Pass it on

Early Saturday, I met with a Portuguese Feldenkrais colleague on FB Messenger. He wanted guidance on working with a post-stroke student. He caught me up on their Functional Integration sessions, letting me know what worked and what didn’t. I pointed out where he’d done well, asked questions to fill in the picture, and, having gotten a sense of what he might have missed, discussed other tactics and suggested a few ways to proceed. 

On Sunday, I met with a half dozen of the participants of the postgrad course — Unlocking the Spinal Engine — that I taught last October in Paris on Zoom. What began as a silly question catalyzed a rich review of the strategy behind the lesson I’d presented. Several shared their experience practicing the techniques and the challenges they encountered applying what they’d learned. Some wondered how to fit the lesson to the needs of some of their students and whether it would be helpful or appropriate for others. Telling them that I wanted to do more than give them answers, I asked them to keep me honest by making sure I was clarifying the pedagogical reasoning behind the answers. Rather than outright explanations, I aimed to illuminate the adaptable logic empowering context-specific decisions.

Witnessing the struggles of trainees and less experienced colleagues helps me better understand what it takes to develop insight and competency. Coaching and supervising help me understand how others learn, reveal how well various explanations and teaching methods work, and inspire me to devise new ways of conveying Moshe’s methodology.

While the initial training can give you the essential foundation, only when you work with peers and engage with more experienced colleagues do your difficulties get acknowledged and contextualized. You learn to appreciate breakdowns and detours as a part of your continued development — rather than having them become a reason to get discouraged or stop. Being seen, heard, and supported, getting your burning questions addressed, and having someone trusted there to encourage you and tell you what you need to hear — all of this is necessary to develop competence, resilience, intuition, and insight. 

Developing a profession is an ongoing, multi-generational endeavor.