a sense of integration and wholeness [read more about Feldenkrais].
The Feldenkrais Method extols our human capacity
for learning at any age.

Moving Beyond Habit…

There are so many influences that shape the way we habitually move and think, that translate into posture, body and self image, the quality of life: familial directives, physical and emotional traumas, the imprint of skewed cultural values and postural prescriptions, and intensifying stress and strain of life in a world in crisis.

Habits that contradict nature’s inherent design (and our true nature) can become unconscious, showing up in various forms of bodymind distress and dysfunction, impeding our ability to navigate life effectively and comfortably. Our adaptations to habitual strain, distortion, and malaise start to feel normal, becoming part of our self image.  How can we access the intelligence of our nervous system, the neuroplasticity of our brain, that enables us to learn and discover new bodymind potentials…

Nothing is permanent
about our behavior patterns
except our belief
that they are so.
– Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais
Moshe Feldenkrais was a student of life in its depth. His teachings move far beyond the usual divisions of science, religion, and art, and into a realm where grace, health, and effectiveness are one.
– David Kaetz

From Making Connections:
Roots & Resonance in the Life and
Teachings of Moshe Feldenkrais

Deep Embodiment through Somatic Education

The Feldenkrais Method gives us an easy and effective way to address and change historic bodymind patterns, no matter the root cause. “If you know what you’re doing,” Feldenkrais would say, “you can do what you want.” With that he developed a learning-based Method that employs novel movement and gentle touch in an ingenious way to cultivate sensory awareness and reprogram the brain. The result is an interesting and engaging adventure of self discovery. Freed from demands of performance and achievement, it is explorative and playful, intriguing, surprising, and pleasurable. As you gain awareness of how you are doing whatever you do, choice becomes available, fueled by your curious engagement and openness. Clever and creative, the process is ultimately liberating and empowering!

Welcome to the Soma

The Soma is the first-person experience of your body, from the inside. The Soma is your inner sensory landscape, vast and rich. Here, divisions unify: body with mind, body with spirit. Psyche finds its embodied expression: its roots, its symbology. The Soma calls your attention: relax…on your back; feel your imprint on the ground below, while the shape of your breath defines inner space. Move gently, with respect: never contradict yourself. Listen to your needs…reduce effort (strain obscures nuance; force blocks learning). Feel sensations…connecting you from here to there…the subtle shifts of flesh and bone, the changing contours of your mind in motion. Far from disparate parts, you’re a fluent living system, interconnected with larger systems in the living, breathing world around you. Feel into it…re-member…the sense of unifying wholeness from within.

 

FELDENKRAIS
Components and Options

Deep Embodiment, empowering you
with Awareness, can have profound effects
on myriad dimensions of your life over time.
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Address discomfort, pain, postural strain, and restricted range of movement.

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Recover from injuries, accidents, traumatic events.

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Enhance your art form: musicians, dancers, and all forms of creative expression.

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Clarify and refine your martial art form.

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Improve your sport performance, addressing challenges and injuries.

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Improve at ANY age: address habits that are limiting your life activities.

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Cultivate deeper levels of bodymind awareness; expand self image, increase confidence and well being.

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Reduce general stress and anxiety.

The Two Components
of The Feldenkrais Method®
:

Functional Integration®

Marilyn Hardy giving Feldenkrais Functional Integration lessons

Through deep listening and alignment with your nervous system, I respectfully aim to communicate to you a sense of safety, freedom, and wholeness.

– Marilyn Hardy

Functional Integration is a gentle, yet powerful personalized process. Lying on a table or sitting on a chair, you are guided through touch and precise subtle movements. You feeI yourself relaxing, releasing—sensing and discovering parts of yourself coming alive and participating in novel ways. The practitioner helps you re-member the experience of wholeness—preparing and empowering you to engage in life with more choices, and in a more whole bodymind-integrated way.

  • Private, in-person
  • 60- to 75-minute lessons
  • Convenient office location
    in Topsham, Maine

Awareness Through Movement®

Awareness Through Movement is taught with language and images. Lying on a comfortable mat or carpet, you are guided verbally through an intriguing movement sequence or lesson. Interesting changes begin to happen, not through force and effort, but through attention and safe, gentle, non-habitual explorations.

Class & Workshop Themes

Marilyn fleshes out her classes and workshops with poetic, ecological and archetypal themes that connect soma with psyche and the living, breathing landscape around us. We are an integral part of a much larger system, and this awareness is now vital for our health, as well as for the planet. See below for samples of past themes

Group Classes & Workshops

  • (Presently) online via Zoom
  • 5-week themed class series via 75-minute classes (recording available after each class)
  • Various workshop lengths (custom options available; organize or request a workshop around a specific theme)
» Introductory Offer: Register for a Free Class «

Samples of Past Class & Workshop Themes

Healthy Back 2-CD Set, Your Back in Nature: $18

The colorful spine-embellished sleeve of Marilyn Hardy's "Your Back in Nature" 2-CD set of Feldenkrais lessons aimed at "Restoring the innate intelligence and sensuality of your body."

