Teachers

Yasuko Kasami

Stephanie Spink

Thomas Farnbacher

Paul Newton

Deborah Bowes

guest teachers

Yasuko Kasami

Yasuko Kasami

Yasuko Kasami is a Feldenkrais practitioner and Assistant Trainer certified by the Australian Training Accreditation Board (AusTAB).

 

Her background is modern dance. Kasami performed her innovative original dance works in small theaters in throughout Tokyo. Though trained in ballet and modern dance, she sought to create dances unfettered by traditional dance vocabularies. In 1989, the Asian Cultural Council's Japan-United States Arts Program, which promotes exchanges between visual and performing artists of these two countries, invited Kasami to be a Rockerfeller fellow in New York City; there, in a different cultural environment, she spent time honing her craft.

 

Later, Kasami went from post-modern dance to the Inoue School of Kyo-mai Classical Japanese Dance, which is known for its superlative and minute attention to form and style. For Kasami, this step was a logical one because she considered both aesthetically stylized and connected through their unrelenting interrogation of form. Kasami believed that imagination and creativity can be unleashed through the refinement of form which in turn liberates expression.

 

Kasami's introduction to the Feldenkrais Method came in 1993. In 1995, she started to participate in Feldenkrais Method training in New York and became a practitioner in 2000. She was certified as an Assistant trainer in May 2010.

 

Kasami founded Feldenkrais Japan Inc. in November 2003. Most days will find her in the Shinjuku (Tokyo) offices of her company. In addition to offering lessons and classes, Kasami has additional plans for inviting instructors from abroad to teach advanced seminars and workshops as well as developing Feldenkrais Method books, CDs and teaching materials in order to provide a variety of quality services to not only practitioners but the public as well. She started to organize the Feldenkrais Professional trainings in 2007 and is working as the continuity assistant as well as the administrative director in the FPTPs.

Stephanie Spink

Stephanie Spink

Stephanie Spink is a Feldenkrais Trainer known for her clear and practical teaching style.  She originally graduated as a Physiotherapist in 1977, gaining experience in many fields of health both in hospitals and private practice.  She began her studies in the Feldenkrais Method in 1982, out of a curiosity to improve her well being and understanding of human function (particularly her own).  She has been practising as a Feldenkrais practitioner since 1991 and gained International endorsement as a Trainer of the Method, in 2010. Using the Feldenkrais Method, she has facilitated many workshops and advanced training programs for practitioners and the general public in functional anatomy and topics of general interest related to improving quality of life, health and well being. 

 

She has taught in Professional Training Programs in Australia, New Zealand, America, Europe, South America and Japan. She lives with her family,, maintaining a private practice in Melbourne, Australia. In her private practice she works with individuals with a wide variety of issues such as: chronic pain or recurrent injuries, neurological and developmental difficulties and improving the performance capabilities of musicians and athletes. One of her passions is to facilitate the learning of others in order that they may be able to live their lives more fully, easily and with greater pleasure through self understanding and knowledge. She is the Educational Director of current FPTP Tokyo3 and the upcoming FPTP Tokyo4.

Thomas Farnbacher

Thomas Farnbacher

Thomas directs FELDENKRAIS® trainings in Spain, Czech Republic and Russia. His professional back ground are martial arts, work with special needs children, massage, physical therapy, and dance.

 

In the fields of somatics, salutogenesis and body-oriented psychotherapy, “Educating the Educator” became his most inspired occupation. The most satisfying for him is to see people thriving and becoming more and more embodied-being more and more their own self.

Paul Newton

Paul Newton

Paul is a Feldenkrais trainer, he's not only known for his pedagogical abilities, but also for his talent to create a very supportive learning situation. He teaches in Europe and the USA, Australia and Japan. At the moment, Paul lives in Paris, where he's codirecting with Myriam Pfeffer the Paris Feldenkrais training program. He's also directing the training in Hamm and Bad Windsheim II. Paul grew up in the United States, lived in Munich for 17 years and speaks German fluently.

 

Deborah Bowes

Deborah Bowes

Education and Learning
She finished her basic Feldenkrais training in 1987 and became certified as a Feldenkrais Trainer in 1999. She teaches in many Feldenkrais training programs in the US and other countries, training the next generation of practitioners. She is a graduate of Columbia University in Physical Therapy, and has a Doctorate in Physical Therapy from Shenandoah University, and a B.S. in Biology and Physical Education from Rhode Island College. She has practiced and studied mind body medicine approaches for more than 40 years. The studies that have influenced her the most include: Tai Chi Chuan, Qigong, yoga, sensory awareness, meditation, and dance. She is a life long learner, and Feldenkrais has given her a learning process to continue to develop and grow.

Her practice philosophy
Feldenkrais Method® has meant much more than a complementary medical approach to Physical Therapy. It allows her to creatively work with a person of any age, even in a situation where it could seem hopeless. Engaging people in a pleasant process of learning about themselves to improve the quality of their life. The improvement can be in any area of thinking, moving, sensing and feeling. Her work nourishes her as well as her students.

 

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