SPECIAL PROGRAMS

A major activity of the Feldenkrais Center of Houston is in designing programs and presentations tailored to the needs and interests of school, church, community, business, and university groups. The content, specific application or topic, budget, and time frame will be created just for you, whether a brief presentation at a business luncheon, half-day or full day training seminar, a weekend retreat setting, or a residency/visiting lecturer series.  As a result of our strategic partnership with University of Houston Continuing Education, CEU's can be granted for participation in any of our programs.

A few of our most popular programs can be found below. Please contact us with your ideas.

For the Fine and Performing arts:
    For musicians and music educators
    For actors and theatre educators
    For voice, opera, and musical theatre
    For singers and choirs

For the work/business environment

For academic enhancement, and/or students with special learning challenges

For senior citizens

For church/spiritual groups

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WHY HOST A FELDENKRAIS WORKSHOP WITH MARYBETH SMITH?

The Feldenkrais Method® is widely used by high-functioning individuals to refine technique, overcome creative blocks, and improve performance.

The Method is accessible to all, regardless of age, experience, athletic ability or physical disability.

Participants will:
Improve breath, body alignment, and overall coordination
Experience more awareness of self and others
Reduce mental and physical stresses
Experience alternatives in habitual actions
Improve self image

Inter-departmental collaboration can be fostered because of the wide applicability of the Method

Flexible fees:  we work within your budget

Private Functional Integration® lessons available at reduced fee for participants

Excellent value received, in ideas for future applications and immediate effectiveness

MaryBeth Smith is a skilled teacher, dedicated to the exploration of your full potential in a safe environment for joyful experimentation and discovery.

Workshops for Musicians and Music Educators

For all presentations, participants should wear loose, comfortable clothing that will allow free movement (ladies: pants, not skirts), AND should bring a mat of some kind (blanket, quilt or bedspread) for the floor.

Facilities needed: large empty room with clean floor (vacuumed or mopped just prior to the workshop) carpeting ideal. Chairs optional! Screen and projector for  Power Point presentation optional, paper handouts available. NOTE: if space is unavailable for lying on the floor, an alternative presentation can be designed for sitting or standing positions.

Workshops for Actors and Theatre Educators

For all presentations, participants should wear loose, comfortable clothing that will allow free movement (ladies: pants, not skirts), AND should bring a mat of some kind (blanket, quilt or bedspread) for the floor.

Facilities needed: large empty room with clean floor (vacuumed or mopped just prior to the workshop) carpeting ideal. Chairs optional! Screen and projector for Power Point presentation optional, paper handouts available. NOTE: if space is unavailable for lying on the floor, an alternative presentation can be designed for sitting or standing positions.

Workshops for Voice, Opera, and Musical Theatre

For all presentations, participants should wear loose, comfortable clothing that will allow free movement (ladies: pants, not skirts), AND should bring a mat of some kind (blanket, quilt or bedspread) for the floor.

Facilities needed: large empty room with clean floor (vacuumed or mopped just prior to the workshop) carpeting ideal. Chairs optional! Screen and projector for Power Point presentation optional, paper handouts available. NOTE: if space is unavailable for lying on the floor, an alternative presentation can be designed for sitting or standing positions.

Workshops for Singers and Choirs

For all presentations, participants should wear loose, comfortable clothing that will allow free movement (ladies: pants, not skirts), AND should bring a mat of some kind (blanket, quilt or bedspread) for the floor.

Facilities needed: Presentations can be designed with your choir sitting in rehearsal chairs, standing on risers, or lying on the floor, if space and facilities permit. The ideal is: a large empty room with clean floor (vacuumed or mopped just prior to the workshop) carpeting ideal. Chairs optional!

Workshops for the Work/Business Environment

Our work environment is full of physical, mental, and emotional challenges. The Feldenkrais Method can bring increased awareness and new creativity in problem solving to a variety of settings. Productivity, efficiency, quality, and even profitability are all areas in which businesses continually strive to improve, and all are areas affected by the human element.  Whether you seek greater physical comfort in the execution of your duties, desire a means of dealing with stress and changes in the workplace, or desire better thinking processes, you will find the Feldenkrais Method to be a helpful tool for improvement.

Businesses need quality people to operate successfully.  The term Human Resources implies the truth that the people who work for a company are its greatest asset.  Just as the tires on your car need to be in balance, each employee also needs to be balanced--or else, if you will, "the car will go off the road."  We know from experience that the more stable a structure is, the more likely it is to stay in balance.  (A pyramid resting on its base is very stable--on its apex, balance is precarious!)  The Feldenkrais Method is a valuable resource for exploring the questions of balance, stablility, dynamic growth, quality, efficiency, effectiveness--on the literal level as well as the metaphorical level, for individuals and groups.

