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Feldenkrais Research Journal • volume 4 (2008)

Article

Mia

Göran Mörkeberg
Feldengood, Sweden

Keywords
Feldenkrais Method, case study

Copyright ©: The copyright for this paper remains with the author(s).

Please cite: (First published in the) Feldenkrais Research Journal, volume 4; 2008.

Service marks: The terms Feldenkrais®, Feldenkrais Method®, Awareness Through Movement®, ATM®,
Functional Integration®, and FI® are service marked terms of the International Feldenkrais® Federation
(IFF) and Feldenkrais professional guilds and associations in many countries. In keeping with academic
conventions, they will not be service marked in the entire text as may be required in nonacademic use,
but only for the first and most prominent use of the terms. In recognition that these phrases are formal
terms referring to specific practices within the Method, and to the Method as a whole, capitalization of all
the words in each term has been retained.

Published by the International Feldenkrais® Federation (IFF) https://feldenkrais-method.org
Available online at https://feldenkraisresearchjournal.org

https://feldenkrais-method.org/
https://feldenkraisresearchjournal.org


MIA 
 
Göran Mörkeberg 
 
“How has it been since last time?” I asked Mia, a woman in her late fifties, when 
she arrived for her fourth lesson. She came for lessons because of severe knee 
problems especially in her right one, where the cartilage was in bad shape. 
“Much better, I have reduced the number of painkillers and it is easier to bend my 
knees. My homework went great.” (I had given her a tape with a “frog leg” ATM) 
“That’s great, what are your wishes for today?” 
“Well I still have difficulties putting weight on my right big toe, both in standing 
and in 
walking. As soon as I don’t concentrate, I find myself back in my old pattern,” she 
replied. 
“What do you do then?” I asked. 
“Well I try to think about what we did last time when you helped me to keep my 
length on the right side when I stepped on that foot and it gets a little easier.” 
 
How could I help her maintain this organization without having to stay overly 
conscious about it? Last time I gave her a lesson she was lying on her left side 
and I followed her pattern and helped her shorten her right side and in the end 
she was able to lengthen this side more easily. I had also done some work with 
her feet on a small roller and this helped her to be more aware of how she used 
them and it also made it possible for her to use the inside of her feet differently. 
 
A process I have seen both Gaby Yaron and Larry Goldfarb do came into my 
mind, using a big roller both in sitting and lying with the back of the pelvis on it. I 
thought that it might be easier for her to leave her old patterns if she was sitting 
and lying on a roller. And maybe if I give her the same message as in the last 
lesson (being long when stepping onto the right foot) but in another position, it 
would be possible for her to make it a part of her movement vocabulary. Also 
when lying on the roller, it would probably be easier for her feet to stand more 
under her knees and have the pressure more between the first and second toes 
and more towards the first metatarsal. In earlier lessons we had found that, when 
she put the pressure through this part of her foot in walking, her knees felt better. 
I also thought this position would give me greater access to her lower back and 
her ribcage and it would be easier to help her lengthen and shorten both sides. 
 
I had her sit and asked her to notice how the pressure was distributed on her 
buttocks. At first she felt no differences. I wondered how I might help her note 
differences more clearly. I asked her to round and extend her back while noticing 
the pressure on her buttocks. She could then feel that when rounding she came 
more over on the right side. Then I asked her what happened with her knees 
when she did that, and it was obvious for both of us that her right knee moved 
more to the outside. Then I asked her to pay attention to where in her back she 
moved and worked the most. This was something we had done in the last lesson, 



in side–lying, and we found that it was the same as last time, that she had 
difficulties moving in her lower back and letting go of her stomach. 
Although this had shown up in the last lesson, I hadn’t been aware that the 
pattern of holding in her stomach was so strong in her, but I hoped that it would 
be possible to address both this pattern and her pattern of shortening her right 
side. And to do it in a position she wasn’t used to would hopefully be effective. I 
decided to go on with the lesson. 
 
