Utilization
The "utilization principle" (Erickson & Rossi, 1979) is recognized as
central to Erickson's work, and it is likewise important in understanding
Feldenkrais. Feldenkrais and Erickson often match the student-client's
ongoing experience and behavior in order to facilitate learning and
change. In one dramatic example, Erickson joined in with the agonized
chant of a terminally ill cancer patient in order to induce hypnotic
anesthesia (Zeig, 1980, p. 185). Once I saw Feldenkrais work, rather
grossly I thought, with a small boy with an athetoid form of cerebral
palsy until I realized he was matching the child's rhythm and quality
of movement; the boy was able to learn far more easily from this resonant
pattern than from very smooth movements which lay outside his range
of experience. Bandler and Grinder (1975) have discussed utilization
in terms of "pacing and leading" and say that in pacing, "the hypnotist
is making himself into a sophisticated biofeedback mechanism" (p. 16).
Feldenkrais's methods indeed exemplify a sophisticated biofeedback mechanism.
Functional Integration® creates a direct kinesthetic linkage whereby
the practitioner and student become " a new entity", joined by the hands
of the practitioner (Feldenkrais, 1981a, pp. 3-4). Feldenkrais kinesthetically
"paces and leads" the students breathing, muscular tonus, rhythm, and
other subtle qualities and styles of minimal neuromuscular behavior.
Feldenkrais's movements often accentuate the student's way of holding
the body; his hands shape themselves to the musculoskeletal contours,
supporting and exaggerating what is already being enacted and taking
over the student's own muscular effort. For example, Feldenkrais might
lift and support a pupil's hunched shoulders or tightened lumbar arch.
Once, while working under Feldenkrais's supervision, I was attempting
to release a muscle spasm in an elderly woman's pelvic muscles. He came
over to me, put his hands on mine. and I felt his and my hands merge
with the woman until the three of us were moving as on "ensemble". As
her spasm released and her pelvis began to softly move, Feldenkrais
rhythmically intoned, "Don't contradict her nervous system. It is very
intelligent. It has been making life feasible for this woman for 76
years. Help it to do its job" (personal communication, April, 1979).
For Feldenkrais, muscular tensions are intelligent, useful behaviors
that serve some purpose to the person.
Utilization means cooperating with these unconscious patterns and adjusting
to the individual so that "we can all do our own learning in our own
way" (Zeig, 1980, p. 224). Thus it may be helpful to lengthen further
the side of the body which is longer, or twist the student in the habitual
direction of musculoskeletal torque; this establishes rapport with,
and enables reorganization of those individual-specific patterns which
are often called "symptomatic". Paradoxically, when a person is pushed
sufficiently in his or her own extreme, it begins to feel right for
the person to spontaneously correct his or her posture. For example,
if a man habitually carries his head to the right, by gently increasing
his natural "bent", his own "biofeedback" will redirect him toward more
symmetrical functioning. However, if the man were corrected directly,
he would perceive it in his self-image as an unnatural movement to the
left and his unconscious bias might undermine the correction. In another
instance, Feldenkrais taught a student to open an eye which could not
open properly by exaggerating the eye's closure, thus rendering the
movement of opening, however slight, more perceptible. Even as a young
man, Feldenkrais only played football with him until one day the boy
insisted. on his own, that they do some math homework together. In this
case, utilization of the boy's rebellious feelings toward his father
and his positive feeling for sports were the means to carry him beyond
his learning block Note 3).
Indirect and Paradoxical Techniques
Erickson was well-known for employing indirect and often paradoxical
techniques in hypnosis and psychotherapy. As in some of the examples
already discussed, Feldenkrais, too, avoids direct and obvious approaches
and believes that an indirect solution is often the most effective and
elegant one. For example, in Functional Integration® Feldenkrais
often works only with the "good" side and not the injured or restricted
side of the body. A person with an injured leg depends heavily upon
the "good" leg which, therefore, often becomes strained from doing the
work of two legs. Working on the "good" leg helps the person to move
easier and gives the "bad" leg a chance to rest and heal. In addition,
passively lengthening and shortening the "good" leg effects an isomorphic,
reciprocal movement on the opposite side of the pelvis and spine; thus,
the "bad" leg undergoes the same movement but indirectly. Indirect movements
can bypass protective reactions which may be considerable in cases of
pain and trauma and help teach the person how to move in a healthful
manner.
