Going Beyond Yoga to Ease Chronic Pain

If you have chronic pain -- whether it’s lower back pain, neck pain, or shoulder pain – you may be aware that movement can no longer be taken for granted. Watching a movie, going on a trip that involves a long car ride, taking yoga class, working on a computer, or taking a hike with friends – all can involve doing movements that leave you sore, inflamed or tired for days.



When you know that lifting a box can lead to an unexpected twinge, you may go more slowly. Even so, you may find yourself compensating to not use the area where has had an injury. Over time you build up stress and tension, which is your body’s way of protecting vulnerable muscles and joints from further wear and strain.



While conventional medical approaches to pain like taking a muscle relaxant for neck pain, an anti-inflammatory for shoulder pain, or popping a pain killer for lower back pain, can relieve symptoms temporarily, they all come with potential side effects ranging from liver damage to grogginess. Furthermore, they tend to pay little attention to changing the ways you move that were the cause of that tension and pain.



Thus, a holistic approach that is catching the eye of many for its amazing results, is the Feldenkrais Method®. What stands out about Feldenkrais® is the that this approach has figured out to successfully help people with chronic pain learn to move better by using their own ability to change and heal.



Practitioners of this form of neuromuscular re-education, who undergo rigorous 4-year certification training, ask an obvious yet often-overlooked question: If pain comes from how you move, why not find a way to teach people to move in ways that don’t cause pain?

Actually this is often easier said that done, which is why the Feldenkrais® method has developed a unique system to work with the brain-body connection to transform posture, improve mobility, and relieve pain.



Unlike conventional physical therapy, or pilates and yoga, which often focus on strengthening key sets of muscles and stretching tightened ones, which can create some change in movement, or a chiropractic approach that aligns the spine, the Feldenkrais Method® works at the neuromuscular level to change the habits of movement that lead to pain.



Through gentle touch and movement, performed as you lie comfortably on a low table, as well as gentle exercises, Feldenkrais practitioners assist clients in retraining their brain-body connection to change ingrained ways of sitting, standing or walking.



This approach is based on the idea, now proven by neuroscience, that even at the initiation of a movement, our brains light up an entire pattern of muscular action. Ordinarily, we move too quickly to change these ingrained patterns.



"The idea," says Feldenkrais practitioner Eveline Wu, who has been practicing Feldenkrais since 2000, and works with people with chronic pain and trauma in Oakland and Berkeley, CA, "to help people to discover ways to use their body in ways it is designed to work best, that is, with the greatest biomechanical ease and efficiency." From there, she says, the change can be phenomenal.



The typical Feldenkrais client has tried many things, ranging from chiropractic, to physical therapy, to sometimes surgery, before turning to Feldenkrais. They are motivated to do a series of sessions because they find relief that they were not able to find elsewhere.

On a practical level, what clients discover is that they get up from sessions is that feel more relaxed, that they can turn their heads more easily, that they sit and naturally have better posture, or bend over and find they have more flexibility in their hips.



A truly holistic approach, based in both science of movement and an understanding of how we learn to move, Feldenkrais® can be helpful for all sorts of people with chronic pain, ranging from athletes to people, to computer workers, to people with emotional stress, physical trauma and injury.



Do you have work related pain and stress? Feldenkrais practitioner Eveline Wu can give you ideas for holistic pain relief in Berkeley