“You wake up in the morning, and nothing is in the right place!” 

Coralia Jianu

I am delighted that Feldenkrais Access have asked me to teach a course on Feldenkrais as an effective approach to managing the joint and movement-related aspects of the connective tissue disorders bundled under the umbrella term Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS). This complex collection of overlapping conditions has begun to attract a great deal more medical attention and research in recent years, which is why I am not surprised that although there are ‘only’ 13 types listed on the Ehlers-Danlos Support UK website there has been speculation about a 14th type since 2018 – I don’t doubt that number will continue to rise as new data continues to emerge.

It seems sensible to begin with what I have learned about this condition so far:

The various EDS/Hypermobile Spectrum Disorder conditions are all ‘connective tissue’ disorders, meaning that any part of yourself that is formed out of collagen proteins may be affected. Collagen is one of the most abundant proteins within us, pretty much every part of our physical self has some percentage of these proteins, making them vital for the strength and structural integrity – and therefore the healthy functioning of – our skin, muscles, bones, ligaments, tendons, organs  (including our blood vessels), and the overall integrity of our entire musculo-fascial network.

To an outside observer the most obvious signs of hypermobility are joints that have an abnormally large range of motion, but this is by no means always the most prevalent issue, and as you can tell from the many types, the way EDS presents is extremely variable. This means that someone like me might not get a speedy diagnosis, as my variation of EDS is not very visible on the outside, and it is only once I discovered the symptoms relating to our organs and skin that I realised just how many of my life-long issues could be explained by hypermobile EDS [hEDS]. 

I don’t score very high on the Beighton Scale test for joint hypermobility, and once I had more knowledge I realised that my spine is my main area of instability, hence my tendency to suffer trapped nerves (including intermittent sciatica), and (in the past) chronic neck and shoulder girdle pain. I also have problems with my hips, knees and ankles, but with me these issues are not easy to spot if you don’t know what you are looking for. My pronated feet did catch the attention of a nurse at my primary school, but this did not lead to anything like a formal investigation. I was very clumsy and awkward, with no physical strength or stamina, but I simply saw myself as a ‘poor specimen’ compared to the more athletic girls around me. 

My dad, a highly competent engineer, used to call me ‘cack-handed’, and in many ways I still am that awkward child; I trip over my own feet; bang into doors and walls; constantly catch my clothing on door handles, etc. etc. Things fall out of my hands – I prefer to use sharp knives as they cut more easily, and thus I have perfected the art of jumping out of the way whenever I drop one – so far I still have all my toes! As a child I was slow to learn physical skills and did not perfect them the way others did; throwing and catching balls, skipping, hula-hooping, hitting things with bats and racquets; I was unsuccessful at almost all of what came under the banner of physical education. Nevertheless I loved to move, happily dancing to music, swimming (inefficiently), and ice skating twice a week without ever getting further than beginner level – becoming able to skate backwards seemed impressive enough to me!

Had my parents sought some kind of diagnosis I think I would have been recognised as ‘dyspraxic’. I was already wearing glasses at the age of seven. I managed to injure myself badly while running three times during my school years, and as I also heal badly those scars are still visible. I dreaded any form of team sport, and anything that required good hand-eye coordination. Once I was old enough to go out dancing I constantly twisted my ankles, worsening the injury by continuing to dance until the end of the night, and waking up the next morning with severe swelling. I developed a kind of chronic whiplash in my neck from ‘head-banging’ to rock music. Still I simply saw myself as badly coordinated, not as someone who had some kind of built-in disadvantage. It was when I tried to learn to drive and my inability to tell right from left became an major handicap, that I saw myself as dysfunctional in a more distinct way.

I do not want to overstate what is possible with Feldenkrais, nevertheless for me it was an obvious boon from the start. A sudden-onset sciatic attack cleared up completely during my first ever workshop and from then on I was fully committed to learning this method. Over time as I practiced Awareness Through Movement I found that I could stand for longer without developing back pain; I could use movement to reverse my way out of sciatica as soon as I sensed an acute attack developing; I could re-organise the parts of my spine that were causing pain in my neck and upper back without visiting the osteopath, and, as my teachers suggested would happen, I steadily developed the ability to recognise what was on my left and what was on my right more speedily, and more often.  

Whether or not you have a official diagnosis, these are the issues that are associated with joint hypermobility that I am confident Feldenkrais can help you with:

…finding ways to move with your whole self in a better organised way that maximises your capacity for ease and efficiency while minimising any tendency to injure yourself through physical awkwardness (improving your Kinesthetic Sense).

…finding ways to maintain a physical position when necessary without any unnecessary bracing. We find our ease in sitting and standing through constant, subtle skeletal adjustments, letting go of the places where we are fighting gravity, and realigning ourselves so that our skeleton is supporting more and more of our weight, allowing our contractile tissues – our muscle and fascia – to develop and maintain a state of easy responsiveness (improving your Proprioception).

…improving the quality of your breathing and your breathing coordination. Better breathing over time can also improve the general functioning of your organs, particularly your digestive organs, and including your swallowing ability, if you have any issues in that area.

Better breathing is also a route to better, more efficient self-calming strategies –many people with hEDS conditions have a tendency to suffer with high levels of anxiety. It seems likely to me that this is not just down to the effects of the structural weakness in our internal organs that can cause them to ‘misfire’, leading to issues with palpitations, and dizziness, but also the natural result of growing up without a reliable sense of physical balance and stability. 

Through regular Awareness Through Movement practice we can become much better attuned to the various signals coming to us from our internal organs – our interoceptive sense. People with hEDS can develop a heightened interoceptive awareness which can lead to over-sensitivity to the bodily sensations we are experiencing  – improving our capacity to interpret our interoceptive signals more accurately can enable us to better manage our feelings of anxiety as they arise. I will say more about this in the next article, and I have also written more detailed information on this aspect of the functioning of our Autonomic Nervous System and Dr Stephen Porges’ PolyVagal Theory here.

After reading this article you may well be wondering if you have one of these hypermobile conditions.

I think it is worth considering if you might be dealing with a connective tissue issue if you have:

 …some mobile joints, even if other joints are very stiff indeed – managing an area of instability with adjacent areas of chronic bracing and rigidity is a very common strategy for people with hEDS. This is one of the reasons that we can find ourselves feeling permanently weak and drained of energy.

A feeling of being poorly coordinated, not sure of right and left, easily injured, experiencing pains that seem to emerge out of nowhere, and chronic pains without an obvious cause. Fibromyalgia is a common diagnosis for people with EDS, and once pain is chronic in this way we benefit greatly from the constant emphasis on moving slowly, and mindfully, in a much narrower range than we are capable of, and learning stop and rest in plenty of time before we have aggravated our pain. This takes a while to learn, when the signals we receive from the nervous system are so unclear people with hEDS often rely on pain to know when to stop, and by the time we are experiencing pain we may have put ourselves into an injured state that can take days to recover from. 

…digestive issues, including acid reflux, hiatus hernia, irritable bowel syndrome, constipation, and problems with swallowing. We will touch on these issues in the course, but if they are a particular problem for you then I also recommend my other course for Feldenkrais Access, Inside Matters.

I have a lot more to say about Feldenkrais and joint hypermobility, so another article will be on the way very soon.

Here is the link to all the information you need to sign up for Well-Connected, my upcoming course on Feldenkrais and Hypermobility and I welcome any questions you may have – you can contact me here, and you can also sign up for my newsletters on the same page.