Like all organizations, we face a time of change. Over the years, many have felt isolated from the Guild and from each other and have not experienced the power of functioning as a coherent group. As a collective, we have not walked the talk we practice with our students. Moreover, our membership grows, further straining our early model and makes essential new ways of organizing.

Without reinventing ourselves, we can listen to the wisdom of those who came before, learn from mistakes and benefit from their experience. We can re-organize as a group to create a shared, collaborative and peer-driven future. Our work teaches that the entire self is involved in everything we do and that the quality of organization is what is important. We now have an opportunity to explore how we might apply this principle to the development of our community and profession to create a new paradigm.

Be heard, listen, and share in this community-wide inquiry day to create a legacy we can live and pass on to future practitioners. Together, let’s devise an organized, aware community that contains the essence of our work, the Feldenkrais Method® of Somatic Education.

Donna Blank (1983), MS, LMA, is a practitioner/trainer who practices in the Washington, DC area and the Hudson Valley, NY. Her background in the arts, education and Laban Movement Analysis, as well as her ongoing work in meditation and Authentic Movement inform her interests in creativity learning, and consciousness. She has served on the Guild and the IFF Boards of Directors and the North American Training Accreditation Board, and has chaired a Guild conference in Washington, DC.

Alice Friedman (1987), MA, R.Psych., is an Feldenkrais® assistant trainer with a background as a psychologist and trained dancer.  She has studied and taught Somatic Experiencing® trauma recovery work in addition to studying Ericksonian hypnosis, cranio-sacral therapy and meditation.  Alice practices in Victoria, BC and on Salt Spring Island.

Keith B. Johnson (1997), MS, studied laser physics at the University of Illinois, toured for eight years with an avant-garde music ensemble, and worked at the Gesundheit-Institute in West Virginia while training to be a Feldenkrais® practitioner in Strasbourg,  France.  He currently practices full-time in Chalottesville,  VA, serving retirees, equestrians and tri-athletes.