James Speer,
Injury Rehab Therapist,
Practitioner of the work of Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais

Thank you for coming here. This is where I continue to create articles regarding my work in Movement Re-Education Therapy, and orthopedic rehabilitation. If you experience back, neck, shoulder, or wrist pain, or have balance issues, I can help you. If you’re new here, a good place to start is to read my post below titled “What I Do as a Functional Movement Education Therapist.” The best to you in great health! James, 1003 Wilshire Blvd. Suite #208,Santa Monica, CA, tel. 310-395-1952

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

The "2-Minute Functional Movement Education Miracle" to Free Up Your Stiff Neck

Dear health enthusiast friend!

Greetings to you!

I am happy to report to you that my video which I produced and uploaded onto YouTube in order to help you combat neck pain and neck stiffness, titled The "2-Minute Functional Movement Education Miracle" to Free Up Your Stiff Neck, has now passed the 10,000 mark!

Since I originally put this video up on YouTube last summer, I am honored with "10,000 hits", rather, 10,000 viewers have tuned in to it.

I am elated that 10,000 of you have allowed me to come in to your homes in order to help you take better care of your body. I thank you for your trust.

My neck video can be seen at the following URL address on YouTube.:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9p7_XPK6lM

Please feel free to continue to use my video for your great health and comfort.

After all, as my motto since the 90's pervades, "Health is all that Matters!"
For a healthy, full, 40-minute, hands-on, uplifting, Functional Movement Education treatment by me to completely address your neck or back pain, please contact me at tel. 310-395-1952.

FYI. I might add that a full 40-minute Functional Movement Education treatment has been proven to do wonders for combating your neck pain as has been scientifically validated and documented in the following, eye-opening, four Peer-Reviewed Scientific Journal Publications.:

Ruth S, Kegerreis S. Facilitating Cervical Flexion Using a Feldenkrais Method: Awareness Through Movement. Journal of Sports and Physical Therapy16(1): 25-29, 1992. Peer Reviewed.
Lundblad I. Elert J. Gerdle B. Randomized controlled trial of physiotherapy and Feldenkrais interventions in female workers with neck-shoulder complaints. [Journal Article: Clinical Trial] Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation. 1999 Sep; 9(3): 179-94. (46 ref). Peer Reviewed.

Emerich KA. Nontraditional tools helpful in the treatment of certain types of voice disturbances. [23 refs]. [Journal Article. Review. Review: Tutorial] Current Opinion in Otolaryngology & Head & Neck Surgery. 11(3):149-53, 2003 Jun. Peer Reviewed.Miller TM. Decision Making Processes of Physical Therapists and Feldenkrais Practitioners. PhD dissertation, Temple University, 2007; Advisors: Shepard KF, Stephens J, Hack L.

Please feel free to forward on this spectacular information pertaining to Peer-Reviewed Research, as well as my YouTube neck video, to any of your friends, family, or associates that are currently experiencing neck issues and you feel could greatly benefit from learning how to alleviate their neck pain and stiffness.Please remember for any activity you choose to enjoy or safely indulge in, that I am your "Safety Buffer". Subsequently, "Sometimes even a Mercedes needs a tune-up". :-)

I can give you the sensory-motor experience of being able to move easily and comfortably without pain!

Call me to enjoy your wonderfully relaxing and rejuvenating Movement Education session today at tel. 310-395-1952.

Say, Hello! to Relaxing, and Goodbye! to Stiffness and Pain.

All the best to you in great health!

James

Guan Yin Acupuncture & Movement-Education Center
Dr. Lin Cheng Speer, LAc, OMD, PhD
James Speer, Injury Rehab Therapist
Functional Movement-Education Therapist
Practitioner of the work of Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais
1003 Wilshire Blvd. Suites #203, #208
Santa Monica, CA 90401
tel. 310-395-1952www.drlinspeer.com
www.feldenkraisjamesspeer.com
"Health Is All that Matters!"

