About Joanna Myers and Feldenkrais® Ann Arbor

How the Feldenkrais® Method changed my life

I came to Feldenkrais out of deep frustration. When I was in college studying viola, I got a mild overuse injury to my left arm which morphed into a tremor.

While playing used to be easy and satisfying, I now spent my energy trying to suppress an unnerving shaking. But by the time the tremor developed, I had invested so much into this one activity that I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.

So, I plowed ahead in my chosen profession, getting by, but nowhere near my true potential as a musician. It was both devastating and exhausting.

What happened when I came to a Feldenkrais class, was not only did the layers of tension and compensation around the tremor begin to melt away, but so did my rigid self-image. I realized how few options I’d allowed myself, and began to for the first time to experience the freedom of my intrinsic worth. While music was still important to me, how I was performing at a given moment no longer consumed my attention. At the same time, I became much better at it.

As my shoulders dropped down from around my ears, tension headaches subsided, and felt myself breathe fully for the first time since I was a very young child—I simultaneously became easier with myself…and profoundly optimistic. With so much change with so little effort, I realized that I was capable of much more than I felt or imagined at any given moment.

As I continued to study Feldenkrais, I also:

  • emerged from my rounded, defensive posture, inches taller
  • added miles to my long runs, with no additional effort
  • enjoyed new social confidence, and began to feel truly at home in my own skin
  • having access to my internal compass, could re-negotiate relationships from a place of power and integrity

Eventually the tremor went away, and with it, a lot of ideas of how I should be. The most valuable lesson I’ve learned from the Feldenkrais Method is: When you follow your internal guidance and are allowed to be radically yourself, magic happens.

Training and Experience:

Since completing my professional Felcenkrais training program with Paul and Julie Rubin in 2004, I have taught classes and workshops at numerous venues, including Ann Arbor's Rec & Ed department, the Ann Arbor YMCA, Crazy Wisdom, Notre Dame University's music department, and the University of Michigan dance department.

I now serve on the Council of Regional Representatives for the Feldenkrais Guild of North America. I am a member, with my husband Joseph Wang, of SUN-SHEN School of Internal Martial Arts, an innovative healing and teaching community.

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phone: 734-395-8486

These institutions/organizations have hosted my workshops, speeches, and presentations: