Searching for research

When was the last time someone asked you what research there is on the Feldenkrais Method . . . and where to find it? 

Thanks to the literature reviews I did in my Master’s and Ph.D. programs, once upon a time, I had a decent sense of what kind of studies were available. I have been — and, thankfully, still am — actively involved in conversations with colleagues about what they are investigating and how they’re conceptualizing and doing research. Over the years, I also had the privilege and pleasure of actively participating in a few people’s projects. 

While the number of studies conducted has continued to grow, I, unfortunately, haven’t kept up.

That’s why I was excited to learn about the latest update to a project created by the IFF Research Working Group (IFFRWG), the organization of Feldenkrais teachers with research backgrounds committed to promoting research in the method and facilitating dialogue with scientists. The IFFRWG Database Group has been collecting relevant references, from the papers written by Moshe Feldenkrais up to contemporary academic studies and articles, and organizing them in one central digital repository. Recently, they updated, expanded, and improved the searchability of this catalog of hundreds of scientific publications.

This coming Sunday, June 26, at 9:00 PM (21h00) Central European Daylight Time, the dedicated and diligent members of the group will be unveiling the database’s latest iteration. (You can find when the meeting is happening in your timezone here.) During this online meeting, they will provide an overview of the resources in the collection, explain how the articles were tagged, and show us how to search the database. Please click here to register for this momentous event in the history of research in the method.

In case you’re wondering, you do not have to attend this meeting to use the Feldenkrais Studies database. The current version is accessible on Zotero, a free, user-friendly online tool made for collecting, organizing, citing, and sharing research via the Internet. To access the Feldenkrais Studies database, just click here.