Touch for Well-Being

This 4 week series addresses the situation of ‘touch hunger’, also referred to as skin hunger, a condition which results from having little or no physical contact with other people. From Texas Medical Center: “Touch starvation is a consequence of COVID-19’s physical distancing. The lack of physical touch can lead to mental and physical health issues.” Touch hunger affects your physical, mental and emotional well-being.

Developing more sensitive and skillful touch gives you increased ability to support yours and others health and well-being.

Moshe Feldenkrais in The Elusive Obvious says that touch, as the oldest elements of our sensory system with feelings of pull and pressure, the warmth of the hand and its caressing stroke can bring a person to become absorbed in sensing the lowering of muscular tension, the breathing deepening and becoming more regular, the abdomen easing and circulation improving in the expanding skin. The person may recall the well-being of a growing young child.

Each week in this series, there will be a Feldenkrais Method Awareness Through Movement lesson, a talk about aspects of touch and ideas from positive psychology that will help you to relieve some of the effects of touch hunger. There be time for Q and A in every class, and written responses to further questions that come up during the course.

Benefits of exploring self-touch:

• feeling of overall well-being

• increased positive emotions

• being more present to your own bodily experience

• more sensitivity to yourself and others

• improved circulation

• reduced pain

• greater muscular ease

Who is this for?

The course is designed for everyone, including those who use touch in their professional life.

Series includes:

4 video classes with Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement lessons + talks

15 downloadable audio recordings These are the 4 video classes edited for ease of access

4 Bonus Recordings: Awareness Through Self Touch + Intro to Touch for Well-Being + 2 lessons from Cliff Smyth’s "Easy Hands and Arms" series, designed to help prevent overuse injuries of the hands and arms. The effects on the whole nervous system are profound.

Q and A with Deborah Throughout the 4 week series write in your questions that arise and Deborah will answer them :)

Deborah Bowes and Cliff Smyth combined have over 50 years of touching others to support healing and well-being. Both teachers’ work involves using sensitive, supportive, listening and educational touch. You can learn more about them at www.FeldenkraisSF.com

About Deborah Bowes:

Deborah Bowes is a Feldenkrais® Teacher and Trainer. She initially trained as a physical therapist at Columbia University in New York and later earned a Doctorate in Physical Therapy from Shenandoah University in Virginia. She holds a B.S. in Biology and Physical Education from Rhode Island College.

As a Guild Certified Trainer of the Feldenkrais Method® since 2000, she has taught widely in the United States, Canada, Germany, Sweden, Australia and Colombia for 14 different training organizations and in over 32 training programs.  Her other related in-depth studies and practices include Tai Chi Chuan, Qigong, yoga, sensory awareness, meditation, and dance.

Deborah co-founded the San Francisco Feldenkrais® Center for Movement and Awareness in 1988, and for the past 30 years, has provided Feldenkrais lessons, classes, and workshops to adults and children. She has made many presentations and trainings to professional organizations, university programs, hospitals, and other professional groups.

She is an adjunct faculty member at Saybrook University, teaching Movement Modalities and Wellness. Her doctoral research demonstrated the benefit of her original Feldenkrais Method program, Pelvic Health and Awareness for men and women, for improving pelvic floor health.

Listen to Feldenkrais Podcast #4 with Deborah as she talks about her model for working with chronic pain. The feedback from the public and Feldenkrais Teachers has been very positive.

About Cliff Smyth

Cliff trained as a Feldenkrais Practitioner in Melbourne, Australia and later moved to San Francisco in 1996, joining the Feldenkrais Center for Movement & Awareness. In Australia, Cliff worked as a poet and writer, teaching in schools, prisons and community centers. He developed a repetitive strain injury to his hands and discovered the Feldenkrais Method. He has been a leader in the Feldenkrais profession, and served as the President of the International Feldenkrais Federation for 6 years. His continued studies in somatics, healing and phenomenology have led him to earn a PhD in Mind-Body Medicine at the College of Integrative Medicine and Health Sciences at Saybrook University. He also holds Certificates in Health and Wellness Coaching and Clinical and Applied Hypnosis. He is faculty at Saybrook University teaching several courses in mind body medicine and teaches the Somatics class at San Francisco State University and is the Editor of the Feldenkrais Research Journal. Students love his inviting and supportive way of teaching Awareness Through Movement, and how he brings forth ideas that can be applied in everyday life.

Image credits (in order of appearance):
1) Study of Clasped Hands, Francis Augustus Lathrop, 1895 ; 2) Study of Hands for Elderly Woman in “Communion of the Sick”, Daniel Huntington, 1844-45, Bequest of Erskine Hewitt; 3) Study of Hands, Francis Augustus Lathrop, 1895 ; 4) Study of Two Hands, Henry Ossawa Tanner, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Norman Robbins