Feldenkrais's " artificial floor" technique illustrates how he can elicit
the learning of whole functions through partial cues conveyed through
any part or parts of the body (Feldenkrais, 1981a, pp. 139-142). With
a pupil lying supine on the work table, Feldenkrais applies subtle pressures
to the sole of the foot with a flat board or book in order to "simulate
walking on even ground" through proprioceptive cues. While on the table,
the person probably has no conscious inkling of what is being learned;
he or she is simply absorbed in pleasant kinesthetic sensations. However,
upon getting up and walking, the pupil will appreciate that his or her
nervous system has undergone a substantial reorganization in its "image"
of walking. In this manner Feldenkrais teaches "sensory-motor excellence
to normal individuals and to individuals with problems such as cerebral
palsy.
Feldenkrais's indirect techniques are made possible by what neurophysiologist
Karl Pribram (1971) has called the "hologramic" nature of the nervous
system whereby each part expresses an image of the whole. This idea
also helps explain Erickson's ability to "mind read" from minimal cues.
Feldenkrais's and Erickson's techniques represent a refinement of what
we all observe in nonverbal communication: the signaling of intentions
through partial and initiatory actions. We follow a person's attention
through eye movements and posture; the readiness to speak-or even its
content- is conveyed by changes in a person's mouth or breathing; and
so forth. By extension we can conceive how, by delicately moving a cellist's
scapula, one could not only "relax" the musician, but much more precisely,
convey the means to bow the instrument in a new way. Every motor skill
is inscribed in a global pattern of organization in the person's body
and nervous system. Erickson pointed out, for example, that writing
is an action of the entire body (Zeig, 1980, p. 319). Accordingly, our
wealth of lifelong motoric learning has created a kinesthetic matrix
of associations as individualized as "our own linguistic patterns, our
own personal understandings" (Zeig, 1980, p. 78). The efficacy of these
indirect learning techniques is therefore dependent on a Feldenkrais
practitioner's ability to "speak"" with the hands in a way that the
individual student kinesthetically understands.
Pattern Interruptions
"Differentiated" and "nonhabitual" movements form a group of Feldenkrais
techniques which can be understood as analogous to Erickson's pattern
interruptions. Just as Erickson often prescribed out of the ordinary
behaviors and even engineered situations in order to shake people our
of their patterns, Feldenkrais often creates sufficiently novel and
unfamiliar learning situations to do the same. "Differentiated" movements
may refer to moving the eyes, head, shoulders, and pelvis in separate
directions; "nonhabitual" movements may consist in simply reversing
one's habitual way of interlacing the fingers or being asked to perform
unfamiliar and familiar movements in novel positions. The situation
of learning something radically new produces a major shift in the brain
and often induces a trancelike state reminiscent of Erickson's "confusion
technique". Feldenkrais's differentiated and nonhabitual movements are
modeled on the organic, experimental learning of children. Normal motor
development follows a rhythmical course of increasing differentiation
and synergistic integration. For example, discrete movements of the
extremities are differentiated from global actions involving the entire;
discrete finger movements are differentiated from undifferentiated hand
movements such as grasping, with each succeeding differentiation supported
by integrated activity of the whole body. In cases of abnormal development
such as cerebral palsy, Feldenkrais may initially go with, and pace
a person's spastic, undifferentiated functioning that displays the action
of "higher" neurological inhibition. In cases of stroke or even stress-related
muscular tension, people regress to less differentiated functional states;
and differentiation must be reacquired. Again, Feldenkrais's approach
is to "pace and lead", shifting between undifferentiated and increasingly
differentiated patterns.
Nonhabitual and highly differentiated movements displace a person from
his or her customary mind and body "set". The person who, for example,
has back trouble or is depressed is transported to a novel situation
where he or she has not already learned how to have this problem (Baniel,
personal communication, July, 1983). The new way of acting is therefore
not tainted with recollections of inability and discomfort. When learning,
we disengage from customary patterns and awaken to discover ourselves
capable of doing things formerly believed impossible.
Hypnotic Communication
Functional Integration® as described by Feldenkrais certainly evokes
the image of trance experience:
Functional Integration® turns to the oldest elements of our sensory system-
touch, the feelings of pull and pressure, the warmth of the hand,
its caressing stroke. The person becomes absorbed in sensing the diminishing
muscular tonus, the deepening and the regularity of breathing, abdominal
ease, and improved circulation in the expanding skin. The person senses
his most primitive, consciously forgotten patterns and recalls the
well-being of a growing young child. (1981a, p. 121)
Similarly,
the Awareness Through Movement® extract at the beginning of the
chapter calls to mind many Ericksonian patterns of hypnotic communication,
including embedded and indirect suggestions. And, the effect of the
lesson is certainly "hypnotic".
Yet, interestingly, Feldenkrais does not refer to "hypnosis" or "trance"
either in practice or theory, His language is situated in the context
of human movement learning, and it is sensory-based. "States of consciousness"
are invoked primarily insofar as they are embodied in sensible qualities
of activity. In actual practice this is not as restriction as it may
sound since movement is an expression of the self. Feldenkrais's parallel
"hypnotic" approaches may be summarized as follows: (a) the induction
of a positive, subjective state which is conducive to learning, including
feelings of ease, comfort, reduced muscular tonus; (b) the sensitivity
to an validation of self-experience; (c) the training of somatopsychic
skills including imagery, memory, attention, physiological and neuromuscular
control; (d) the utilization of life-experiential and species-experiential
knowledge; (e) indirect approaches; (f) pattern interrupting techniques;
and (g) emphasis upon mutual respect, codependent interaction and
communication where practitioner and student reciprocally learn from
each other.
An Illustration
Once Feldenkrais worked with a middle-aged man who had been in a wheelchair
for 16 years after an automobile accident and subsequent spinal operation.
His legs were spastic and he sat quite stooped with a depressed look
on his face. Feldenkrais began by seemingly attempting to straighten
the back directly, gently pushing with his hands into the middle of
the kyphotic curve. As long as Feldenkrais supported him, the man
sat erectly; but as soon as he took his hands away, he slouched into
his original position. Clearly, the man's nervous system would reject
any willful attempt, on his own part or anyone else's, to straighten
his back.
Then Feldenkrais asked him to stick out his tongue and do the movement
animals do to lap water (which involves a wavelike movement of thrusting
the head forward). He was asked to repeat the movement slowly, reducing
his effort, and making each movement more comfortable than the last.
After resting, he was asked to repeat the movement with his face turned
to the right, then to the left, and finally while moving his head
slowly from one side to the other. As his movements gradually involved
more of his spine and entire self, minute by minute he sat more erectly
in his chair; and after about 15 minutes, he sat with his head held
high and an alert, pleasant look on his face. Feldenkrais then pointed
out that his legs were relaxed and no longer spastic. Next, Feldenkrais
had the man lie down on the table on his back; and in the process
his legs became spastic once again. Feldenkrais asked the man to think
of what he had been doing with his tongue. As the man imagined the
movement of lapping water, his legs again relaxed. After working nonverbally
with the man for about 15 minutes, Feldenkrais had him move back to
his wheelchair. But as he started the effort of lifting himself, his
legs again became spastic. After Feldenkrais reminded him of the tongue
movement, he was then able to manage himself much more easily without
his legs becoming stiff. In order to understand the movement of lapping
water, experience the movement yourself and observe what your head
and neck do. You will discover that if you perform the movement slowly,
gently, and repeatedly, your entire body will become involved in the
act. Notice that although the active, intentional, and conscious movement
is to thrust the head forward as the tongue reaches for "water", the
relatively passive, unintentional, and unconscious phase requires
straightening the cervical arch and taking the head into its most
erect position. Thus, in light of what has been said, we can see that
this movement is an indirect technique of learning improved posture
and spinal organization; a utilization of the man's forward stoop
in a pleasant-feeling movement; a pattern interruption of his usual
manner of seeing himself and holding himself; a " naturalistic trance
induction" involving repetitious movements and sensory-based suggestions
for increasing ease, comfort, and satisfaction; and a utilization
of latent phylogenetic and ontogenetic neuromotor patterns involving
movements of the mouth and jaw in organic relation to the first cervical
vertebra, the tongue, swallowing, breathing, and locomotion. Finally,
we can see how the new movement quality can be used as a kinesthetic
reminder- and a form of "posthypnotic suggestion"-for the possibility
of increased ease and lightness of movement.
