Recordings of this course are available in video and audio form, for streaming or downloading, on our pay-what-you-can Zoom class page.
Deborah is a Feldenkrais Trainer whose remarkable career of teaching and study has included a doctorate of Physical Therapy and decades of experience in Tai Chi, dance, and yoga. Her work has been profoundly important to my own practice and understanding of the Feldenkrais Method, especially her lessons about the pelvic floor, and teachings about chronic pain. Her July 2021 course for the Feldenkrais Project, described below, was phenomenal! Check out the comments section for testimonials from students.
-Nick Strauss-Klein
The Feldenkrais Project presents
Organizing the Core and Pelvic Floor System
with guest teacher Deborah Bowes
Deborah writes:
This Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement series of four classes will explore how to improve the coordination and strength of your “core” muscles. Core strength is much more than contracting your abdominal muscles. The power and strength comes from the appropriate use of the pelvic floor, your breathing, the spinal muscles, the abdominals, and the hips while engaging in full body movements. The Feldenkrais Method offers the chance to notice sensations and the effects of these movements on your sense of vitality and well-being.
You may find that you have better balance, easier breathing, more comfortable sitting, standing or walking. Also, anyone with digestive or continence issues is likely to experience improvement in that as well.
Deborah’s bio:
Deborah Bowes, DPT, GCFT teaches Awareness Through Movement with clarity, complexity, and concern for comfort of all students. She has been a Feldenkrais Practitioner for 34 years, teaching in her private practice and in international Feldenkrais Trainings. She draws on her studies in Tai Chi, dance, and yoga as well as her scientific background in physical therapy. She is adjunct faculty at Saybrook University, teaching Movement Modalities for Wellness. She lives in San Francisco.
Pay-What-You-Can for these recordings
To learn more about Deborah’s remarkable career and teaching click here.
Deborah Bowes is a wonderful person and exciting teacher. I encourage anyone and everyone to attend these classes if possible!
Here’s a sampling of participant Zoom chats that arrived during the discussions after class, plus an excerpt from an email Deborah received. Feel free to add your own comments/questions on this course below!
July 6: Contracting Abdominals, and Core Breathing
“Inner universe of discovery – beautiful lesson thank you”
“Thank you for this series. I feel you will help me resolve my mysteries around PF and Core.”
July 13: Twisting the Ribs and the Container
“Challenging lesson but so so good! I feel super great.”
“I’ve done these type of lessons before but not with the emphasis on the abdomen and pelvic floor – now I feel like I really understand the lesson better.”
“i can breathe so much more now and it feels smooth and comfortable”
July 20: Pelvic Circles Like a Clock
“My whole body feels so loose, free, relaxed”
July 27: Exploring the Movement of Opposition
“Thank you Deborah. That was a wonderful sequence and a great final lesson. It feels great and I felt so light and strong when we stood and walked at the end. Thank you so much.”
“The cumulative power of this month amazing”
A student’s email regarding the course:
“It has been so valuable to have your lessons. This time there was one phrase that stuck with me. You mentioned that there is an optimal length of our front and our back in standing where the muscles of the abdomen and pelvic floor can do what they are designed to do, neither too slack nor too taut. I am playing with that now as I do other lessons and find it so helpful. It’s funny how the way something is phrased or felt by one practitioner and expressed through a lesson can open so many new avenues for learning.”