This Profile establishes

1. a basis for assessing competencies required of Trainer Candidates in order to be a Feldenkrais Trainer
2. a teaching tool to guide the Trainer Candidate in his/her learning process

Competency 1: The ability to teach and practice the Feldenkrais Method with a high degree of proficiency.

Elements:

• Ability to give highly skilled Functional Integration® lessons.
• Ability to teach Awareness Through Movement® at a high level
• Demonstrate a working knowledge of ATM lessons taught by Moshe Feldenkrais to the public and at training programs. Knowledge of materials must include, but is not limited to: Alexander Yanai Lessons, San Francisco and Amherst Training Programs.
• Ability to teach ATM over an extended period of time while maintaining group interest and effective learning.
• Ability to respond flexibly and appropriately during ATM teaching, and in planning ATM teaching, to meet the individual learning needs of trainees.

Competency 2: Ability to teach trainees how to teach ATM lessons.

Elements:

• Understanding the distinction between how you teach public ATMs and ATMs in training programs.
• Ability to teach trainees how to respond to various situations and difficulties that arise in the teaching of ATM to the public.
• Ability to present essential and complex issues in the teaching of ATM.
• Ability to teach how to analyze ATM.

Competency 3: Ability to teach Functional Integration and to design learning experiences in FI practice.

Elements:

• Ability to teach demonstration FI lessons.
• Ability to guide trainees through an FI process giving verbal instructions as they practice.
• Ability to verbally describe aspects of the FI process while demonstrating FI to trainees.
• Ability to respond flexibly and appropriately at the time to emergent and changing opportunities and situations for learning in the process of teaching FI.
• Ability to present both essential and complex issues in teaching FI.
• Ability to lead discussions of videos of Moshe Feldenkrais giving FI lessons viewed within a training.
• Ability to design a series of FI practices pertaining to a particular functional pattern or theme.
• Ability to understand one's own organization while teaching FI lessons, and the ability to model and describe the role of the effective organisation of the Feldenkrais Teacher-Practitioner in the teaching of FI lessons.

Competency 4: Ability to develop Feldenkrais training curriculum.

Elements:

• Ability to develop curriculum.

Competency 5: The ability to create a learning environment

Elements:

• Ability to create a learning environment.
• Ability to understand the relationship between the training environment you create and the trainee’s learning.
• Ability to hold the attention of a training group.
• Ability to sustain your own interest and attention while teaching a training group.
• Ability to detect and respond to shifts of attention in a training group.
• Ability to identify and respond appropriately to trainees who are having difficulties with the training process or group process.
• Ability to alter your own teaching plan in an appropriate and timely way to meet the needs of the training group.
• Ability to monitor a trainee's learning and development.

Competency 6: The ability to communicate knowledge of the theory of the Feldenkrais Method and to draw on knowledge of related fields in teaching the Feldenkrais Method.

Elements:

• Demonstrable knowledge of, and ability to communicate, the historical and cultural context of the Feldenkrais Method.
• Knowledge of the published works of Moshe Feldenkrais, including books, articles and videos.
• Demonstrable knowledge of, and ability to communicate about, a number of disciplines related to the Feldenkrais Method.

Competence 7: The ability to work effectively in a group and maintain effective professional relationships.

Elements:

• Ability to lead.
• Ability to work in a team.
• Ability to manage group dynamics 2.
• Ability to develop and maintain professional, supportive, and respectful relationships 3.
• Ability to be sensitive to differences in cultural nuance, experience and expression.
• Ability to demonstrate knowledge of your own limits 4.
• Ability to teach professional and ethical standards to trainees.
• Demonstrate an understanding of ethical conduct in relationships between teacher and client/student, trainers and other training staff, trainers and trainees.

Notes

1. Knowledge could be theoretical, abstract, concrete or practical. Some relevant areas of knowledge could include, and are not limited to (listed in alphabetical order): animal biology, anthropology, architecture, art, biology, cybernetics, dance/movement, education, evolution, functional anatomy, physiotherapy, medicine, healing arts, human development, learning theory, literature, martial arts, mathematics, meditation, movement science, music, neurophysiology, performing arts, philosophy, physics, psychology, somatic education, systems theory, visual arts and other disciplines the Candidate can demonstrate are related to working in the Feldenkrais Method.
2. Aspects of the ability to manage group dynamics could include, but are not limited to: the ability to build a team, the ability to develop cooperative relationships among group members and within the staff, the ability to deal effectively with responses in the group including, but not limited to, criticism, anger, dissatisfaction, positive projection, apathy, passivity, transference and counter-transference.
3. Aspects of the ability to develop and maintain professional, supportive, and respectful relationships could include, but are not limited to: the ability to deal appropriately with such issues as, sexual, power and emotional boundaries within a training process or environment (amongst self and trainees, and staff), with colleagues and the wider community; sensitivity to differences in emotional experience of trainees and staff.
4. Aspects of the ability to demonstrate knowledge of your own limits could include, but are not limited to: demonstration of a continued openness to discovering one's self; awareness of your own reactivity patterns, both positive and negative; awareness of when consultation with other professionals is appropriate; awareness of what the difference is between having expertise, needing to be the expert and empowering another to be the expert.