The Feldenkrais Method® is named after its founder, Moshe Feldenkrais, who developed a revolutionary "Awareness Through Movement" therapy to help himself deal with a severe knee injury. Feldenkrais was a mid-century Renaissance Man, born in Russia in 1904, educated at The Sorbonne, and living in Israel in the late 1940s. He was an athlete, a scholar and a scientist. Aficionados have spread the work throughout the world.

According to Charlotte, Feldenkrais theories include the idea that your body has an inherent intelligence - you don't come to this process to be fixed, you come to re-learn what has been lost. She describes a system of "teaching and describing" movement that allows the body to rediscover easier, freer way's to move, and to "access the nervous system through movement." By focusing on the retraining of the central nervous system, the number of people who can benefit from the Feldenkrais method is vast. This approach to learning reveals and altars habitual behaviors, postures and ways of moving that cause chronic tension and pain. It helps you to improve posture and breathing. You learn to reduce stress, tension, and fatigue. You learn to ease pain and stiffness. And you learn to develop efficient and flexible movement.

"This is not about how to never have pain," says Charlotte, " but it is about learning that you don't have to get "stuck" in pain or any other circumstance in life. This will help you to accomplish more in your life by helping you to stay balanced, by helping you handle your setbacks, manage your pain, and recover." It may even help you, in Moshe Feldenkrais' words, "to realize your unavowed dreams".

Charlotte Chavez ended up trying Feldenkrais (pronounced FELL-Den-KRice) because she wasn't sure what else to do. "Often people try this because nothing else has worked for them," she explained.

Charlotte decided to look into Feldenkrais after a series of health setbacks - back pain, breast cancer, and an injury to her upper back that prevented her from working at her pottery wheel. "For ten years I was unable to throw pots," she bemoaned. Feldenkrais worked so well for her that she again teaches pottery classes and says even her own pottery is improving. In fact, the bowl in the upper left corner of this page is one of her pieces. She's found that similar to pottery, Feldenkrais requires sensitivity and creativity, so she decided to learn how to teach it. "In 1999, I finished a four-year training program, with hundreds of hours of instruction each year," she said. Charlotte is a Feldenkrais Practioner.