David with Moshe Feldenkrais, 1976, San Francisco California.
with Assistant Teachers
Raz Ori & Anastasi Siotas
"Working with people virtually has helped to renew and crystalize for me the brilliance of Moshe’s dictum about "treating the person and not the problem." If we want to improve a person’s neurological and musculoskeletal organization, it’s essential that we understand that a strategic hierarchy of criteria for optimal self-organization exists. Certain criteria are primary to others. What comes first -and what comes next- really matters, and is key to our effectiveness as Feldenkrais Practitioners. When we apply these criteria in Functional Integration or Awareness Through Movement in a logical order, nearly all difficulties will improve."
~David Zemach-Bersin
Moshe Feldenkrais understood that there is a way of being 'organized' that is optimal for human beings; a particular coordination between their skeleton, nervous system, and musculature which gives them the best possible options for movement and action, support, flexibility, balance, and nervous system health. He observed that the vast majority of our physical problems are reflections of poor organization, and urged us to ‘treat the person, not their difficulty.’
In this workshop, David Zemach-Bersin presents a strategic approach to Functional Integration which focuses on the specific order of conditions that are essential for improving organization. As you implement this strategy in your work, your effectiveness will improve exponentially.
When we focus on improving our student’s organization, the conditions that originally caused or compounded their difficulties cease to exist. Without those conditions, their difficulties will become more amenable to change, or disappear completely. As Moshe so succinctly advised, ‘Improve the person, and their difficulty will improve.’
David is assisted by Raz Ori and Anastasi Siotas.
12+ hour program includes:
- Seven Awareness Through Movement lessons
- Six Functional Integration demonstrations
- Five discussions
- Two Question & Answer sessions
- Four articles
- Six complete unedited FI videos
- One bonus FI demonstration
- Lifetime access to recordings
- Option to download recordings
Feldenkrais Access presented this workshop July 30-August 1, 2021.
Payment Options
About David
Feldenkrais Trainer David Zemach-Bersin met Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais in 1973 and studied with him for ten years in the U.S., Europe, and Israel. David also studied extensively with Gaby Yaron and Yochanon Rywerant. He has maintained a Functional Integration practice since 1977 and is recognized for his contribution to strengthening Dr. Feldenkrais’s legacy. A graduate of UC Berkeley with post-graduate work in physiological psychology, David has created numerous audio and video programs and is the co-author of Relaxercise (HarperCollins). He is a past President of FGNA and co-directed the Feldenkrais Institute of New York and Feldenkrais Resources. David has directed and served as the Lead Teacher in sixteen Feldenkrais Professional Training Programs. He has been developing and teaching live-online and on-demand programs for Feldenkrais Teachers and the public online since 2020 as the Director of Feldenkrais Access. He lives with his family in the Farmington Valley of Connecticut.
About Raz
Feldenkrais Trainer, Raz Ori is the Co-director of the Michigan Feldenkrais Professional Training Program and has served on the staff of training programs in Tel-Aviv, New York, Germany, Italy, and South Korea, teaching with Ruty Bar, David Zemach-Bersin, and Lior Pessach. He graduated in 2001 from the Tel-Aviv Feldenkrais Professional Training Program and trained for two more years with Yochanan Rywerant. Raz gained clinical experience working for 15 years at Clalit Integrative Medicine, part of Israel’s largest public health provider. He has also worked at the Sheba Medical Center with disabled veterans suffering from chronic pain, phantom limb pain, PTSD, and head injuries. Raz is also a certified JKA practitioner working with special needs children. He teaches advanced trainings and conducts online mentoring groups. Raz lives in Tel Aviv with his wife and children.
About Anastasi
Feldenkrais Trainer Candidate, Anastasi Siotas graduated from the Sydney III Feldenkrais Professional Training program in 1997. He subsequently moved to New York City and has maintained a private practice there ever since. His prior professional experience includes working as a researcher in Marine Cell Biology and also as a Modern Dancer, Choreographer, and Theater Director. He was the Director of Dance at the Theatre Department of the University of Melbourne, where he had previously studied and had been awarded Honors in Science, before completing a Master's Degree in both Education and Dance. Anastasi continued his studies in NYC with Irene Dowd in Kinesthetic Anatomy and at the Laban/Bartenieff Institute, where he now teaches Anatomy and Kinesiology for their Movement Analyst Certification program. In addition to his private practice in Manhattan, Anastasi works as an Assistant Trainer for Feldenkrais Professional Training Programs in New York and Internationally.
