Feldenkrais® Education of New England, Inc.
A 501(c)(3) organization supporting awareness, education, and practice of the Feldenkrais Method®
401 Edgewater Place, Suite 600, Wakefield MA 01880 ·802 249-0861
Feldenkraiseducationnewengland@gmail.com
Bostonfeldenkraistraining@gmail.com • www.Bostonfeldenkraistraining.com

Dear Friend,            

         In the summer of 2015, a group of Feldenkrais practitioners decided to form a nonprofit organization, Feldenkrais Education of New England, Inc. (FENE) to sponsor a four-year Boston Feldenkrais Training with noted Feldenkrais Trainer, Aliza Stewart, as the Educational Director. The group had already attracted some interest from donors and was able to quickly establish itself as a 50l(c)(3) charitable organization. However, in Massachusetts, FENE had to complete the requirements for licensure to become a vocational school in order to create a training. We achieved this in 2016. 

Thanks to continual donor support in 2016-2017, FENE was able to provide financial assistance to deserving trainees who ordinarily might not have been able to fulfill their dream of training in the Feldenkrais Method®.  Our trainees come from a wide variety of backgrounds, including in the performing arts, medical and educational occupations, farming, and handicrafts.

FENE is proud to report that a fine group of fifty-one trainees, 25% of whom have received financial support from current FENE donations, are now in the middle of their second year of a four-year training. 

We are reaching out to past and future donors, asking them to support our commitment to offer financial support to trainees in addition to helping us fulfill our broader mission of:

  • Increasing public awareness about the benefits of the Feldenkrais Method® of Somatic Education;
  • Organizing and conducting Feldenkrais Method classes for the public;
  • Organizing and conducting programs to train individuals to become practitioners of the Feldenkrais Method;
  • Developing visions for the future of the Feldenkrais Method and its practice, informed by diverse cultures and ways of thinking;
  • Engaging members of the Feldenkrais Method community in the development of social and scientific thought;
  • Supporting research and development in the Feldenkrais Method;
  • Fostering a culture of continuous learning among Feldenkrais practitioners;
  • Providing low-to-no-cost learning opportunities to a broad spectrum of New England’s diverse populations;
  • Providing scholarships for low-income people wishing to participate in training to become Feldenkrais practitioners;
  • Engaging in any other educational, charitable, and scientific endeavors that regard or inform the Feldenkrais Method.

Our immediate projects in need of support include continuing tuition waivers for trainees, creating a website for the nonprofit organization, developing an internship program to generate teaching opportunities for current trainees and New England practitioners as a means of serving low-income communities, as well as seeding a program for practitioners and caregivers to bring the Feldenkrais Method to children.

 

Some Words about the Feldenkrais Method:

As you may know, The Feldenkrais Method uses movement and awareness to harness the power of brain plasticity, and makes life-long learning and improvement possible in human movement, and other human endeavors. Norman Doidge, in his latest book, The Brain’s Way of Healing, writes, “[It was] thought the brain was too sophisticated for its own good. That during evolution it became so complex that it lost the ability to repair itself and to restore lost functions or to preserve itself. They were wrong. Because it turns out that its very sophistication can be the source of a unique kind of healing ... the brain’s way of healing.” 

Moshe Feldenkrais was ahead of his time, writing about the nervous system and new ways of functioning as early as the 1940’s “It is not a question of eliminating the error, it’s a question of learning.” In his book, The Potent Self, Feldenkrais wrote, “The aim of education should be to help the individual achieve the state of evolving being.” 

And as recently as October 2017, New York Times Health writer, Jane Brody, wrote about her experience with The Method, “after two hourlong sessions, focused first on body awareness and on movement retraining … I understood what it meant to experience an incredible lightness of being…I had long refrained from talking about this method of countering pain because I thought it was some sort of New Age gobbledygook with no scientific basis. Boy was I wrong.” 

 

Please consider making a tax-deductible donation today to support our mission of improving access to this powerful and transformative work. A $4,500 donation will support a trainee for one year of training, $10,000 will kick-start our outreach program for underserved communities, and $15,000 will seed our program to benefit children. 

Checks and stock transfers can be handled through Miriam Schwartz, FENE Vice President, at 333 Great River Rd, Apt 409, Somerville, MA 02145-1222. Please email her for any additional information. kadima@rcn.com.

 

Sincerely,

The FENE Board of Directors

Olivia Cheever, President
Miriam Schwartz, Vice President
Misha Forrester, Secretary/Clerk
Matthew Wilkinson, Treasurer