Moshe regularly gave Functional Integration® lessons with students sitting—often on his table, sometimes on a stool or chair. Sitting lessons were a regular feature of his private practice, public demonstrations, and regular classes. Yet over the decades, seated work has become an endangered species. Professional training programs rarely devote much — if any — time to it, leaving many colleagues hesitant, at best, to work with someone outside the horizontal plane.
When a student spends nearly an hour lying down on a table, they exist in a low-demand gravitational environment. While we understand the benefit of working with someone in a position where they don’t need to engage their antigravity muscles habitually, compulsively constraining your student’s positions limits your range and efficacy. Plus, we know all too well how standing up after a lesson can feel like stepping onto another planet, and just how easily and quickly the benefits often slip away.
Teaching a seated student creates a direct, functional bridge between hands-on learning and upright action in gravity. Because your student is already vertical:
- Carryover is built-in. Instead of expecting your student’s nervous system to transfer what they learned lying on the table to sitting, standing, or walking, their renewed skeletal support is already available in upright balance.
- Access is universal. Open your practice to students who cannot comfortably or safely lie flat due to respiratory distress, vertigo, acute pain, trauma, or immobility.
- Containment and comfort are immediate. Sitting astride an ordinary chair — with the torso facing the chair back and the forehead resting on folded forearms — provides front-body support and orienting stability that lets the nervous system quiet any guarding reflexes.
- You can practice anywhere. Neither a Feldenkrais table, mat, nor bed is necessary; you won’t have to work on the floor, either. All you need is a sturdy chair.
Most importantly, you'll learn how to help your students ground these discoveries in their everyday activity.
In these exclusive, advanced small-group tutorials in Santa Cruz, California, Larry Goldfarb, CFT, MSME, Ph.D., teaches the composition and craft, along with the sensory-motor dynamics and self-organization, of this classic, transformative seated FI lesson.
With the student seated backward in the chair, the teacher clarifies movement throughout the head, trunk, and limbs; supports compulsive contractions to render them perceptible; and creates the conditions for the student to discover spontaneous skeletal support. Exploring these relationships uncovers and resolves the persistent patterns underlying functional difficulties of the neck, jaw, chest, spine, shoulders, arms, and hands.
As with every postgraduate program he offers, you can count on Larry’s clarity, thoroughness, kindness, and patience. His unique, in-depth approach enables you to understand how and why the lesson works, refine your tactile sensitivity, and make lasting improvements in your self-use:
- Refining tactile acuity: Differentiate your contact as you listen through skin, muscle, tendon, and bone so you can tailor your touch to the specific tissue and required depth.
- Deconstructing sitting: Investigate the interplay between pelvic orientation, sit bones, rib cage mobility, and the head resting on the forearms to establish effortless skeletal support.
- Meeting the student where they are: Provide the tactile feedback your student needs to recognize chronic, compulsive holding in the neck, shoulders, diaphragm, and spine—and discover how to let it go.
- Improving the teacher’s self-use: Organize yourself to shift weight rather than overworking and muscling through maneuvers, maintain length and easy breathing throughout, and receive a lesson each time you give one.
This course combines concise talks, demonstrations, Awareness Through Movement lessons, dialogs, interactive exercises, and ample hands-on practice. To ensure that you receive personal attention, individualized feedback, and bespoke coaching, each session is limited to eight (8) participants.
A Study-Retreat by the California Coast
The tutorial takes place in a cozy, fully equipped holiday home in Santa Cruz's Seabright neighborhood, less than a ten-minute walk from the Pacific Ocean. You’ll find restaurants, coffee shops, the town's best dive bar, and a convenience store nearby. The yacht harbor, beaches, midtown, and downtown are all a short drive or a longer walk away. The course schedule leaves mornings free to explore nature, shop, relax, or practice with colleagues.
We use the living, dining, and family rooms for teaching. For those traveling from out of town—or anyone wanting an immersive retreat setting—three on-site bedrooms are available for rent on a first-come, first-served basis.
If you wish to stay on-site in the Seabright house, mention your room preference in your application and be sure to do so soon, before the remaining rooms are spoken for. Please contact me for pricing information, and if you have questions.
Session 1: December 2026
Dates:
Friday, 4 December to Tuesday, 8 December 2026
Times:
1:00 to 6:45 PM every day.
(The daily schedule is subject to change. Rest assured, we will inform participants immediately if any changes become necessary.)
Location:
The Seabright neighborhood
Santa Cruz, California
Lodging:
Of the three bedrooms available on-site, only two (2) remain for this session (the primary bedroom and the downstairs bedroom).
Prerequisite:
Open to Feldenkrais trainees (years 3 and 4) and certified teachers.
Enrollment is first-come, first-served.
Only four (4) spaces remaining.
Recorded Materials:
Because this is an off-camera, hands-on coaching tutorial, no recorded materials will be provided.
Tuition:
$847.00 early enrollment until 30 October 2026 at noon Pacific Time.
$947.00 thereafter
Application:
Introduce yourself and outline your background, training, and experience, along with the reason(s) you want to participate, via the Mind in Motion Online Contact Form. Please mention any previous courses you have taken with Larry.
Session 2: March 2027
Dates:
Friday, 5 March to Tuesday, 9 March 2027
Times:
1:00 to 6:45 PM every day.
(The daily schedule is subject to change. Rest assured, we will inform participants immediately if any changes become necessary.)
Location:
The Seabright neighborhood
Santa Cruz, California
Lodging:
Of the three bedrooms available on-site, only two (2) remain for this session (the other upstairs bedroom and downstairs bedroom).
Prerequisite:
Open to Feldenkrais trainees (years 3 and 4) and certified teachers.
Enrollment is first-come, first-served.
Only six (6) spaces remaining.
Recorded Materials:
Because this is an off-camera, hands-on coaching tutorial, no recorded materials will be provided.
Tuition:
$847.00 early enrollment until 15 January 2027 at noon Pacific time.
(A refundable $350 deposit will hold your place until then.)
$947.00 thereafter
Application:
Submit your background, experience, and goals via the Mind in Motion Online Contact Form. Please mention any previous courses you have taken with Larry.
