January 4, 2007 Issue                                       

Click Here

©2006 The Chestnut Hill Local

Hill area therapist provides pain relief with ‘Feldenkrais’ method
by AUDREY LEVINE

Joanne Fagerstrom, a physical therapist at the Chestnut Hill Rehab Hospital, is also a Feldenkrais practitioner.

It started as a search for something to help her physical therapy patients and turned into more of a career choice.

“I would think, ‘What am I going to do for them?’” said Joanne Fagerstrom, a physical therapist at the Chestnut Hill Rehab Hospital in Wyndmoor. “I wondered what I could learn to help them. The Feldenkrais method kind of found me.”

The Feldenkrais Method of Somatic Education, invented by Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais in the 1970s, helps people learn how to move better. According to Fagerstrom, Feldenkrais invented the technique through his knowledge of physics, biomechanics, Judo, human development and psychology after he suffered from a knee injury. She said Feldenkrais believed there were certain habitual actions people could do to care for different strains.

“It’s a method that helps develop greater awareness of how people move,” she said. “Dr. Feldenkrais believed people go through life using habitual forms of movement that may be ineffectual.”

Fagerstrom said that people often develop injuries because of everyday activities, but they are unaware of these consequences. For example, some hunch their shoulders when they sit at the computer, but won’t notice it until they begin to feel pain. “They can become aware of it and replace their movements with more comfortable, efficient ones,” she said.

Fagerstrom, who became a physical therapist in 1978, began a training course for the method in 2001 with David Zemach-Bersin, one of the world’s foremost teachers and trainers of the Feldenkrais method. “I received a brochure in the mail about a workshop in Wilmington. I thought it was interesting. Now I feel like the quality of my own life has improved.”

Joanne teaches group classes, called Awareness Through Movement, three days a week at the rehab facility for $10 a class. The lessons involve verbal instructions that guide students through simple movement sequences. Often, the students will be lying on mats to perform the exercises. “The classes are different,” she said. “They might be related to a function, like reaching on a shelf.”

Fagerstrom pitched the classes to the hospital and the staff, which began the sessions in 2004. “The hospital has been so supportive,” she said, “although the Feldenkrais method is completely different from physical therapy.”

Fagerstrom also opened her own business with friend Jeremy Pitcairn, who discovered the method after he dealt with a sports injury that inspired him to take the training. In their business, they offer individual classes, called Functional Integration. The business, which opened in Chestnut Hill last May, is solely dedicated to these private lessons.

Unlike the classes, the individual lessons are non-verbal and use only gentle movements in the attempts to bring about change.

Fagerstrom insists the Feldenkrais Method is helpful for those with chronic pain and neurological disorders. “I am discovering there are always choices and possibilities for new movement,” she said. “You become more aware of how you move, and as awareness increases, it trickles into other parts of your life.”

“I have noticed a decrease in my shoulder pain, and my flexibility has increased,” agreed Lesley Anderson, who attends Fagerstrom’s group classes at the hospital. “I also feel like I have better balance.”

Student Bill Hengst also said he has benefited. “The Feldenkrais method provides me with a wonderful experience,” he said. “The exercises feel like a rich nurturing bath in warm water.”

Fagerstrom, who grew up in New York City and graduated from Hunter College in 1978, said her uncle encouraged her to be a physical therapist. After graduation, she worked at Temple University Hospital and then became assistant director at Pennsylvania Hospital until the birth of her first son in 1985, when she decided to take time off. She was hired by the rehab center in Chestnut Hill when she returned to work in 1993.

“Chestnut Hill offered a great place to work,” said Fagerstrom, who now lives in Erdenheim, “and we like the community. My husband and I like to run along the Wissahickon Creek right down the road.”

For more information about the private sessions, visit the Web site at feldenkraispa.com.