I had her sit on a big roller and roll it forward and back. I wanted to see if this 
changed the way she used herself. I hoped that the roller would help her use her 
lower back more. Spontaneously she rounded her back when she rolled the roller 
back and extended it when she rolled it forward. Without the roller, there hadn’t 
been much movement in the lower part of her back. I then asked her to do it the 
other way around (move the roller back when extending and move the roller 
forward while flexing). I thought that this would further inform the way she used 
her lower back. This was quite difficult for her but after doing it a few times it 
started to get a little easier. Then she noticed that it was even easier when she 
used her legs more. I hadn’t been thinking about the use of her legs, so when 
she said it to me I had her (and me) focus even more on her knees and feet. We 
then played a little with putting weight on different parts of her feet while rolling 
the roller back and forth. During this experiment, she kept on extending her back 
when the roller moved back and rounded it when the roller moved forward. I then 
asked her to notice how her back was moving and it was clear to her that there 
was now more movement in the lower part of her back.  
 
Thanks to her awareness and quick response, sitting on the roller seemed to 
help with how she used her lower back. It also gave her more awareness of how 
her legs could be part of this action and reminded me how they were involved as 
well. 
 
After this, I had her lie on her back on the table and placed the roller under her 
pelvis. I began palpating the muscles in her back and, as I had found earlier, 
there was a higher tonus on the right side than on the left. This time it was 
obvious for her too which made me glad because this was the first time she 
noticed the difference in the muscle tonus between the two sides. I lightly pulled 
through her legs (feet standing while holding on the femoral condoyle). I could 
feel that the pulling went through much easier on her left side, where movement 
reached her head. On her right side it stopped somewhere in her waist. When I 
asked what she noticed, to my surprise, it was quite different than what I was 
paying attention to. She felt that her right hip was looser than her left. She wasn’t 
at all aware of what was going on in her trunk.  
 
I then pushed from her knees up through her head and when doing this, I could 
also feel that the movement went through more easily on her left side. Here too 
there was a difference between what she and I were feeling and noticing. I was a 
little bit puzzled with this but realized that if we weren’t able to observe the same 



phenomena it would be difficult to continue along this track. So I did the pulling 
and pushing in different directions while directing her attention to different parts 
of her body. During this process her awareness of what was going on increased 
and after a while we could both agree with what was happening. She realized 
that the reason that she felt her right hip to be looser had to do with the fact that 
there was less movement in the right side of her trunk so her hip joint stood out 
more. After doing this for a while she could notice that the movement went 
through more easily on her left. 
 
I returned to palpating the muscles in her lower back and asked her what she felt. 
She answered that the muscles felt softer than in the beginning, especially on the 
left side. That was similar to what I felt and I was relieved that we now were 
noticing the same things. I then supported the right side of her lower back, lifting 
it up a little while at the same time moving the right side of her pelvis and her 
right shoulder slightly towards each other. “That feels good,” she said, and after I 
stopped the movement we could again both feel that the muscles on her right 
side where a little bit softer. Then I came back to pulling and pushing through her 
legs and I was pleased to find that she was more aware of what was going on. 
The differences between the two sides were much smaller than before but still 
there where a difference between her two sides that I felt needed to be 
addressed. It was as if something was holding in the region of her right hip and 
then I remembered that she had mentioned something about being sore in her 
right groin. So I thought that iliopsoas could have something to do with it. 
 
In this part of the lesson, I was a little bit unsure if it was appropriate or not to 
make more 
differentiation. I think I could have left the next step out, thinking that maybe her 
nervous system would take care of it by itself, but after having her rest for a short 
while off the roller, I put her back on the roller and continued on. 
 
