When later in 1967 Feldenkrais decided to train practitioners in his method of hands-on individual teaching, called Functional Integration®, Ruthy, who has been devotedly teaching the group movement processes, was among the thirteen fortunate chosen ones to sit on straw stools around the low treatment table of the master in that first training.
Since those early days in Israel, the Feldenkrais Method® has become the central axis of Ruthy’s development and professional contributions. She was the first practitioner to follow Moshe to the U.S. in 1972, coming to the Esalen Institute in California and then teaching his new approach to the humanistic oriented community in other centers and Universities.
At that time of the Seventieth, many people were searching for ways to take on responsibility of their own personal ecology, and they found a congruent message in the legacy of Moshe Feldenkrais. After Moshe passed away Ruthy conducted the first four-year professional Feldenkrais training in San Diego, as well as in Tel Aviv, Sydney, Florence Italy, as well as teaching as a guest trainer around the world.
“It is not just a method of body movement,” says Ruthy, “but rather an awakening bodily resourcefulness and creativity.” Ruthy created Audiotapes of the
Free Your Back, as well as
Grammar of Spontaneity workshops of guiding movement processes for the general public
, which made a difference for many people. Her videotape of her own movement presentation entitled
Movement Nature Meant have been widely distributed throughout the Feldenkrais community*, and as they say one glance is worth of 100 words.
On 1970 Ruthy has published the insights of her teaching in her book
Mindful Spontaneity *, soon to be republished by Amazon. Her book has been translated into 7 languages and was awarded the book-of-the-year prize for natural healing, by the Jungian Society in Italy.
Her ongoing quest to promote and restore well being in people’s lives has led her to create her life work in the
Bones For Life program for stimulating bone strength, using impactful movement and weight-bearing posture. In the Bones program, she applies the somatic learning principles of the Feldenkrais Method in the different context of dynamic mobility, in the reality of vertical posture, power management and rhythm, as required for engaging bone function. The Bones for Life program has been taught in over 30 countries
.
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In 2004 Ruthy has presented her 30 page paper to
NASA, Texas:
Conditioning Bone strength on Weight Bearing Posture, ( click Here *) as well as her Abstract + Poster (Click Here*) at the
NASA conference , Kansas, May 2005, Aviation, Space and Environmental Medicine Journal, March 2005, Vol 76 No. 3 Abstract #72.
Being tuned to what is the crucial need of people at the time, Ruthy keeps creating a few more programs, all under the umbrella of
Movement Intelligence, for the awakening of the core resourcefulness, the inner compass for navigating gratified way of functioning.
Her programs:
Bones for Life: for bone strength and weight bearing posture
Walk for Life: For Health, Power management & Biological Optimism
Chairs: From fixation to mobility
Mindful Eating: The Inner Game of Chewing
Movement Intelligence Solutions for Individual Problems : Self-care Strategies.
All programs intend to provide people with the perception and the practical guidance of how to free themselves of compromised level of moving, by restoring the organic native sense for self-correction.
One of the special qualities that Ruthy brings to her teaching is her capacity to decipher complex combinations of movement management and to design solutions for how to improve them. She offers clear verbal explanations that empower her students to comprehend and master the work on their own, with a sense of personal success.
Ruthy balances the influence of the intuitive harmony right brain, acquired from her mother, who was of Jewish Moroccan origin, with the left brain conceptual thinking from her Russian-born father. She was born in Colombia, South America, and grew up in Israel. She spent a few teenage years at school in a kibbutz, which imprinted in her an idealistic approach toward progress and society. She is a graduate of a teachers’ college in Jerusalem. Recently, at the age of 83, with quite extensive schedule of teaching worldwide, Ruthy did her
Ph.D. on Movement intelligence. (Click here*)