JP resident Eve Boltax has been bringing the Feldenkrais method to Jamaica Plain since she graduated from the training program in 2020.
The Feldenkrais method, as Boltax describes it, is “really a process of experiential learning through movement,” as well as “all about self-discovery through sensory exploration.”
The method is named after Moshé Feldenkrais, a 20th century physicist, engineer, and martial artist who was able to rehabilitate his own injured knee and avoided having surgery. There are now more than 10,000 Feldenkrais practitioners worldwide, Boltax said.
Boltax found the Feldenkrais method when she was in graduate school for viola performance. She had played the violin for three to six hours a day since she was six years old, but “despite my working hard and having great teachers, I was still feeling blocked.”
She said that once she learned about the Feldenkrais method, “my viola playing suddenly improved. It got freer and easier and more comfortable.”
She added that “Feldenkrais was showing me a way of progress from ease rather than strain.”
After graduate school, Boltax said that she “lost touch” with the method, instead turning to yoga and freelancing as a professional musician.
But once she learned that there will be a Feldenkrais training in Boston, “I applied without hesitation,” she said. The training took four years to complete, and she said that “I found that the method was the most intriguing thing to me since music.
“Today, I share the method with all types of people who are feeling blocked for whatever reason,” whether it be getting out of bed to sit at the computer, chronic pain, recovering from injury, people with Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, anxiety, depression, or simply just moving around the house more easily.
The Feldenkrais method offers individual sessions as well as group classes. Boltax described the one-on-one sessions as “personally tailored, hands-on, fully clothed lessons to help you with your individual needs.”
The group classes offer “awareness through movement,” and can be accessed online through virtual classes or in person.
The Feldenkrais method is “really for anyone who wants to learn and improve and take their health matters into their own hands.”
Boltax sees clients in her Jamaica Plain home studio, but this fall will also teach group classes at Blissful Monkey.
Boltax also recently held a full-day Feldenkrais workshop in which attendees learned about the method and talked about what they experienced throughout the day. They also participated in “awareness through movement” classes that used gentle movement sequences and each lesson explored a different theme, she said, that was “based on everyday movements” such as rolling over, reaching, and turning.
The Feldenkrais method offers “thousands of lessons—we never get bored,” Boltax said.
For more information about Boltax’s Feldenkrais practice and the classes she offers, visit her website at www.feldenkraisjamaicaplain.com.