Flexible Brains, Resilient Souls: Traumatic Brain Injury and the Feldenkrais Method: An existential phenomenological study

This study examined how adults with traumatic brain injury experience the Feldenkrais Method. A qualitative existential phenomenological model was used with 10 adults with mild, moderate or severe traumatic brain injury and who had participated in Feldenkrais for at least five sessions post-injury. Three textural themes emerged from the interviews: (a) The Expansion and Focusing of Awareness, (b) Discovering a Pathway to Recovery, and, (c) Engendering a Positive Attitude. This study sought to understand the inner world of research participants by filtering their data through the universal structures of relationship to self and other, bodyhood, temporality, spaciality and materiality. The results of this study contribute to the literature, finding the study group regained awareness, improved functional abilities and developed positive attitudes towards recovery through the practice of Feldenkrais. Participants with traumatic brain injury reported experiencing a felt-sense of comfort and peace and functional gains as a result of practicing Feldenkrais Method rehabilitation.
Keywords: awareness, existential phenomenology, Feldenkrais Method, traumatic brain injury, felt-sense, function, phenomenological model, recovery, rehabilitation