|
By
GEORGINA GILES FELICIA TRUJILLO was born with
spina bifida and cured herself. Then she received
serious back injuries in a car crashand
cured herself again.
Despite all this
the New Mexican woman looks far younger than her
42 years and says she owes it all to learning to
use her body as it was designed to be used. She
follows the Feldenkrais®
Methoda theory developed by Israeli
physicist Moshe Feldenkrais.
She is in New
Plymouth this weekend to introduce the Feldenkrais®
Method.
She will run
workshops explaining the Feldenkrais®
Method of improving posture, mobility, reducing
stress and pain.
Before learning
the method, Ms. Trujillo frequently needed a cane
to walk because of her spina bifida, and was in a
lot of pain. She also suffered from severe
sciatica and back pain.
"After my
first lessons in Feldenkrais® I
was pain free and able to walk uphill and do
things much more normally."
After two years
of being able-bodied, Ms. Trujillo was in a car
accident. She was bedridden for 18 months and
told she would need spinal surgery, and was
likely to be in a wheelchair for the rest of her
life.
"So I
started a training programme in Feldenkrais®
and became mobile again. I use it daily to
maintain mobility." It takes about 16
minutes a day to do the exercises, which have
kept her mobile for the past 16 years.
|
|
She believed the work could have a
great following in Taranaki, because many farmers
have back problems easily treated by this system. She said the main
benefits of the work were an immediate
improvement in posture, a reduction in pain and
better movement. It is all based on neurology
(the nervous system) and involves no massage or
adjustments.
In America and
Europe the system has become very
prestigioushospitals have even begun to use
the method to rehabilitate brain-damaged
children.
Much of the
theory is based on examining how babies move and
teaching adults to move the same way because it
is the most natural way. One of the basic
treatmentsenabling people to more easily
raise their head when lying downis modeled
on how a baby moves its head from side to side in
a crib.
"When you
move your head from side to side while lying down
you brain organises your muscles to be able to
lift your head lightly and easily. The methods do
not change youthey take you back to how you
were in the first place."
Based in San
Francisco, Ms. Trujillo teaches classes,
workshops and private sessions about the
phenomenon which has changed her life and many
others. Ms. Trujillo said two New Zealanders were
being trained, and they would be developing the
method in this country.
|
|