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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.
63m

Freeing the Neck with Crawling and Rolling (Patrons)

Improving integration of the head, neck, shoulders, chest, spine, pelvis, and legs through explorations of crawling movements, and improvisations toward rolling.

More Challenging  back-lying  front-lying  transitioning or rolling 
July 16, 2020
 
45m

Refining the Shoulders and Hips (45m, Patrons)

Back-lying, sometimes knees bent. Explore small, precise movements of the shoulders and hips, and the fine relationships between them, with an intention toward reducing unnecessary efforts in the torso and improving walking.

Most Accessible  back-lying 
June 26, 2020
 
57m

Buttocks Organizing the Spine (Patrons)

Mostly front-lying. Exploring and integrating contractions of the buttocks with different movements and configurations of the axis (pelvis, spine, and head).

Average Challenge   front-lying 
June 18, 2020
 
58m

Moving Your Head and Legs Backward (Patrons)

Mostly front-lying, frequently one knee pulled up your mat. A sophisticated exploration of primary arching organizations in combination with twisting and pushing off the ground, from head to toes. Begins with a brief “ATM rules” reminder about taking care of yourself in challenging lessons. The lesson begins in back-lying at around the three-minute mark.

More Challenging  front-lying 
April 30, 2020
 
38m

Lifting and Pressing (38m, Patrons)

Back-lying, some front-lying. Relating to the support surface with simple, potent movements designed to promote whole-self awareness and distributed, lengthening efforts as we physically connect to our world.

Most Accessible  back-lying  front-lying 
March 24, 2020
 
35m

Your Naturally Asymmetrical Spine (35m, Patrons)

Back-lying, learning to sense the relationship of movements of the arms in the plane of the floor with movements along the side aspects of the spine, and eventually to initiate them from there. Discover essential differences between one side of the spine and the other (which I call the primary spinal bias), and how those differences are part of every action we take.

Most Accessible  back-lying 
February 2, 2020
 
53m

Freeing Your Breath and Spine: the full-length edit (Patrons)

Various positions, first half back-lying. Experiments with the verticality and 360 possibilities of the breath mechanism, leading it toward greater freedom and adaptability. Along the way, imaging and prompting a more supple, supportive spine. Uses what the Feldenkrais community calls “paradoxical breathing.”
TIMESTAMPS:
• 0:00 Lesson: Freeing Your Breath and Spine
• 37:00 Discussion: effects of coughing, and the problem with breathing any “right” way
• 39:00 Additional ATM explorations

Average Challenge   back-lying  front-lying 
January 24, 2020
 
28m

Easing the Jaw and Neck: the short edit (28m, Patrons)

Back-lying, briefly framed by seated explorations. Exploring and refining basic movements of the jaw, and integrating them with movements of the head and neck. This lesson is often helpful for reducing many types of jaw-related tension and discomfort, including some kinds of headaches, TMJ pain (temporomandibular joint), and discomfort and stiffness in the neck, shoulders, and spine.

Most Accessible  back-lying 
January 24, 2020
 
62m

Reaching, Twisting, and Gazing Smoothly (Patrons)

Side-lying, learning to reach, turn, twist, and roll effortlessly by improving integration of the rotation functions of the axis (head, spine, and pelvis) with movements of the hands, arms, shoulders, chest, breath…and eyes! The Curiosities tab has notes from an introductory discussion with the students before this lesson was recorded.

Average Challenge   side-lying  transitioning or rolling 
October 25, 2019
 
33m

Lengthening the Arms, Freeing the Scapulas (33m, Patrons)

Back-lying, knees bent, arms often resting loosely upwards on the floor, and in self-hug position at other times. Lengthening the arms, differentiating the head, and expanding the mobility and self-image of the shoulder blades (scapulas).

Most Accessible  back-lying 
September 27, 2019
 
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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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