My name is Eva Laser

Reg. Physiotherapist (-75), ergonomist (-85) , Auth. Feldenkrais teacher (-91)
Since 1991 I work as a Feldenkrais teacher in Solna, a suburb of Stockholm.
I have been a registered physiotherapist since 1975
in 1982 I specialized in primary care,
in 1985 I specialized in ergonomics and
in 1988 I began my professional involvement with
the Feldenkrais model of learning to learn - again.

In 2022, it is 50 years since I devoted myself to rehabilitation and
preventive health care.

I grew up in Råsunda, Solna. During my high school years, I studied natural sciences at Whitlockska Samskolan in Stockholm. After graduation, I spent a year in Jerusalem and gained the experience of living in a society very different from Sweden and with a different culture and a different language. I learned Hebrew.

After the year in Jerusalem I studied at the Wingate Institute, 23 km north of Tel Aviv to become a registered physiotherapist. Sometime after the October War, in the winter of 1974, a classmate invited me to come with her to the open ATM classes which was held in the building of Romanian immigrants Alexander Yanai street 3 in Tel Aviv. I went for a year or so twice a week. Moshe Feldenkrais was abroad and Eli Wadler had the confidence to turn the Grundig 4 tracked taperecorder on and off. People of all ages and with different questions particiapted. The floor was covered with simple strawmaths. No explanations, no introduction just an ATM without name. 

In 1978 I moved back to Sweden, began practicing PT in a primary care setting, got married with my Israeli boyfriend and had two children. My professional interest became the newly established specialization health and preventive medicine, and I was also trained to be an ergonomist. By chance I got an invitation to participate in a professional Feldenkrais training to start in Stockholm in late summer 1988. Trainer and educational director was Yochanan Rywerant. I did not hesitate a minute to sign up. Feldenkrais was  like a magnet for me.

The training was organized by Svenska  Feldenkraisföreningen, SFF, the guild for teachers trained by YR.

From the perspective of a clinical physiotherapist, what I encountered was transformative. Sure, I had learned several physical therapy techniques but what Yochanan Rywerant demonstrated with a simple playfulness of learning and imparting with "teaching by handling" was in a class by itself. The basic training spanned over a four-year period with intensive periods of teaching and longer periods of self-study and practice.

The thinking was not alien but obvious with an ethical holistic view of man, Jewish influences and an exploratory questioning mind all resting on a solid theoretical and scientific basis. The low-key non-corrective approach was unlike the simplification of ergonomics. Show opportunities, yes! with leaving a lot of room for the individual's personal responsibility and process. For several years I was lost before technique and practical professional skills was established.
 
YR came to Stockholm over a 10-year period, and I was always there. He shared with us in rich measure the more comprehensive meta and meta meta thinking to design a profession in the making. When YR for health reasons no longer traveled, I continued to visit him in Tel Aviv until his last international training in 2009. It was a pleasure to follow a master for so long, 21 years and see how he time and again simplified the difficult into something subtle and pervasive.
 
It was difficult to combine Feldenkrais and occupational health care and in 1991 I started a modest private practice. The Social Insurance Agency invested in work oriented rehabilitation, and I got clients. But it was not enough, and I had repeated contacts with the Region council and obtained an ‘establishment’ in 1998 to integrate feldenkrais with physical therapy and medical rehabilitation where clients paid as for other health care. Most clients get feldenkrais for free. Their whole process.

This has developed into what is today the Feldenkrais School.

In 1994–96 I participated in a meta-meta-seminar with YR, that is, learning to teach Feldenkrais to become a teacher or continuing education. Over the years I have concentrated on the continuous teaching of teachers after their basic training, both in Sweden and Norway.

I have been involved in translating both 'Body and Mature behavior' and ‘The Elusive Obvious, basic Feldenkrais' into Swedish together with Gunnel Iverus. It was a slow and rewarding process. The result is a deep understanding of what is written both on and between the lines. I have been intrumental that 'Thinking and Doing' was translated to English.

My approach to advanced trainings is the combinations of theory and practice, a theory which is evolving and getting to the bottom of what Moshe Feldenkrais actually has written.

The trainings in Sweden and abroad are in English, but you need to have a good vocabulary in Swedish to teach quality ATM’s but also be anchored in the theoretical framework. It has become my specialty. How to gently use language to turn a Feldenkrais question into the 'something else' it deserves.

For many years I have been recording my ATM lessons and publishing them on Sound Cloud. In 2020 I opened a virtual school that mixed theoretical learning with ATM. Feldenkrais is a dialogue pedagogy and this is completely lost in a recorded lesson. You can choose a recorded ATM spontaneously, but you can also learn to choose the appropriate ATM to make your process go in the desired direction. This is a material in Swedish with around 350 ATM and suitable meta-teaching.

Currently I am teaching ATM via Zoom twice a week, teach halftime with individual sessions and rehab at my studio - and write and build websites.

Solna oktober 2022


Translated writings

by Eva Laser

Original writings in Swedish

by Eva Laser

Svenska ATM Podden

My virtual school for subscribers

somatik.se informerar kring feldenkrais i allmänhet och verksamheten på Feldenkrais Skolan i synnerhet. 

Hemsidan ger läsaren en möjlighet att bekanta sig med teorin bakom feldenkrais,
väcka nyfikenhet och förmedla
allvar och möjligheter.

Eva Laser

Telefon: 08 655 05 40
Mobil: 070 655 04 70
Swish: 123 412 67 51

Besöksadress: Lostigen 14 Bergshamra, 170 75 Solna

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