"If you’re in pain, or your body aches, I give you the sensory motor experience to be able to move freely, effortlessly, pleasantly, without strain or discomfort. Say 'Hello' to relaxing, and 'Goodbye' to stiffness and pain!"
To see my popular YouTube video of me demonstrating the wonderful "'2-Minute Movement-Education Miracle' to Free Up Your Stiff Neck", Click Here

Monday, March 17, 2014

Dr. Andrew Weil, MD, on Feldenkrais

Dear health enthusiast friend!

Springtime greetings to you! The beautiful Spring has definitely arrived here into our marvelous SoCal playground! Although we are fortunate to be able to relish in relatively nice weather all year round, now, especially, you can enjoy walking, running, hiking, swimming, surfing, playing tennis, basketball, or even horse-play with your children (or grandchildren), preferably outside.

Some of you are familiar with the renown natural health advocate, Dr. Andrew Weil, M.D. I am grateful how Dr. Weil has frequently espoused the virtues and health benefitis of Feldenkrais since the 1990’s in his popular newsletter, “Self Healing”, as well as within his article, "The Feldenkrais Method: Moving with Ease", which he published in 1998.Dr. Weil often recommends trying Feldenkrais for the treatment of several kinds of injuries.

I am honored to share with you one of his most recent articles, "The Feldenkrais Method", 2011. Just click on the URL link below.http://www.feldenkraiscentre.com/pdfs/Weil2011.pdf

Please remember that when resuming any new activity that you’ve been away from for a while, to always play within your fun range of comfort when you first start out again. If you find that you have otherwise "overdone it", please feel free to call upon me for a relaxing, healing Movement Education treatment.

"Sometimes even a Mercedes needs a tune-up". :-)

Happy Spring! Enjoy the awesome sunshine!

All the best to you in great health!

James

Sunday, March 2, 2014

Life can be a playground!

Greetings to you my health enthusiast friends!

Hey guys, check out this inspiring video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUf72dLf22c (7 minutes 49 seconds)

Neverleavetheplayground.com Growing Bolder Video InterviewLook how youthful and agile this attractive man in his early 70's, "Steve Jepson", looks, feels, moves, and acts.

There's obviously something to "playing", that is, to take any type of activity or action and see how you can spin a different variety to it. The bottom line is for you to have fun in what you're doing.

A great attitude on life, with the energy of a young man in his 20's, look how creative and innovative this eclectic guy, Steve Jepson, is!

He's got an interesting website at www.neverleavetheplayground.com.

If some of Steve's activities seem too intense or difficult, as an alternative, you can start out and do, as he says, just a little of it. As long as you are having fun, that in itself is good enough.

As Steve infers, you can design the course that he is seen using, or the toys that he is seen playing with, or the other objects that he is seen exploring and having fun with, to be smaller or shorter or lighter or slower, etc.

If you want to eventually do more, you can progress gradually, easily, and comfortably, little by little, at your own leisurely pace.

If you need help in learning how to re-design or revise your, rather than saying "workout routine", but instead, as I like to refer to it, your "funtime play activity groove", I can help you with this.

Please feel free to contact me at tel. 310-395-1952.

All the best to you in great health! Take good care,

James

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Functional Movement Education bodywork for the Holidays

Dear friend!

A big holiday greetings to you!

Here it is. ... Here we are! ... Our soon encroaching holiday season! This special time of year brings us all wonderful festivities, gatherings, and opportunities to reunite with our beloved families-at-large, as well as dear friends. However, with all the rustle-and-bustle of the holiday event/party season can sometimes also bring about overwhelm and stress. As a Practitioner of the work of Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais, that’s where I come in.

As an Injury Rehab Therapist, the people that enjoy seeing me are those interested in the wonderful Neuromuscular Rehabilitation benefits of Functional Movement Education bodywork for their acute and chronic pain in the neck, back, shoulder, wrist, knee and hip.

