I am using Zoom, which means that a recording of your session is included in the fee, and is yours to keep.
All group class fees are ‘suggested-rate-or-any-donation-welcome’
All booking is via direct contact with me, by email or phone call – all my contact details are here
Please note that a brief description of all my regular classes appears here first, and thus this list may not be in a sensible order, date-wise!
You will find more detailed descriptions of all my regular online classes on this page.
Awareness Through Movement Online Classes on Zoom
Tuesdays @ Noon
12 pm – 1.00 pm BST
£10 per class, or any donation welcome
This class is a general class and suitable for all levels of ability – we sometimes have time for a group chat afterwards for anyone who does not need to dash away. I find that these chats are very valuable for deepening all our understanding of what Feldenkrais is all about.
Thursdays @ 5pm/6pm
5 or 6 pm BST for an hour
This is a very gentle class and particularly suitable for anyone with chronic issues with injury, pain, or fatigue.
£10 per class, or any donation welcome
*Regular attendees will receive all the recordings even if they miss a class, and we are currently switching between 6pm and 5pm BST as is convenient for the majority of the attendees
These are ongoing classes, so the intention is for you to commit to attending on a regular basis: once a week is good, twice a week is better. Feldenkrais is about learning to learn; these are skills that you will develop over time with practice, and the benefits you will experience are also cumulative.
One reason I am so enjoying teaching on Zoom is the facility to share a recording of the class so you can build up an archive of lessons to explore whenever you wish.
FaceBook: Feldenkrais & Embodied Voice, HumanSong––Self-Expression & Performance
Your Potent Inner Voice
Sensory Self-Awareness for Self-Healing
Wednesday Evenings
7–8.30 pm BST / 1–2.30 pm EDT
Online + Recording
£15 – or any donation welcome
These extended evening classes focus on my Feldenkrais-based self-healing strategies, and the recordings are intended to make it very easy for you to develop these skills for yourself. I am exploring the evening format with the intention of supporting better sleep as well as pain relief and self-calming. I do realise that those of you joining us for elsewhere at different times of day may not be looking for such a soporific experience!
*Please note that you can choose to join us for the first hour of the class only, as I am aware that may make joining the class regularly more manageable for you. The first hour of the class is an adapted Awareness Through Movement lesson, and after a short refreshment break we continue with a general discussion of any aspects of Inner Voice that interest us as a group.
Dr Stephen Porges PolyVagal Theory provides an explanation for the efficacy of breath and voice practises at a neurological and evolutionary level. Our nervous system is focussed on our safety, and our sense of safety is fundamental to our sense of wellness. The vagus nerve manages both our older reptilian stress management circuits and our newer mammalian circuits, and we can use the management of our to soothe ourselves, increase our sense of safety, and shift our nervous system into our rest-and-recuperation mode – the neurological state that switches on our self-healing mechanisms, and helps to promote our physical and mental resilience.
Every time we inhale we briefly stimulate our sympathetic state-of-readiness (known as our fight-or-flight mode), and then, as we exhale again we shift back into our rest-and-recuperate mode – so all we need to do to soothe our nervous system is to exhale for a little longer than we inhale – it is that simple. This is I am sure the reason why there is so much evidence that singing is proven to be good for the health. When you examine the evidence you quickly discover that it is all based on research into communal singing, but once you understand Porges theories then you can easily see how to use these practices in a way that is effective even when you are singing while home alone.
BOOKING IS BY EMAIL – as it is for all my classes, courses and workshops!
Contact Details Here – if you want to reserve your place on this, or any of my online workshops. Please note that you can always let me know that you are interested in a particular workshop or course, and then confirm with me closer to the time, once you are certain.
Daily Class–Immersive Courses
Next course October 7th – 11th – details below
Once a month I usually teach a week-long course of daily classes – these are currently on hold, and will be resuming in June with a series of Summer Schools.
Effortless Wellbeing
Develop Your Capacity For Self-Management
Understanding & Regulating Your Nervous System with Feldenkrais
October 7th–11th
Online + Recordings & Notes
2–3.30pm* BST ~ 9–10.30am EDT ~ 6–7.30am PDT
*Please note that the daily start time of this course MAY vary – potentially it will run one hour earlier on both Tuesday and Friday. I hope this flexible start time is not too frustrating!
£100 (suggested fee, or any donation welcome)
When I first came across Dr Stephen Porges’ ideas about the nervous system’s need for safety and human connection I immediately recognised how closely the satisfying of this fundamental need is built into the Feldenkrais process – I wrote about this in some detail here and rather than attempt to produce an informative précis in a couple of sentences I would like to encourage you to read the whole article.
