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Patron Treasures

Formerly known as Patrons Monthly.
Why this change?

Welcome! Everyone can browse our Patron Treasures below. Click lesson titles for more info.

 

Why be a Patron?

The Feldenkrais Project's 50+ free lessons are a crowd-funded labor of love. If you believe, like we do, that Feldenkrais makes the world a better place, please join the Project as a Patron to support our work and access over 75 Patron Treasures lessons below, plus other Patrons-only lessons. You'll also get full access to our Deep Dive courses.

A Patron-level membership costs about what you'd pay to attend a single Feldenkrais or other movement class per month!

Join the Project as a Patron

Our annual costs are typically over $25,000 for technology and our part-time staff – plus 50-100 hours of Nick's time each month – as we improve this site, spread the word about our vision, and add new lessons and features to our industry-leading resources. Your support really matters!

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New for Patrons

31m

Essence for “Experts”: Whole Body Arms (31m, Patrons)

A review version of this lesson. Organize action from your head, spine, and tail, and refresh their functional relationships with your shoulders. Then it's time for the arms: twist, roll, reach, and circle them while sustaining whole body awareness.
63m

Long Belly, Strong Back: Expanded Workshop Version (Patrons)

A 3-minute talk introduces the workshop. Then, after a few explorations in standing, you'll lie down and dive into quiet, precise movements of your pubic bone, sternum, scapulas, and sitbones designed to organize your spine and hips for powerful action and easier uprightness. Late in the lesson, juxtapose your new skills with common movement habits that diminish our abilities and confidence: do you press the ground or lift up and through? Are your hips in front of the action or behind it? The more clearly you sense these differences in all that you do, the better life gets.
58m

Finding Sensations of Not Shortening (Patrons)

Side-lying and front-lying with optional rolling, framed by brief standing explorations. Movement riddles for the chest, shoulders, neck, spine, and legs are presented in a focused context of lengthening. Uses sensory images of the five cardinal lines of the body, breathing, organizing the “core,” and expanding into the support surface to create opportunities to sense and inhibit unnecessary shortening. Begins with a summary of what we’re exploring.

Average Challenge   front-lying  side-lying  transitioning or rolling 
November 19, 2021
 
58m

Improving Rotation, Embracing Our Differences (Patrons)

Back-lying, often using the self-hug configuration, as well as front-lying. Learning to better sense, differentiate, and skillfully integrate turning your head, neck, shoulders, chest, spine, and pelvis.

More Challenging  back-lying  front-lying 
September 27, 2021
 
36m

The Power of One Foot (22m or 36m, Patrons)

A “short version” stopping point is noted in the middle. Back-lying, one knee bent, framed with brief walking explorations. This potently asymmetrical lesson dives deeply into the common ATM lesson ingredient of pushing one foot into the floor. Intended to inspire improvisation after studying, this lesson asks: can you learn how to improve how you’re feeling and functioning even with short or very simple ATM explorations? How about one-sided, or self-led?

Most Accessible  back-lying 
August 20, 2021
 
60m

Self-Hug, Embracing Our Differences (Patrons)

Back-lying, often knees bent. Learning to gently roll the head, shoulders, and chest from side-to-side while skillfully differentiating other parts of the body, especially the legs and pelvis. Explore how we constantly reconfigure our internal organization in order to keep a part of our body unmoving in relationship to the outside world.

Most Accessible  back-lying 
July 1, 2021
 
61m

A Dynamic “Core” Lengthens the Spine (Patrons)

(Advanced lesson. Be sure to read Comfort & Configuration notes) Back-lying, often knees bent. Using a reference image of the five lines of the body, movements of folding the legs create gentle challenges to awareness and self-regulation as you first let the pelvis move freely, then later dynamically stabilize it. While the “core” reckons with the weight of the legs, you’ll explore how to maintain simplicity and length in the spine, easy fullness of breathing, and efficiency of effort.

More Challenging  back-lying 
June 17, 2021
 
60m

Dynamic Balance: Stability Through Suppleness (Patrons)

Framed by brief explorations in standing, this mostly side-lying lesson presents gently de-stabilizing movements of the head and legs to help you explore and improve your balance in a supple, whole-self way.

Average Challenge   side-lying  standing 
May 26, 2021
 
60m

One Bell Hand / Two Bell Hands…and Feet (31m + 29m, Patrons)

Named after the shape the hand makes, this pair of half-hour lessons is designed to be completed together the first time through. Reset your nervous system and learn to relate the activity and skillfulness of your hands with your whole self.

