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

Sunday, March 22, 2015

Health Benefits of Feldenkrais

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

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

New Book on Feldenkrais by New York Times Best Seller Author, Dr. Norman Doidge, MD

Dear Health Enthusiast!

Greetings to you! With our recent celebration this past week of Chinese Lunar New Year, “Year of the Ram”, I am reminded how here in beautiful, sunny Southern California (most of the time, anyway) in just a few weeks, if not already, we will be able to enjoy our wonderful Southland Springtime accolades.

It’s floating all over the Media and Internet. …

New York Times Bestseller, Dr. Norman Doidge, MD, psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and poet, has just released his new book (January 2015) appropriately titled, “THE BRAIN'S WAY OF HEALING: Remarkable Discoveries and Recoveries from the frontiers of Neuroplasticity, and is available in all bookstores as well as at Dr. Norman Doidge’s website, http://www.normandoidge.com/.

Dr. Norman Doidge’s new book on brain and body neuroplasticity contains two complete chapters devoted to the merits of Movement and Neuromuscular Reeducation through Feldenkrais and features numerous case studies of patients suffering from neurological disorders and details how in each case the brain adapts to compensate for the disabilities of the individual patients, often in unusual and unexpected ways.

The Brain's Way of Healing focuses on treating brain injury and illness through neuroplastic treatments and healing, i.e. Feldenkrais Movement Re-Education. Dr. Doidge explores cases where patients alleviated years of chronic pain or recovered from debilitating strokes or accidents; children on the autistic spectrum or with learning disorders normalizing; symptoms of multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, cerebral palsy, traumatic brain injury, learning disorders, sensory processing disorders, attention deficit disorder, as well as balance problems radically improved, and other near-miracle recoveries.

Even the prestigious, Salon, the informative news magazine website, renown for focusing on U.S. politics and current affairs, as well as on reviews and articles about music, books and film, has already featured a wonderful excerpt from Dr. Doidge’s book titled as:

“She Will Dance at Her Wedding”: Healing the girl born without a part of her brain

The origin of Moshe Feldenkrais’ therapeutic method reads more like a spy thriller than a neuroscience textbook.

This article can be found at the following link from Salon’s website.:

http://www.salon.com/2015/03/02/she_will_dance_at_her_wedding_healing_the_girl_born_without_part_of_her_brain/

You may recall Dr. Norman Doidge’s previous bestseller back in the year 2007 as:

The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science

Having previously sold over a million copies, The Brain that Changes Itself, was chosen by the Dana Brain Foundation’s Journal Cerebrum, from among the 30,000 books on the brain in English, as the best general book on the brain, and is also currently available in over a hundred countries and over 20 languages.

If this all sounds (wonderfully) overwhelming to you, as an Injury Rehab Therapist, with over 20 years experience as a Practitioner of the work of Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais, I can greatly help you or a loved one with your neurological or orthopedic condition.

Wearing my hat as a Functional Movement Education Therapist, I will give to you the sensory motor experience of what it feels like to move easily, effortlessly and comfortably in all of your life’s activities and functions.

Please feel free to ask me more about how I can help you at tel. 310-395-1952.

Health is so important. After all, as my business logo since the early 1990’s declares:

“Health is All that Matters!”

All the best to you for a wonderful Chinese Lunar New Year, "Year of the Ram"!

James

Saturday, September 27, 2014

I can help your shoulder pain!

Greetings health enthusiast friend!

Good news! I am here to rescue you from your shoulder injury or pain!

Whoa! I should first politely say, ...

I hope you all had a wonderful, enjoyable and active summer. If it was "too active", or more than you could handle, please feel free to come in and see me. Whether it's because of your tennis elbow, swimmer's shoulder, "computer user" carpal tunnel wrist pain, housemaid knee, runner's knee, or for your "office chair sitting" sore neck or back, I can provide you with hands-on Functional Movement Re-Education work for your body in order to learn a new pattern for movement. Or, more simply, for body pain relief and healing.

If it's been a while since you've been in, you might be interested for coming in for your "fun maintenance session". As a long-standing client of mine likes to say, "Even a Mercedes needs a tune-up." :-)

You’ll recall that I have previously sent you information regarding Peer-Reviewed studies on how Feldenkrais is beneficial for various pains and anomalies. This month, I would like to inform you of another Peer-Reviewed Research article that destines Feldenkrais as being marvelous for curbing shoulder pain. Check out:

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.

The present study aimed to investigate whether Feldenkrais interventions resulted in a reduction of complaints from the neck and shoulders (prevalence, pain intensity, sick leave, and disability in leisure and work roles) in 97 female industrial workers.

The study group of individuals showed significant decreases in complaints from neck and shoulders and in disability during leisure time, as well as positive changes in complaints after the Feldenkrais intervention.

Here’s one link for this informative article.:

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1021301801292

As a Practitioner of the work of Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais with over 20 years of clinical experience, I can give you the sensory-motor experience of being able to move easily, comfortably, and freely without feeling pain or discomfort. If you’re not sure what I mean by having the wonderful sensory motor experience of being able to move without your existing neck, back, shoulder, hip, knee, or wrist pain, after your 35 minute hands-on session with me, you’ll definitely feel what I mean.

Please give me a call at tel. 310-395-1952 to say Hello! to relaxing and Good-bye! to stiffness and pain.

I look forward to seeing you soon!