Here is a short excerpt…
When we feel safe it is natural to also be playful, creative, spontaneous, and to generate bold new ideas. These “neuroceptive” bodily “felt/senses” influence how we behave in social situations, so that we will either be in a compassionate, friendly, open, listening and responsive state, or a defensive, unwelcoming, judgemental, critical, territorial state. And of course, being complex, sophisticated creatures we can experience both these modes in the same social environment, but not at the same time – if someone at a party “sets your teeth on edge” you escape and find more pleasurable company as soon as you can extricate yourself.
It is also useful to mention that our stress response is very finely tuned, and we can have a rush of stress hormones from something as momentary as a colleague turning away from us as we are speaking – so you can imagine the negative effect all these distracting smart phones are having on our everyday interactions.
Potent Voice Sunday Workshops…
Vocal Strength & Stamina
Increasing your vocal potency
October 20th
Online + Recordings & Notes
2 pm – 5 pm BST [9 am – 12 pm EDT]
£45 (suggested fee, or any donation welcome)
This class will focus on how you can use your natural breathing co-ordination to develop clarity, power and sustain in your singing or speaking voice. Many popular singers use a lot of ‘free breath’ in the voice and rely totally on their microphone technique for volume control. Free breath in your voice can cause dryness and discomfort in your throat, and develop into inefficient and damaging speaking and singing habits.
Once you understand the relationship between your breath and your vocal quality, power will come naturally and easily whenever you need it. Next we will explore how to adjust your laryngeal muscles in order to maintain a healthy and happy singing or speaking voice – with the added benefit of increasing your pitch range.
We will then go on to explore how to coordinate this way of ‘opening the throat’ with the kind of internal muscle control that gives you direct access to easy and flexible volume control.
This workshop will be ideal for…
…Preparing your larynx to produce the loudest and most powerful vocal qualities, Classical and Belting
…Enabling easier access to your highest notes.
…Enabling us to both protect the voice from injury, and heal it if it does become injured.
The fee includes recordings and notes to make it easy for you to continue practising at home, and to minimise the need for note taking during the class.
Potent Voice workshops are beneficial for:
Singers, presenters, performers, and anyone interested in the voice, and any aspect of self-expression
Anyone dealing with chronic stress issues, or breathing problems/conditions
Anyone dealing with chronic tension in the face, tongue, jaw, neck, and throat
Anyone interested in meditation, chanting, and neural self-regulation
Anyone who feels that emotional inhibition is limiting their capacity for self-expression and self-assertion.
Please do contact me with any questions you may have, and note that BOOKING IS BY EMAIL, so you can contact me via this link if you want to reserve your place for any of my online events.
You are also always welcome to sign up for the recordings and notes of any course should you be unable to join us live.
COMING UP LATER THIS AUTUMN…
Effortless Core Integration
Daily Immersive – November 7th–11th
Coming Up In November: I will be teaching an Extended Class focussing on Touch for Frederick Schjang for his
THE GLOBAL FELDENKRAIS FESTIVAL
November 11-17
…and the week will finish with a 24 hour Awareness Through Movement Cycle – I am organising the ‘European’ team who will be teaching the final leg, on Sunday 17th, from 11am to 7pm – I already have a fantastic team booked, more news soon…
Why Come Along To An Immersive Class?
I am keen to make the benefits of regular lessons available to as many people as possible, so once a month I teach a week-long course of daily classes on a particular theme, and in the Summer I teach two Summer Schools, one with a general theme and one with a vocal theme.
You do not need to be able to make it to every class in order to sign up for my immersive daily courses – if you miss a particular session you will have the opportunity to catch up before the next one, as you will receive your recordings and any extra materials I am providing each day as we go along. This means you are welcome to simply join us whenever you are free throughout the week.
You are also welcome to sign up to receive the Course recordings and extras even if you are not able to join us live at all. I am scheduling intermittent Q&A sessions on Zoom in different time slots, with the intention of giving more people access to the individual attention which I am keen to include as an essential element of all my online teaching. Please note I am always happy to respond to individual voice-message questions on WhatsApp. Please do get in touch with me if you would like to chat about any of my classes, or to make a booking.
…All online sessions include recordings and notes. For more details click here for workshops, and here for regular classes…
Individual Vocal Training Sessions
Rather than lower my standard rate for one-to-one sessions online, which is £70 for a 75 minute session, I am offering one-to-one online sessions as “suggested fee or donation”, for the time being. The extra time is necessary for discussion and feedback. I can accept payments via BACS, and, if that is inconvenient for any reason, PayPal.
Functional Self-Integration Lessons
I am still exploring ways to share my self-healing Quintessensual Consciousness practice. While this is still in the development stage I am offering a special rate of £40* for individual online sessions. This is a version of Feldenkrais focussed on pain and stress relief.
There are more details on my Home page, and several articles about it in the Writing area of my website. Do not hesitate to contact me if you would like to discuss with me whether this form of meditative training might be of help to you.
*Suggested-fee-or-donation rate applies.
Many years ago I recorded a short lesson about breathing – here is a link to this lesson in the archive on the Feldenkrais UK Guild website – enjoy!