I lifted her right leg and palpated her in her groin and found she was sore here 
and it was difficult for me to reach into her hip joint. On her left side she felt no 
soreness and my fingers could sink deeper in without any resistance. She also 
said to me that her right leg felt heavy. I went on doing the following with the 
hope that it would help clarify her hip joints and allow her iliopsoas to let go. I 
held one leg and had the other one standing (still with her pelvis on the roller). 
Then I moved her pelvis (producing extension and flexion in her lower back). This 
was done with her leg and pelvis held together, with her pelvis fixed and moving 
her leg, with her leg fixed moving her pelvis and moving both her pelvis and leg 
in different directions. I started on her left side where she had no problem of 
letting go. When I came over to the right, it was more resistant and it was very 
difficult for her to let go of the leg. I then went back to her left side and asked her 
to produce the same resistance on this side that she felt on the right. After 
changing sides a couple of times, it became clear for her that the work she was 
doing in her right hip wasn’t necessary. In the end, I held her leg and had her 
move her pelvis, extending and flexing in her lower back. It was now easier for 



her to let go of her right side and she now noticed that her feet were also 
standing much more stable. 
 
I ended up what we were doing on the roller by taking her into flexion, lifting up 
her knees having her lower legs hanging. She immediately noticed that her 
knees bent more than usual. And when the roller was taken away and she put 
her legs standing, she spontaneously said that her legs felt more stable. 
“How come?” I said. –“What is the difference?” 
“I think my feet are standing closer together and closer to my buttocks”, she 
answered. 
“Can you lift your pelvis now”, I said. 
She did and it felt much easier than it used to. I then had her lift her pelvis with 
her feet 
placed in different positions to help make her aware of the choices now available 
to her. 
 
After this, we came back to her sitting on the roller and I asked her again to roll it 
back and forward. To her own surprise, she started to roll the roller back and at 
the same time extend her back. I myself was also a little surprised (even a little 
relieved) that she found it so quickly. Then I asked her, “What about your legs?” 
“I use them much more and it is easier than in the beginning”, she replied. 
Then I asked her to roll it the other way around (rounding the back when rolling 
the roller 
back). She now found this more difficult and also noticed that it was more difficult 
to move in her lower back and use her legs. Away with the roller and back to 
sitting on the table, she felt that she sat more balanced and more in the middle. 
 
At the end of the lesson, when she came up to walk, she spontaneously said that 
it was easier to have the pressure on the big toes of both feet (this was actually 
more between the first and second toes, towards the first metatarsal, but I 
wanted to use her language here). I think that this happened because of the 
changes that resulted from when she was lying with her pelvis on the roller with 
knees bent. In this position, her feet could come more under her knees, making it 
much easier to feel the pressure through the front of her feet. Working with her in 
this “environment” allowed her to more clearly learn and sense how to do this. I 
was very pleased with how the lesson had evolved even though in some part of 
the lesson I wasn’t sure if I had done too much. I could see that her walking had 
improved a lot and I think that her awareness of what is going on, how her knee 
problems are connected to how she uses the rest of herself, has increased, 
 
What would be the next step?  I am not sure, but this lesson on the roller was 
one step towards having her heels more under her pelvis and on the way to this it 
will give a lot of opportunities to work with the movements in her lower limbs and 
in the knees. It will also provide an opportunity to work more with finding the best 
place to put pressure through her feet. There is a wonderful series of ATM´s 
starting in AY#190 and I think working with her around them will provide plenty of 



material for many FI´s. in these lessons Moshe emphasizes, again and again, to 
have the pressure on the feet, somewhere between the first and the second toes. 
 
Probably I will also do some work with her kneeling at the table to help further 
clarify her hip joints and how she brings her weight over her legs. Maybe it could 
be a way for her to be able to sit more on her heels as well. If this doesn’t work 
out, I might have her lying on her stomach and from there work with having her 
push with her big toe, and maybe also do something that could support more 
flexion in her knees. 
 
But I have to wait and see how she digests what happened during this lesson. 
Maybe I will need to go back to do some more work differentiating her feet (which 
I did in the second lesson with her) but I will have to follow her cue when she 
returns.  
 
Anyhow, I am looking forward to the next lesson. 
 
Göran Mörkeberg 
Nygatan 88, S-231 45 Trelleborg 
+46-410-44413; +46-733-122347 
feldengood@telia.com 
www.feldengood.com 

mailto:feldengood@telia.com

