Paul Wooding



I discovered Feldenkrais after a long process of becoming very frustrated with my yoga practice and how it was being taught in classes and workshops. Feldenkrais seemed to make much more sense to my body after years of practising in a very linear and prescriptive fashion. Something was set free (the opportunity to explore, to be playful and - most importantly - to enjoy movement for movements sake without achieving)

A key teacher in helping me find my way to Feldenkrais was Brighton based Peter Blackaby. Peter is a fantastic yoga teacher and teaches in many ways - as I was later to realise - very similar to how Feldenkrais is taught : i.e. with a strong emphasis on awareness and being attentive to all we do, to not striving or achieving but taking pleasure in the small but important details. It was no big surprise when I discovered his wife - Sabine Schmid Blackaby - was a well respected Feldenkrais practitioner, and I would go on to find Sabine being one of the 'experienced practitioners' on my London Feldenkrais training programme. Two other key teachers that have supported me along the way with their wonderful workshops are Veronica Rock in Llangollen and Anne Robertson in Manchester

I continue to find the Feldenkrais practice both fascinating and endlessly rewarding. I'm always amazed at how the practice opens up richer options for moving more easily and with greater finesse. As a learning tool I find the practice constantly influencing everything I do on a day to day basis. With Feldenkrais there is no end to learning how to do 'stuff' more efficiently: a life-long learning practice indeed !

What I also find very rewarding as a teacher with Feldenkrais is how it is available to anyone and everyone regardless of their movement capabilities. To give people that wonderful opportunity to sense and feel themselves and to know they have choices and options to do things differently: to understand that they can still develop regardless of age, and that Feldenkrais offers this key to finding ways out of habits previously thought permanent.

So, for me, teaching and practising Feldenkrais offers a learning environment where no one feels out of place. An environment where people can re-discover that child-like quality of moving again without judgement or ambition but just for the sheer pleasure of it !