Cover Art: Donna Krin Korkes • CD Layout & Design: Yankee Wordsmith Martha Corey • Editing & Mastering: Erika Aberg • Music: Mark Kleinhaut • Replication: Crooked Cove

Your Back in Nature empowers you to rediscover nature’s design. Through gentle, novel Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement® lessons, new options open, leading to increased ease, comfort, and grace. | The Landscape: Introduction. Opening to the Sun: Exploring a gentle twist of your spine focusing on the sequential participation of your whole body. Earth and Sky: Exploring the potential length of your spine with the transmission of force from feet to head. Hills and Valleys: Further exploring length and differentiation of your back through the head, back, pelvis, and extremities. Waves: From tongue to tailbone, exploring functional interconnections with wave-like movement and imagery.

…or…

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Others share their experiences doing this deep work with Marilyn; read their testimonials below.

 

Testimonials
TestimonialMandala-Molly2_Feldenkrais_150x150

More Testimonials…

Marilyn’s work reflects her many years of therapeutic experience and study. As a client, I found she possesses a gentle, yet knowing and effective touch. Her work reaches beyond the barriers of stress and anxiety to help us rediscover our natural patterns of balance and movement.

– Anthony P. Arnold, PhD, author of Rhythm and Touch,
The Fundamentals of Craniosacral Therapy

I was drawn to Feldenkrais because Marilyn’s emphasis on awareness, connectedness, and curiosity mirrored my spiritual and twelve-step interests. Frankly, after 50 years of chiropractors, osteopaths, and acupuncturists, I didn’t think she could actually help my back problems. I’ve been amazed—and delighted—at how wrong I was! Marilyn is a master teacher who is changing the way I both see and move in the world.

– Rick Wile

I’ve been a longtime Feldenkrais client of Marilyn’s and I have experienced her expertise both in person and online. Whatever physical or emotional condition I bring to her, she addresses it with deep wisdom, gentleness and skill. I am always amazed at how much better I feel after her sessions. My physical and emotional knots are untangled and I have a clearer connection to my own deep wisdom and physical vibrancy.

There is a subtle, yet profound dimension to her teaching: I settle in, come home to my body, and experience a heartfelt connection to the greater world. Marilyn is a teacher of the highest integrity and mastery. She is a gift!

– Charli Griffin,
Clearings
Energy Transformation

Marilyn is a weaver bringing all the strands of our potential into the fabric of our being. … She weaves together the strands of her interests, experiences and passions with poetry, literature, psychology, mythology, ecology, the earth and the heavens—yes, stretches us with fun, curiosity, seeming ease, humor and subtlety—creating an opportunity for a new fabric of our potential, of our innate intelligence, of our being, of our wholeness, of our connection with all that we embody internally and externally to emerge.

– Elizabeth Coleman

From images of sleek moving cheetahs to images of dancing bones, Marilyn ignites our imagination with a thematic focus as she skillfully guides our exploration in connections, wholeness, and ease. Each class leaves us with a sense of novelty, yet a remembered familiarity.

It is clear that Marilyn teaches from a place of wisdom, knowledge, and depth gleaned from her own exploration and curiosity, and we are the better for it.

– Deborah Adele, author of The Yamas & Niyamas:
Exploring Yoga’s Ethical Practice

In my experience Marilyn’s gentle style and exquisite ability to tune into the structure and function of one’s body offers opportunity for healing at the deepest physical and emotional levels. Past traumas and feelings can be liberated and one can experience new levels of ease and freedom. I highly recommend her work.

– Katherine Mills Myers, M.S.Ed.,
Psychotherapist, Pastoral Counselor, Spiritual Director

Having broken my back in my twenties, and having tried a wide variety of therapeutic forms of treatment, it is truly thanks to Marilyn and the Feldenkrais Method that I am able to do trouble-free everything I can do today in my eighties. Marilyn’s work can almost feel like a magician’s sleight-of-hand—the profound neuro-muscular changes appear to happen beneath the radar of the thinking mind, while at the same time being lovingly nurturing to your body. With the first touch (of Functional Integration) what I feel is trust. My whole body/mind/soul knows it is in for feeling restored…my sense of being embodied will be utterly restored to its natural resting point.

– Ann Carroll, PhD,
Tai Chi instructor

I appreciate Marilyn’s playful, open, gentle, and creative style of teaching the Feldenkrais Method. She taught me how to use simple yet profound tools that will help me care for myself for the rest of my life. Marilyn is a highly skilled, delightful teacher!

– Carole Tashel,
author and herbalist

Acquiring a working knowledge of Feldenkrais, with Marilyn’s patient guidance, brought into focus the very foundation of how I think and “fit into” my body. It is a different way of listening to my uniqueness. I have relearned the exhilaration of awakening to the total harmony I felt in my youth!

– Janet D. Brand,
Brunswick, Maine

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