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Cortical Field Reeducation (CFR) – an Introduction

CFR is a form of learning as well as a type of movement therapy. Practising CFR can help us to improve our posture, breathing, co-ordination and flexibility, increase our vitality and energy levels and improve brain functioning. Above all, CFR teaches us to move through our daily lives with ease, comfort, freedom and pleasure.

This page describes how CFR works and how the method was developed.

How CFR works

CFR focuses on two inter-related areas of functioning within the body: the somatic nervous system and the body’s own mechanics that govern movement. All healing modalities acknowledge that brain and body functioning is inseparable but CFR is one of the very few that achieve results by working with both simultaneously.

The somatic nervous system

The somatic nervous system forms part of the peripheral nervous system and controls movement. Whenever we make a voluntary movement, impulses are sent from the motor cortex area of the brain down the spinal cord through specific (efferent) nerve pathways to certain skeletal muscles which respond by contracting or lengthening. The contraction or lengthening of a pair or group of muscles causes bones to move (like pulleys acting on levers) and the voluntary movement is carried out.

Then, as movement takes place, it is sensed by touch and pressure receptors in the skin, subcutaneous tissue and joint capsules which cause impulses to be sent back up the spinal cord to the sensory cortex area in the brain via neural pathways known as afferent pathways. The data received by the sensory cortex is then processed and further motor impulses sent to the skeletal muscles.

These impulses from motor cortex to muscle and from muscle to sensory cortex are more than a two-way traffic of information. Rather, they form a complex, delicate and beautiful data feedback loop which constantly circulates and controls our movements and their quality and provides our kinaesthetic sense of ourselves.

Moving with awareness

CFR uses movement and increased kinaesthetic perception to improve the functioning of the sensory-motor cortex and so to improve the quality of our everyday movements.

In a CFR lesson, the student, usually lying on the floor, is guided by verbal instructions from the teacher to make carefully designed sequences of small and gentle movements. This is known as floorwork. Or, an individual student lying on a low treatment table receives gentle, hands-on guided moves from the teacher (tablework).

CFR movement sequences usually begin with small movements in one area of the body (the shoulders and ribs for example) followed by explorations of how these movements affect and involve other parts (such as the pelvis and lower back) and how movement in one area can improve the range and quality of movements in another area.

In addition, the movements are carried out with maximum AWARENESS. Whether making movements (in floorwork) or passively experiencing movements (in tablework), we bring all our attention and focus to sensing the movements themselves. We observe and feel which muscles and joints are moving and in what sequence; and in which place and at which moment does an intention to move translate into an actual movement in the body.

As we move with this degree of awareness we soon become able to differentiate between optimal and effortful movement. We find out how to decrease excess effort and eliminate unnecessary muscular tension. We no longer fire muscles which serve no purpose in making the movements we desire and we begin to engage muscles which are required for optimum movement but which have long fallen out of use. Moving with awareness brings to our consciousness limiting habits and holding patterns that were unconscious and automatic and which we can now replace with pure functional movement.

Heightened awareness of our movements floods the sensory cortex with new information. New sensory-motor feedback loops can be created, replacing the earlier, less efficient ones. And once the new information is assimilated by the sensory-motor cortex, there it remains. The improvements we make remain in our system and we do not need special exercises or practice to retain them.

Biomechanics

By working with the somatic nervous system, CFR acts to improve our body’s biomechanics – that is, the manner in which individual joints move within the body. Simply put, each of our joints is made up of two bones which must interface well (optimal biomechanics) in order not to cause damage or unnecessary wear and tear to the body’s soft tissue.

Poor biomechanics can cause injury, be it trauma or repetitive strain, and can impede the progress of the body’s natural healing processes. And when a physical trauma does not heal completely but develops into a situation of chronic pain, poor biomechanics is usually to blame.

There are many reasons why we develop poor biomechanics as we go through life. As infants and young children most of us have good biomechanics, but a host of experiences affects our movements and posture including accidents and illnesses, emotional traumas, relationships with parents and other family members and many other factors. It is a fact that very few people, including young people, have really good biomechanics and by the time we reach middle age so few of us are free from aches and pains that we regard them as a normal part of ageing. This is not the case.

The movements used in CFR gently explore the range and movement planes (flexion/extension, rotation and side-bending) which our joints are capable of making. When performed slowly and gently with heightened awareness, creating new sensory-motor feedback loops, they restore optimal biomechanics and create a safe environment within the body for healing to take place.

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The history of CFR

CFR was developed in California about 25 years ago by Harriet Goslins, a student of Moshe Feldenkrais, founder of the Feldenkrais Method of somatic education. CFR is based on his teachings.

Moshe Feldenkrais (1904 – 1984) was a physicist, engineer, mathemetician and judo master who after a distinguished career in science devoted forty years of his life to the practise and teaching of the Feldenkrais Method.

He developed his interest in the body´s capacity for movement as a young man, when he studied jujitsu as a form of self-defence. Later, in Paris he met Professor Jigaro Kano, the founder of judo and undertook an intensive training in this martial art. He became the first black belt judo practitioner in Europe and wrote a number of books on the subject.

Feldenkrais’ discovery of his method actually began with an injury. As a young man he injured his knee during a football match. By the time he reached his forties, his knee was causing serious problems. An eminent surgeon recommended that he had surgery but advised that there would be only a 50% chance of success: if the operation failed Feldenkrais would walk with a stick for the rest of his life.

So Feldenkrais, characteristically, decided to take responsibility for healing his own knee. He applied his brilliant mind to the study of anatomy, physiology, kinesiology and child development and did indeed restore good functioning to his knee. At the same time he came to understand that true healing from injury involves the whole self, body and brain, and is a learning process (not a process by which one is “fixed”) with awareness as its key: “until you know what you do, you have no choice to do otherwise.”

As he continued his researches more and more individuals came to him for help and in the mid ‘fifties he settled permanently in Tel Aviv where he taught and treated people full-time. Amongst his students was the Israeli Prime Minister, David ben Gurion.

His first book on his method, Body and Mature Behaviour was published in 1949 and followed by several others over the next 30 years. As his reputation grew he began teaching internationally, particularly in the USA and it was there that he taught two practitioner trainings, with a total of 200 trainees. He died in 1984. His genius and his remarkable contribution to the understanding and practice of healing cannot be underestimated.

Harriet Goslins, founder of CFR, and a student of Moshe Feldenkrais, has a background in psychology including psychosynthesis and gestalt therapy. She also studied contemporary dance. She began training as a Feldenkrais practitioner in 1980. After this she was invited to teach somatic education at the Esalen Institute in California and spent many years developing CFR. She continues to run a programme of CFR workshops at Esalen and also has a private practice, as well as training a number of CFR practitioners, including Anne Hunt, director of the Movement for Life programme in Spain

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