Awareness Through Movement ® (ATM) group or individual lessons where practitioner uses verbal instructions to develop perception and awareness through a series of movements. Lessons may be done sitting, lying on the floor or standing.
A lesson generally lasts about 45-60 minutes and consists of comfortable, easy movements that gradually evolve into greater range and complexity.
To add some wording to description of movement I will insert several excerpts from Moshe Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement book.
The ATM (Awareness Through Movement ®) lessons designed to improve ability to expand the boundaries – to turn the impossible in to the possible, the difficult in to easy, the easy in to a pleasant. The only activities that are easy and pleasant will become part of our habitual life. Actions for which you need force yourself and overcome inner opposition will never become part of normal daily life.
…Force that is not converted into movement does not simply disappear, but is dissipated into damage done to joints, muscles, and other sections of the body used to create the effort.
…Energy that is not converted into movement turns into heat within the system and causes changes that will require repair before the system can operate efficiently again.
…To learn we need time, attention, and discrimination; to discriminate we must sense. This means that in order to learn we must sharpen our power of sensing.
…When learning to act we should be free to pay attention to what is going on inside us.
…The first time you attempt a lesson it should be carried out slowly until the action feels smooth and easy. Only when comfort and proficiency achieved, you can vary the speed from as fast as possible to as slow as possible. The speed of the exercise should always be adjusted to the breathing rhythm. As body gains in organization, breathing will automatically adjust itself to the various movements.
Feldenkrais, M. (1977). Awareness through movement: Health exercises for personal growth.
The following trademarks or certification marks of the Feldenkrais Guild® of North America: Feldenkrais®, Feldenkrais Method®, Functional Integration®, FI®, Awareness Through Movement®, ATM®, Guild Certified Feldenkrais PractitionerCM, GCFPCM.