About Us
Lessons in Movement
Lessons in Movement is a family business run by us – Gillian and Jon. We live in Houghton Regis with our young son. We are certified Feldenkrais Practitioners training with Elizabeth Beringer and Scott Clark, graduating in 2020 from the accredited, internationally recognised four year Feldenkrais professional training in London.
We are both members of the Feldenkrais Guild UK, the professional organisation representing practitioners and teachers of the Feldenkrais Method® in the United Kingdom. We are insured, have DBS checks and are accountable to the Guild’s code of ethics.
Gillian
I am a certified Feldenkrais Practitioner, potter and I teach ceramics.
I came to Feldenkrais through an interest in movement and activity. Snowboarding, hiking and mountain-biking throughout my twenties and early thirties had given my joints a hard time and I had been starting to feel the effects in the form of lower-back and knee pain.
From the first few Feldenkrais workshops, I began to recognise my movement habits. It was a shock to realise how much unnecessary effort I was using to do every day activities. These sessions opened my eyes to a new way of moving and being.
With a greater awareness of my movement I found I could make easy, small adjustments: softening the grip on my handlebars when cycling; relaxing my abdomen when at the potters wheel; relaxing the hold on my cutlery, even.
Sometimes these were fundamental shifts in the way I was moving, but more often they were small simple changes – accumulating to real improvements. Yoga poses that I’d deemed impossible were suddenly – and surprisingly, accessible. Regular weekly Feldenkrais classes made a real difference to me. On those rare occasions that feelings of discomfort in my knee or back reappear I can approach them with curiosity – how am I moving? how could I do it differently?
A regular practice helps me to move better and feel better. It is empowering to feel curious about any pain in my joints. Instead of experiencing a feeling of inevitability or defeat, I now feel I have options and am able to find improvements in the things I do.
I practice Feldenkrais to help me to do the activities that I love more easily; for longer; with more enjoyment and, I feel, with improved outcomes.
Jon
I have been training in martial arts since my early teens, starting with Kung Fu; Lau Gar and then Wing Chun. Looking for some more “internal”, softer aspects to my training I then started Tai Chi (Yang style) in my twenties. I moved to Systema in my thirties, a fascinating martial art with a very different model of teaching, in which I went on to become a qualified teacher. This sparked further curiosity in how we learn and skill acquisition.
I was working as a dog walker and starting to get little niggles and aches and at one point a herniated (slipped) disc in my thoracic spine. It was while researching skill acquisition and ways to treat or prevent the physical issues I was having that I heard about the Feldenkrais Method. Something that addressed both of those areas at the same time?! I attended a weekend workshop to try it and was hooked.
I found Feldenkrais a great complement to the Systema martial arts training that I was doing and it went on to have a big influence on my approach to teaching. After more Feldenkrais lessons and reading around the subject, I decided to embark on the four year training, qualifying to teach group classes (ATM) in 2018 and one-to-one, hands on classes (FI) in 2020.
Contact Us
For more information on Feldenkrais or our classes please get in touch.