Before they started Feldenkrais therapy classes at the Ruth Ann Rosenberg Adult Day Health Center in San Francisco, life was painful for several Russian immigrants. So painful that they dreaded their daily routines and became listless.
It took Gita Manevich three hours to get dressed each morning. Zhanna Gerstberg couldn’t even raise her left arm after a stroke paralyzed her right side two years ago. Mariya Rabinovich cried from the intense pain in her back. And Zinovy Rubinson, also felled by a stroke, rarely spoke and stopped reading.
On a recent warm and cloudless San Francisco day, with Russian music blaring in the next room, the quartet demonstrated and discussed how miraculous their recovery has been. The four sat with their teacher, Lauren McLeod, and a translator, Irina Patashvili.
“The program has helped me and I feel much better,” said Gertsberg, 65, who emigrated from Odessa 15 years ago, and was in such pain from her stroke that she couldn’t lie flat. “I can socialize with other people. I am improving a lot. Now I can exercise independently on the parallel bars twice a week and I exercise at home.”
As if to punctuate how much she’d improved, Mariya Rabinovich stood up from her chair, squatted down and pressed her fingertips to the ground. She also touched her toes.
“When I first came to the program I couldn’t do anything,” said Rabinovich, 78, who emigrated from Tashkent in Uzbekistan five years ago. “I was screaming for a hot pack for my back. I couldn’t sit up or even get up. Now I am moving so well without any assistance. I am getting stronger and stronger. I feel 18. I’m going to run pretty soon.”
Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais developed his unique physical therapy program, which focused on the connection between the body’s movement and its cognitive and emotional abilities, in the early part of the 20th century. The method is now widely used in physical therapy.
The weekly sessions at the Rosenberg Center are made possible by a grant from the Jewish Community Endowment Fund. The grant specifically targets frail seniors, many of whom are Russian-speaking Jews.
(In Danville, the Reutlinger Community for Jewish Living offers Feldenkrais as well.)
McLeod, a gentle woman who is learning Russian, runs the group through a series of specifically designed and modified exercises. She started her class almost two years ago. As the group sat, she asked them to bend their left hands at a right angle and stare at their wrists as if telling time.
“Imagine a stick attached from your nose to your wrist,” she said softly. “Turn to the right with head and wrist together. Then turn to the left and turn your head back to front.”
McLeod approached Rubinson and guided his movements. She told Manevich not to twist her head so much. McLeod smiled as she voiced her approval for their efforts.
Rubinson’s dedication has been dramatic. A former decorator and painter from Kiev, the 79-year-old had been unable to do any rudimentary tasks following a debilitating stroke about two years ago. Now, after a year and a half of Feldenkrais therapy, Rubinson needed little prodding to leave his wheelchair and, clutching Manevich’s hands, start to dance.
“I am very happy and I’m still alive,” said the robust Rubinson, who began initiating conversations for the first time since his stroke right after he joined the class. “I walk five to six times a day and I’m strong. I feel different.”
Gita Manevich, a stoic woman, grew animated as she spoke about her Feldenkrais therapy. She was McLeod’s first student two years ago and noticed results from the beginning. She felt the healing warmth from McLeod’s touch travel to her body.
“I’ve had pain since I was 18,” said Manevich, 83, who born in Moscow and came to the United States in 1994. “I saw different doctors and specialists. I have arthritis and Parkinson’s. I felt so much tightness in my body. My whole body was aching. And I had numbness and pain in my fingers and tremors in my hands. I couldn’t even write or hold a pencil. A doctor recommended surgery.
“Now I feel much more relaxed,” she continued, staring straight ahead, in complete control of her body and the conversation. “I do puzzles and also use markers. I want the class more often, more than once a week, because it’s been very helpful. Here is the best possible place.”
Manevich’s three friends nodded their heads vigorously, smiling as they headed to the larger rehabilitation room to resume their therapy.