To your great health!
James

Friday, August 29, 2014

What to expect in your first visit with me

Greetings to you friend,

I applaud your wise life decision to invest in your health and well being by seeing a health practitioner. To give you a little heads up in what to expect in your first session with me, firstly, I normally ask a new client in the beginning of their first visit with me to ...

"Please tell me a little about yourself and what I can do for you. ..." Often times, people tell me that they are here in my office to see me because they have, for instance, neck pain or back pain or shoulder, knee, elbow, hip, or wrist pain.

I do not, per say, work with pain, but instead, as a Practitioner of the work of Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais, I do Movement Education. Thus, I refocus any perceived structural or pain issues into the context of functionality or movement.

Therefore, I might follow-up by asking the client, "What is it, in your experience, that tells you that you have pain?" They might say, for instance, "Now it hurts me when I hit my tennis forehand." Or, "When I lift my child my back hurts." "My right wrist hurts me when typing at the computer." "I am uncomfortable while sitting at the computer." "My knee hurts when I run." "Now I feel this pain in my hip when I walk." "Walking seems to be hard for me now. It sometimes feels like it's a struggle. I even feel a little off balance. Walking is now just uncomfortable for me."

These are just some examples of how I then will begin to place our session together within the context or perspective of working with you, the client, in order to improve your, for instance, tennis stroke, or to be better organized to be able to lift more efficiently, or to be able to type on the keyboard without pain, or to be able to sit more comfortably ... or to be able to walk more comfortably, etc.

If you are a performer or athlete, who is not in any pain, you may wish to see me in order to refine your movement, that is, to improve the form for your sport more efficiently.

Or, you may be interested in seeing me for, not necessarily any types of pain or movement issues, but simply for a relaxing, stress-breaker, rejuvenating session.

You may find it helpful before seeing me to look at the following video to see me working with, for instance, a client with back pain.

http://feldenkraisjamesspeer.blogspot.com/2013_09_01_archive.html

I look forward to seeing you.

All the best to you. Take good care,
James

Sunday, May 4, 2014

Functional Movement Education for Dancing

Greetings Health Enthusiast ... and Dancer!!

Happy May to you! When you think of the month of May, you may think of ... sunshine ... the outdoors ... or spring time.

What else do you think of? You possibly think of ... beauty ... getting outside and having fun, doing what you like to do. You possibly associate May with the month of having the ideal temperature. That is, without actually breaking too deep of a sweat, it feels like just the right amount of warmth or heat.

After shivering and quivering during the nightly Jack Frost from winter, with the arrival of the beautiful month of May, you possibly think of moving, blooming, blossoming, coming of age, a new life, a new season, coming alive!

It stands to reason that the month of May was named for the Greek goddess, Maia, who was identified with the Roman era goddess of fertility, Bona Dea, whose festival was held in May.

For the partiers among us, as every bar and club owner is grateful for, we all look forward to having fun, a.k.a. "Goin' nuts!", on Cinco de Mayo.

This leads to ... when you think of May, you think of parties, coming to life ... indoors as well as outdoors ... in someone's living room, an auditorium, or on the beach, or in the woods. ... You think of dancing! ... by yourself, or in a group circle.

For all you dancers, that's everyone of us ... from the beginner ballet student ... to the night club socialite ... to the solitary, closed-bedroom-door dancer ... to the professional dancer, you are maybe aware of how Functional Movement Education can improve your dancing mobility. Its enhanced coordination development, Functional Movement Education has even helped to prolong the life of professional dancers' careers.

It's always a pleasure to see how Functional Movement Education can wonderfully, gently soften or open up a dancer's hips, as well as give them a greater sense of refined, quality movement within their dancing repertoire.

The merits of Movement Education for injury prevention are well known within the dance world. In addition to consistently being mentioned within Dance Magazine for the last 35 years, just take a look at a fraction of the total Research that has been done, below, which references the benefits of Movement Education for improving dancing, some even being Peer-Reviewed.

Batson, Glenna. Revisiting Overuse Injuries in Dance in View of Motor Learning and Somatic Models of Distributed Practice. Journal of Dance Medicine & Science 2007, Vol. 11 Issue 3, p70 6p. Peer Reviewed.
Ryding C. Rudebeck CE. Mattsson B. Body awareness in movement and language: concordance and disparity. [Journal Article: Research] Advances in Physiotherapy. 2004; 6(4): 158-65. (18 ref). Peer Reviewed

Bruce, F.M. Making sense in movement : the dynamics of self-learning and self-change. [Microform Thesis or Dissertation] Kinesiology Publications, University of Oregon Eugene, OR, 2004, 3 microfiche (234 fr.)

Nordin, Sanna M., Cumming, Jennifer. The Development of Imagery in Dance. Journal of Dance Medicine & Science 2006, Vol. 10 Issue 1/2, p21 7p. Peer Reviewed.

Phillips-Silver, Jessica. On the Meaning of Movement in Music, Development and the Brain. Contemporary Music Review, 2009, Vol. 28(3): 293-314.

If you are interested in how I, as an Injury Rehab Therapist as well as hands-on Practitioner of the work of Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais, can give your body the sensory-motor experience of being able to dance more gracefully and efficiently, please call me at tel. 310-395-1952.
I look forward to meeting and working with you.

"Health is all that Matters!" The best in health to you!

Happy May!

James

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

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

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