An Awareness Through Movement® session on your next company retreat can be an excellent means of community building and creation of a positive work culture.

Call us to collaborate on the creation of a presentation or series that is suited to your unique situation.

Workshops for Academic Enhancement, and/or students with special learning challenges

For all presentations, participants should wear loose, comfortable clothing that will allow free movement (ladies: pants, not skirts), AND should bring a mat of some kind (blanket, quilt or bedspread) for the floor.

Facilities needed: large empty room with clean floor (vacuumed or mopped just prior to the workshop) carpeting ideal. Chairs optional! NOTE: if space is unavailable for lying on the floor, an alternative presentation can be designed for sitting or standing positions.

Students often acquire labels during the course of their first few years of formal education. These labels, while perhaps providing a helpful diagnosis, rarely provide strategies for optimizing a student’s potential.

Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement improves the student’s ability to function in the classroom, and in life in general. Each lesson creates a learning environment that is safe, supportive, and based on discovery and exploration instead of competition and achievement. The movement sequences are done at the student’s own pace and within their potential at that moment. Learning is facilitated in a way that is non-intrusive, systemic, self-referenced, and organic. The Feldenkrais Method removes much of the environmental stimulation, thereby enabling the student to focus intently on the task at hand. Greater awareness leads to improvement in competency, attention span length, alertness, self-esteem and self-image, cognition, and mood.

Short series of either six (6) or twelve (12) sessions are recommended. Lessons may be general, or specifically oriented to classroom function, such as sitting comfortably, writing neatly, impulse control, anxiety management, oral presentation skills.

Teachers and parents can also benefit from Awareness Through Movement classes. Some of the techniques learned can be used at home or in the classroom in helping the student to realize his/her potential. Improved alertness and stamina, and reduction in stress, are frequent benefits of the Method.

Workshops for Senior Citizens

For all presentations, participants should wear loose, comfortable clothing that will allow free movement (ladies: pants, not skirts), AND should bring a mat of some kind (blanket, quilt or bedspread) for the floor. Classes are also available for people who are confined to wheelchairs, or who otherwise can not get up and down from the floor.

Facilities needed: large empty room with clean floor (vacuumed or mopped just prior to the workshop) carpeting ideal. Chairs optional! NOTE: if space is unavailable for lying on the floor, an alternative presentation can be designed for sitting or standing positions.

Awareness Through Movement^®: Movement is the essence of being alive. The Feldenkrais Method can help one to reeducate one’s movements, and discover how to move gracefully, efficiently, free of tension, effort, and pain. The gentle body movements of Awareness Through Movement can help to reduce, if not eliminate, the unnecessary stresses, strains and pains to improve breathing, posture, and mobility, and to revitalize your life by helping you to feel younger and more flexible.

Workshops for Church/Spiritual groups

For all presentations, participants should wear loose, comfortable clothing that will allow free movement (ladies: pants, not skirts), AND should bring a mat of some kind (blanket, quilt or bedspread) for the floor.

Facilities needed: large empty room with clean floor (vacuumed or mopped just prior to the workshop) carpeting ideal. Chairs optional! NOTE: if space is unavailable for lying on the floor, an alternative presentation can be designed for sitting or standing positions.

We are fearfully and wonderfully made. And, we are told that “The Kingdom of Heaven is within you,” and “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and all these shall be added unto you.” What is within us, literally? For me, the Feldenkrais Method has provided a means of looking inward: first, to the bones, muscles, ligaments, and articulations that are there; secondly, to my habitual ways of using what I’ve got; and thirdly, to my emotions, attitudes, and beliefs that affect my functioning in the world. Ultimately, my relationship to myself affects my relationship to others and to God.

1. Moving Meditation. All the major spiritual traditions of the world use breath as a vehicle into the meditative state. Breath and movement can take us deeper into awareness of what we are thinking, sensing, and feeling in the moment. The Feldenkrais Method provides a means of quieting the self so that the fruits of listening can be shared, and so that one can go more actively and comfortably back into the world.

2. Awareness Through Movement®. Movement is the essence of being alive. The Feldenkrais Method can help one to reeducate one’s movements, and discover how to move gracefully, efficiently, free of tension, effort, and pain. The gentle body movements of Awareness Through Movement® can help to reduce, if not eliminate, the unnecessary stresses, strains and pains to improve breathing, posture, and mobility, and to restore vitality and flexibility.