In addition, many people also enjoy seeing me in order to "De-stress". That is, they look forward to their own established private, quality time, that they have decided to dedicate to themselves, for my soothing Movement Education sessions in order to relax, rejuvenate and feel great all over ... especially now, during the hectic holidays.

Regarding the benefits of receiving my Functional Movement Education work for alleviating stress, I often enjoy sharing with new clients the following two, Peer-Reviewed, articles.:1. Malmgren-Olsson E. Armelius B. Armelius K. A comparative outcome study of body awareness therapy, Feldenkrais , and conventional physiotherapy for patients with nonspecific musculoskeletal disorders: changes in psychological symptoms, pain, and self-image. [Journal Article: Research, Tables/Charts] Physiotherapy Theory and Practice. 2001 Jun; 17(2): 77-95. (55 ref). Peer Reviewed.

2. Johnson SK, Frederick J, Kaufman M, Mountjoy B. A controlled investigation of bodywork in multiple sclerosis. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine 5(3): 237-43, 1999. Results show lower perceived stress after Feldenkrais sessions compared to a sham intervention control group. Peer Reviewed.I also have Sunday appointment times available! Let my hands relieve and refresh you on your precious day off.Please feel free to contact me to schedule a Movement Education session at tel. 310-395-1952.Holiday Gift Certificates available!The best of holidays to all!

James

Saturday, September 28, 2013

What I Do as a Functional Movement Educator

Please click here for a video introduction for "What I Do as a Functional Movement Educator"

Thank you for coming here to my blogspot. :-) Please let me start by saying that my background to become a Functional Movement Education Therapist, I completed a 4-year training in order to become a Practitioner of the work of Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais, he being the famed Israeli neuro-physiologist. The curriculum included 1600 hours of course work, spread over 4 years, which is necessary before a student finally “gets it”. In this light, let’s explore together what I as a Functional Movement Education Therapist do. ...

Are you able to recognize an approaching acquaintance long before you can see his or her face? The way we move is an identifiable part of who we are.

We, as human beings, enjoy movement. We love to move. Babies love to move. They love to learn. It’s within the innate desire and curiosity of a child (and adult) to learn about themselves and their environment. They enjoy to learn how to, for instance, roll, turn, bend, walk, or run. It’s within our being the natural desire for rotation or rotating, flexing, extending, twisting or other kinds of movements.

Functional Movement Education is about learning. It’s a way to learn. However, in order for someone to learn, it has to be fun and interesting to the individual, as well as comfortable. Thus, trying to, say, abruptly do a somersault or roll on the ground, or to strain by forcing your hands to touch your toes with locked knees, if this is uncomfortable, your Self (your body) is not learning.

Clients originally come to me because of an injury … a back or neck injury, joint pain in the shoulder, wrist, elbow, knee or other orthopedic problem.

As a Functional Movement Education Therapist, I do not directly go in with the intention to “fix” the other person or to even change the other person. However, I stay in tune with the “process”. I do the “process”. As part of the “process”, I am always staying observant, to be observant or aware, of the “process” that is happening or continues to occur between myself and the client before me. By me, as the Functional Movement Educator, being engaged in this “process”, this ultimately has wonderful therapeutic results, such as eliminating pain or improving the quality of life function, actions, or activities for the client.

As I am working with a client before me, the following are questions that continue to reverberate in my thinking as I am engaged in the process, or "working" in my relation to the client.:

"How can we 'dance' together? ... How can we move together? ... How do we move together? ... What movement is it that we want to do together? What is it (from preventing us) from moving together? What do I put out? What energy do I put out? Where do they meet me? ..."

"Where my hands currently are on this person, rather, from where I'm currently working, what else within this person moves? ... How much of them goes along with this movement? Where along them does this movement stop? How can I 'catch' the rest of themselves within this movement? ... Are we dancing together differently? ..." "As I push here, how much or how far does this movement or action trickle along them? ..."

