Body Language:

An Excursion Through the Alphabet in Somatic Terms
Part Two
by Thomas Myers

Read Part One

Myers explores Moshe Feldenkrais' Functional Integration and its use for better posture. Myers describes his first encounter with Moshe Feldenkrais and how this initial meeting prompted him to become a student of Feldenkrais. Emphasized by Myers is Feldenkrais' belief that posture is not static, or rather, " … we are always moving, making postural adjustments constantly, even at our most still." Myers asks that therapists check to see if they are really "helping or merely enabling" their clients by "generating the awareness that can indeed change action patterns." Other questions on how to "create multiple correlations between perception and movement," are posed by Myers for therapists to consider in helping clients reach improved movement goals. Myers discusses the concepts of minimum effort and reversibility as Feldenkrais' answers to the question, What is functional? Myers defines minimum effort as an "ease … characterized by the lack of parasitic movement." A parasitic movement is described as an unnecessary movement. He goes on to explain reversibility as a movement that can be redirected at any time during the action. Myers also offers an exercise that assists with understanding the meaning of reversibility.