THE ARTISTRY OF FELDENKRAIS AND ERICKSON
Feldenkrais and Erickson are artists as well as therapists and teachers.
As artist-scientists, they continually go beyond themselves and never
abandon an experimental attitude. With their students they consistently
attempt to provoke creativity, individuality, and originality of thinking.
For example, when Erickson said that the practice of psychotherapy
should be "charming and interesting", he was going beyond a solely
practical, therapeutic frame of reference. He was challenging himself
as an artist to be inventive as well as effective. Analogously, Feldenkrais
directly compared his lessons to "procedures...in learning to paint,
to play an instrument, or to solve a mathematical problem...Pianists
of genius when practicing...always...discover an alternative to the
habitual" (1981, p. 95). Thus, over the years Feldenkrais developed
literally thousands of different Awareness Through Movement® and
Functional Integration® lessons, and Erickson displayed a similar
virtuosity of styles and techniques. A Teaching Seminar demonstrates
how Erickson was able to find unexpected ways to humor and stimulate
his students to "think in all directions" (Zeig, 1980, p. 128); and
Feldenkrais, like Erickson, tells stories to teach flexible thinking
as well as moving. He relates that he once was seated opposite a man
on a train who was reading from a book held upside down. After a few
moments of bewilderment, wondering if the man were crazy, joking,
or only pretending to be literate, Feldenkrais asked him why his book
was upside down. "Upside down?" the man replied. "How can a book be
upside down?" The man had gone to a school in a small Yemenite village
where there was only one book to a class. The children sat each day
in a small circle reading their book from "all directions" (personal
communication, March, 1979).
REFERENCE NOTES
1. For information concerning Feldenkrais's work and trained practitioners,
contact the Feldenkrais Guild Office, P.O. Box 11145, San Francisco,
California 94101 2. Feldenkrais, M. Professional Training Program,
June, 1975. 3. Feldenkrais, M. Unpublished autobiography, undated.
REFERENCES
Bandler, R. & Grinder, J. (1975). Patterns
of the hypnotic techniques of Milton H Erickson, M.D. (Vol. 1).
Cupertino, CA: Meta Publications.
Blechschmidt, E. (1977). The beginnings of human life. New York: Springer-Verlag.
Erickson, M. & Rossi, E. (1979). Hypnotherapy. New York: Irvington.
Feldenkrais, M. (1949). Body and mature behavior. New York; International
Universities Press.
Feldenkrais, M. (1967). The case of Nora. New York: Harper & Row.
(Out of print, but available from the Feldenkrais Guild Office.)
Feldenkrais, M. (1972) Awareness Through Movement®.
New York: Harper & Row.
Feldenkrais, M. (1981a). The Elusive Obvious.
Cupertino, CA: Meta Publications.
Feldenkrais, M. (1981b, May). San Francisco "Quest" Workshop. Washington,
DC: ATM Recordings.
Haley, J. (1967). Advanced techniques of hypnosis and therapy. New
York: Grune & Stratton.
Pribram, K. (1971). Languages of the brain. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
Prentice-Hall.
Zeig, J. K. (Ed. ). (1980). A teaching seminar with Milton H. Erickson,
M.D. New York: Brunner/Mazel.
Zeig, J. K. (1982). Ericksonian approaches to hypnosis and phychotherapy.
New York: Brunner/ Mazel.
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