I may or may not get immediate answers, or, at least, no cognitive or articulate answers to my questions. This is very typical. As part of the process that I am engaged in, I continue to move or “dance” with the individual, or continue to see where I can dance or move with this person, continuing to re-circulate these kinds of questions.

A physical example of what I do would be the following. A client comes to me complaining of back pain. I ask the client to lie down on my table on their back with supporting rollers placed under their bent knees for further comfort. I am having them lie down in order to give their body the opportunity to be taken out of their habitual pattern of holding or tension while upright, in order to make them more comfortable, so that they can be more open to Learning.

Questions that begin to pervade my thinking as I am engaged with this person are.:

"What am I attracted to or drawn to within this person? ... What catches my eye? ... What 'dance' do I wish to do? What dance do we wish to do together? Where does this person want me to touch them? ... to dance with them? ... to move with them?"

Sometimes, I might be drawn to the shoulder area. Yes, the shoulder, even though the client complained of back pain. As I "work" the shoulder, I allow myself to stay aware and observant of where does this shoulder wish to move? Where does it want to go? How much of the rest of the person comes along with this movement of the shoulder?

Where within them, how can I "catch" the rest of their body within this movement? I may then move to another place that I am drawn to. I decide to lift their leg. As I lift, what else of this individual is connected to this movement? I continue to move and dance with the individual and allow myself to remain aware and observant of the process.

After a session, a client will sometimes say how she was surprised that I never touched her back but her "back pain" is gone now. Again, I don't "fix", or rather, I don't go in with the intention to fix. However, this Functional Movement Education work, a.k.a. movement education, this cultivation of body awareness, brings therapeutic benefits. Thus, it ultimately brings helpful results or fixes.

Another word we Functional Movement Education Therapists use is to refer to this session with a client as a session for improving "Functionality". Note how I continue to use the words Functional, Functionality, or their derivatives. We are working with a person's functionality, or how they function, how they move or act. Functional Movement Education is functional work. It is not structural work. We Functional Movement Educators don't have the direct intention to change or manipulate a person’s structure, albeit, their physical anatomy. This may happen ultimately, but it is not my direct intention. The functional work is unlike other structural workers such as, for instance, rolfers, who's intention is to manipulate or work the fascia structure of an individual, or the chiropractor, who manipulates or adjusts bone placement.

Every single Functional Movement Education session is different. Each session is customized to the individual. Each individual, each individual's body, his or her needs, is unique, just as each snowflake.

As a Functional Movement Educator, using my hands-on tactical feedback, I help to expand a client's kinesthetic, or bodily, awareness of themselves. By a person encompassing more of themselves, rather, a greater self-image, pain or discomfort is eliminated.Conclusively, I have given this individual the sensory-motor experience of moving easily, rather, what it is like to move effortlessly without strain or discomfort. Thus, they now have a better “organized” body for movement. Having a better organization, they are now pain-free. They have learned a new pattern for movement.

Some of the conditions I have successfully treated include:
Acute and chronic joint pain - including back, neck, shoulder, hip, and knee pain, arthritis, sciatica, fibromyalgia, carpal tunnel syndrome, balance issues, Stroke, Multiple Sclerosis, as well as other orthopedic or neurological conditions.

As a keyboardist, as well as former all-state trumpet player and all-county cross-country runner, I especially enjoy working with musicians and athletes, for enlarging their body and self-awareness to enhance performance. I was previously honored to have presented Movement Education, twice, to the International Association of Fitness Professionals (IDEA) at their 1996 and 1997 World Fitness Expo & Conventions, as well as at the 1996 North American Feldenkrais Guild conference.

If you haven't already, you may be interested in viewing a short, 2-minute video of me (made within a full, 45-minute session) working with a client, by clicking on the link above.

Please feel free to contact me for any further questions you might have.