  • Lesson 1 – Side-lying, balancing a forearm and lower leg in relationship with bell hand movements.
  • Lesson 2 (starts at 31:30) – Back-lying, sensing the relationship of the orientation of head and eyes with the activity of the hands, and relating the hands with the feet.
Most Accessible  back-lying  side-lying 
April 28, 2021
 
57m

Rib Basket, Shoulder Cloak (Patrons)

Framed by brief standing explorations of breathing and walking, this mostly back-lying lesson is designed to improve differentiation of the ribs and shoulders, and to improve their integration with functional movements of the arms, legs, hips, spine, and head. Uses a fascinating constraint of precisely relating the scapulas to the plane of the floor.

Average Challenge   back-lying 
March 25, 2021
 
58m

Sensing Stability: The Sacral Clock (Patrons)

Framed with explorations of dynamic stability in standing, this back-lying lesson is a play on Moshe Feldenkrais’ most famous image. Small movements in an unusual configuration of the legs create a precise, gentle challenge designed to promote new awareness and choices for our hip joints, pelvis, and lower back (along with everything else).

Average Challenge   back-lying  standing 
February 19, 2021
 
58m

Side-Bending with Listening Hands, Connecting Legs and Head (Patrons)

Side-lying. Using your own soft, listening hands to help integrate your head, hips, and legs with an increased awareness and suppleness of your ribs.

Average Challenge   side-lying 
January 21, 2021
 
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Deep Dives with Patron Treasures

To enjoy some of our Patron Treasures in larger learning contexts, try our Deep Dives, where we integrate Patrons-only content with other Feldenkrais Project lessons in specialized study sequences. Patrons have full access.

See Our Deep Dives

More Collections Just for Patrons

12 Lessons from Awareness Through Movement

Developed from Moshe Feldenkrais’s 1972 book, written to introduce his method to the world.

Legacy and Alternate Lessons

Some listeners prefer the classics. When a lesson is replaced or updated the original goes here.

8 Comments

  1. Nick Strauss-Klein on March 5, 2019 at 3:57 pm

    As you explore our Patron Treasures please leave comments and questions on the lesson pages – they build our community, improve our visibility on the web, and refine my teaching and which lessons I choose to add.

    You can also leave a comment right here to request lessons or topics of study.

    Reply
  2. Margit on March 24, 2019 at 4:05 pm

    I like lessons with a rolling part in them, they are so much fun! This lesson maked me especially aware of my Sternum and that I usually direct it “backwords”. I will pay attention to a more balanced direction (in the mid of backwards and forwards) of my Sternum after doing this lesson. Thank you Nick for sharing your Knowledge with us.

    Reply
  3. jean kirk on April 4, 2021 at 5:05 pm

    Rib basket and shoulder cloak lesson is great. Taught me a lot about being upright.

    Reply
  4. Helina Karvak on June 18, 2022 at 7:43 am

    Hi! I’m interested in voice as topic of study 🙂

    Reply
    • Nick Strauss-Klein on June 20, 2022 at 12:00 pm

      That’s great – me too! My wife is a singer and I’ve wanted for years to develop my own ease in speaking. Lessons for the voice are on the back burner right now, but I think I’ll get to it!

      Reply
  5. Trudy J on May 2, 2024 at 3:56 am

    Hi Nick
    What pathway would you go down to help correct a scoliosis of the spine. I am unsure where to start. Thanks so much.
    Cheers Trudy

    Reply
    • Nick Strauss-Klein on May 2, 2024 at 10:12 am

      Most scoliosis is caused by patterns of action, movement habits we’ve unconsciously developed over the years that shorten our spines unnecessarily in asymmetrical ways. Lessons that bring awareness to your integrated use of your whole spine in your actions are great. Admittedly, this is basically all Feldenkrais lessons! A few ideas to try to answer your question more specifically:

      • – Try our Little Dip called Spinal Support
      • – Search our lessons for “spine” and follow your curiosity. You can filter by clicking “show advanced options,” or uncheck the “courses and video lessons” option if you just want to see specific lessons.
      • – Collections #2 and #4 are also really relevant.
      • – The Anti-Gravity Lesson (the finale of collection #2) can be very useful for some folks for scoliosis, especially if they’ve done a lot of Feldenkrais lessons like the ones above prior. Go very small and slow. You’re looking for the sense the that up-your-mat forces might naturally align your vertebrae, like how pushing a line of slightly disordered dominoes laying flat on a table can “straighten them out,” bringing their edges into full contact, if done with patience and precision.
      Reply
      • Trudy J on May 2, 2024 at 1:15 pm

        Fantastic response Nick. It’s funny. Whilst I waited for a response I I intuitivley just headed to start on collection #2 as I felt sure lessons for the spine would help but I am glad I asked anyway because I love your response. Thanks again!

        Reply

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