Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement (ATM) Guidelines
Moshe Feldenkrais teaching an Awareness Through Movement lesson.
Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement lessons (known as ATM lessons) are gentle, verbally guided movement lessons that help you move with more ease, reduce pain, and understand your own habits.
This guide covers what ATM is, what happens in a lesson, the Feldenkrais body scan, and the guidelines every student should read before starting. When you're ready, you'll find lessons by theme and ways to practice with Sarah further down the page.
What is Awareness Through Movement?
Awareness Through Movement is one of the two ways of learning the Feldenkrais Method, developed by Moshe Feldenkrais.
In an ATM lesson, a teacher talks you through a sequence of slow, often small movements while you notice how you're doing them.
There's nothing to copy and no "correct" shape to achieve. The learning comes from your own attention.
The other half of the method is Functional Integration, a hands-on 1:1 lesson where the practitioner guides your movement through gentle touch. Both work with the same principles.
ATM is taught in groups, online, or through recorded audio lessons, which makes it easy to practice at home.
To learn more about the method as a whole, read About the Feldenkrais Method, or explore 1:1 Feldenkrais sessions.
What happens in a Feldenkrais ATM lesson?
Most lessons follow a similar rhythm:
A body scan. You lie down and notice how you're resting on the floor before anything begins.
A movement sequence. Sarah guides you through a series of movements, often starting very small and building in variation.
Rests. Frequent pauses give your nervous system time to register what's changed.
A closing scan. You return to the floor and compare how you feel now to how you felt at the start.
Lessons can be done lying down, sitting on the floor or a chair, or standing, and typically last up to an hour.
ON THE BODY SCAN:
Something we do in a Feldenkrais lesson is a body scan. It is similar to a mirror. But instead we take in the floor kind of like a mirror.
The floor is a firm, uniform, neutral surface and it reflects back at yourself as a feedback tool.
A little bit like Newton, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. The floor is reflecting back at yourself, how you're organized, how you hold yourself and how you respond to gravity.
The body scan illuminates your habits, your skeleton, your muscles, your image of yourself. This is traditionally done at the beginning and the end of a lesson as a way to compare how things feel different for you.
ON RESTING:
The rests in each lesson are of great importance as they are an opportunity to pay attention to the effect of what you have just done. Observing the effects of movements, both as you do it and as you rest are as important as doing the movements themselves. Rest in any orientation that is comfortable.
During the resting time, your brain says, “What was that”? “What did I just do”? “How do I feel different?" It's not a rest so much so that you can catch your breath, but so that your brain can compare. During the rests integration is happening and you may feel that something is changing in your field of sensation.
RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE STUDENT WHILE STUDYING FELDENKRAIS ATM LESSONS:
If you have any concerns whatsoever about beginning a movement and somatic self-study program, check with your doctor first.
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Such as watches, belts, hair buns, bras, etc. Take everything out of your pockets.
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Move slowly. Slow enough that you feel relaxed and slow enough that you can breath easily. The lessons are designed to prompt neuroplastic changes in your brain, changing habits of movement and awareness to create more effective and ease filled functional movement. The Feldenkrais Method utilizes the natural human learning process, in which there is no value or need for hurried action.
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Never continue movements or configurations that increase your discomfort. Never move through pain. You can always imagine the movement. Rather, take even slight increases in discomfort as a prompt for curiosity and a source of creative inspiration. Ask yourself, How can you enjoy yourself more in these or similar movements, in the very next moment? When you need to improvise and adapt the movements and positions as necessary for comfort. For instance, if lying on one side is not possible for you, you can do the whole lesson on the side that is comfortable, or even do the lesson sitting in a chair while utilizing the same movements. There is nothing in Feldenkrais Method lessons that will benefit you if your nervous system perceives a threat and if pain is present and persists. Increasing discomfort qualifies as a threat, even if we’ve built habits of ignoring it in other activities in our lives. Responding kindly, compassionately, and intelligently to discomfort during Feldenkrais study is essential to your learning and improvement.
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Before you re-initiate the movement again, try to leave “autopilot” behind. ATM movements have little to no value when you’re not attending to them, so try not to repeat movements without any attention. Feeling bored of a movement? Sense around your whole body; you’ll probably quickly find a sensation you weren’t aware of. How is it related to the current movement? Or, rest your attention and pause. Ignore the lesson for a few moments – you might simply need a break!
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This may lead to improved comfort. The intention of the method is to teach you how to learn from yourself. Intrinsic to each human being is the ability to learn, and learn something new. By attending more closely than usual to your experience of moving, your behaviors and habits are clarified as a result of your increase in awareness.
You can pause the recording any time to rest or to explore further the movements you are particularly enjoying.
Focus your attention on how you perform precise movements, noticing how it can feel simple and in harmony with easy breathing. This can be the doorway to a deeper experience.