Your first Functional Movement Education session with me:

Functional Movement Education is a wonderful, body-centered method for self-exploration using movement. I recommend to my clients to wear loose, comfortable clothes. You will find that this special form of bodywork is very relaxing. In fact, you’ll probably find that as a result of the pleasant unwinding experienced, your body begins to slow down. Therefore, you may have a tendency to more easily feel cold during a session. For this reason, you probably do not want to wear shorts. Thus, I recommend you wear long pants. Some clients like to wear sweats.

Also, you may want to wear socks and possibly even a sweat shirt if you might need, otherwise, to avoid feeling cold.

After the session, you will be in a nice, calm, relaxed state. Some clients after receiving my work desire some quiet time afterward to be by themselves to be alone. This may be as little as 15 minutes, or substantially longer. After your session, your body is still continuing to nicely process the “lesson” for some time afterward. Therefore, you probably don’t want to do anything especially hectic or active, or any heavy lifting, after a session. Preferably, you may want to wait until the next day before doing anything especially active as your body continues to process. However, living in today’s fast times, within our fast, familial and societal obligatory world, this isn’t always possible. Therefore, I usually tell clients to at least not do anything especially active for at least 3 hours after a session.

Clients ask me about "working out", or a "workout", afterward. I tell them that it’s better if they work out before they see me, and then they have the nice, relaxing session with me to look forward to afterward. This is more productive than the opposite, that is, to receive my work and then to immediately afterward go out and do a rigorous workout.

However, I should add that if you have decided for yourself that it is imperative that you work out, and there is no other time to schedule your workout than for after a session with me, then, fine. Receiving my work before working out and then working out afterward, … this is probably better for you than only solely working out and never receiving any Functional Movement Education work at all.

Come on in and enjoy!

The best of health to all!
James

Friday, July 12, 2013

Is this Mozart reborn? An amazing 5 year-old musical genius.

Greetings my friends!

I am so grateful that a friend of mine recently shared with me the following link to a childhood protégé. That term is probably a great understatement.

Check out this 5 year-old boy, a uniquely, "above and beyond" human being.

Here's the link to hear this musical genius.:

http://sorisomail.com/email/289445/tem-5-anos-e-toca-assim-piano.html

My friend included the following blurb with the above link.:

Mozart Reborn?

April 16, 2013

Astounding five (5) yr old!!!! No music sheets needed. Seems to thoroughly enjoy playing these songs, and becomes fully absorbed in the flow of notes, as if he has heard/played these pieces 100's of times before! He certainly hasn't had the years to comprehend what he's doing, nor practice to be this good, so somehow his brain and finger dexterity have been pre-programmed, when, how, why is a complete mystery! What a talent!

Mind boggling!

Indeed! It sure is! I love articles like these that show the potential for we amazing human beings, how our learning can ultimately be enhanced, how we can ultimately strive and reach a great learning potential.

Bon Apetit!

James

Saturday, June 8, 2013

How The Human Face Might Look In 100,000 Years

Hello again, friends!

How is everyone? First of all, to clarify any possible confusion lately, the photograph above is a picture of me working with a client very recently. This picture has nothing to do with this posting. Thus, it was not taken in the year 102,013 A.D. as some of you have contacted me wondering. J :-)

Some of you may recall last week how I posted the link to an exciting and thrilling video on YouTube titled "Anthro", which reflected the concept of "artificial evolution".

You may be interested in checking out the link below regarding an interesting story which appeared on June 7, 2013 on Yahoo, titled, "How The Human Face Might Look In 100,000 Years"http://finance.yahoo.com/news/human-face-might-look-100-171207969.html

Amongst interesting reading, the article shows at the bottom three different photographs which display the human face in progression of a man and woman in 20,000 years, 60,000 years, and 100,000 years from now, due substantially to our own induced genetic engineering.

Although the depictions of what our successors might look like were somewhat unnerving, i.e. large foreheads and eyes, I still found the article fascinating.

The best to all for great health!

James

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