PRACTICAL HOME STUDY TIPS:
For most lessons you’ll need to be able to lie down on a carpeted floor, or smooth blanket or mat for about an hour. Yoga mats generally create too much friction, though a bath towel or quilt on top of a yoga mat can work. Some lessons are done sitting on the floor, sitting on a chair, or standing.
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This is not aerobic or strength-based exercise; these lessons are a challenge to your awareness, coordination, and self-use, and we learn and improve in those spheres most efficiently using slow and often small movements. You typically will not build heat in these classes.
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Fold to different heights for head support as needed, depending on the positions (lying on your back, side, or front). It’s assumed that you’ll take the time to place whatever support you need under your head at the beginning of the lesson, and with every change of position. Unless required for your comfort, using a regular pillow or a cervical roll for your neck is not recommended because it dampens the free movement of the head.
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For example, while lying on your back the ceiling is forward, not up. Up is toward the top of your mat. Or, lying on your right side, forward is toward the wall in front of you, the ceiling is to your left, up is still toward the top of your mat. I’ll repeat and clarify directions frequently.
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You can of course do what you want, but it is best to wait and listen to the verbal instructions until they are clarified. I would suggest, at those times you are unsure, to please resist the temptation to look over at your other classmates to see what they are doing or how they interpret the instructions. By doing this, it unfortunately takes you out of what could be otherwise, a SELF learning process. If you are listening to recorded audio, you may pause or rewind the recording as much as you wish. Even if you don’t rewind, you’ll often find your way after a minute or two. It’s often easier to stay present and enjoy the lesson if you’re not grabbing your device to rewind frequently.
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You are unable to alter the configuration or movements in a way that helps, you can skip a lesson and come back to it after trying other lessons. Most of the lessons are very unique in their positions and movements. The order of lessons and series are designed to inform each other. For any recorded audio lessons, it’s really easy to listen through your smartphone, tablet, or laptop – put it next to you on the floor!
During a live class, if I feel you are misinterpreting my directions, I will gently attend to you verbally while in class.
Explore Awareness Through Movement by theme
Once you're familiar with how ATM works, the best next step is to follow the theme that matters most to you. Each guide explains how Feldenkrais approaches the topic and points you to the right course.
Feldenkrais for the pelvic floor
How ATM builds awareness and ease through the pelvic floor and deep core, and where to start with Sarah's most popular course
Feldenkrais for walking
How ATM helps you walk with more ease, and how the Walking Series helps.
Feldenkrais for posture
Why good posture is about finding support without effort, and how the Feldenkrais Posture Matters course builds on it.
Feldenkrais for the jaw
How ATM lessons release tension in the jaw, face, and neck.
Feldenkrais for the nervous system
How slow, attentive movement helps calm the nervous system and ease body anxiety.
Ways to practice ATM with Sarah
Online Feldenkrais classes.
Self-paced ATM courses to take at home.
Class Library membership.
Ongoing access to Sarah's library of recorded classes.
Free audio lessons.
Start with Covering the Eyes, Sarah's most downloaded lesson.
Live classes.
Join Sarah in person in Minneapolis or online.
Not sure where to start?
In an ATM study context, we are “learning to learn”. Students become more sensitive and responsive to daily sensations of movement, and discover quality of life improvements that show up in unexpected places. The ATM principles and experiences from the lessons start to become part of regular life and functional movement becomes more effortless and ease filled.
Image courtesy of International Feldenkrais® Federation Archive
Awareness Through Movement FAQs
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No. Awareness Through Movement is suitable for complete beginners, and there's no fitness level required. Many students come to it with no background in Feldenkrais, yoga, or any other movement practice.
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Moshe Feldenkrais (1904 to 1984) was a physicist, engineer, and one of the first Europeans to earn a black belt in judo. He developed his method after a serious knee injury led him to study how people learn to move, and his book Awareness Through Movement introduced these lessons to a wide audience.
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Yes. ATM is one of the best-known somatic practices, meaning it works from the inside out, through your own felt experience of moving rather than through outside instruction on how a movement should look.
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Yoga and stretching usually work toward a pose or a range of motion. ATM isn't aiming for a position at all. The focus is on how you move, so you can find easier, more efficient ways of moving in everyday life.
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It varies from person to person and lesson to lesson. Students often describe feeling lighter, taller, or more settled, or notice that a familiar movement like turning the head or standing up feels easier. Sometimes the changes are subtle and show up later in the day.
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A free audio lesson such as Covering the Eyes is a good first step. If you have a particular goal, like pelvic floor health, posture, or walking, the theme guides above will point you to the right course.
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When first starting Awareness Through Movement, practicing 3 to 4 times a week is a great benchmark. Once you adapt to the learning style, there is no harm in practicing daily. Because Feldenkrais centers on self-directed learning, you are always in charge of your own pace—if you need a day off, take a rest. That said, even practicing just once a week brings valuable benefits.