Sharon Starika helps people have more control over their bodies and motions. She teaches clients how to retrain their own minds to move properly. It may sound mystic, but it’s based in physics.
Starika is certified in the Feldenkrais Method with the home-based business AT’TITUDES. It was started several decades ago by Moshe Feldenkrais, a Russian-Israeli physicist and judo master who turned his scientific mind to the body after a crippling knee injury. Starika discovered the method after an injury of her own. As a young triathlete 25 years ago, a semi-truck struck her one day while she was on a bicycle.
The accident broke several bones and destroyed muscle groups throughout her legs. Doctors told her she’d never run competitively again. There was no stability in her left leg. She was introduced to the Feldenkrais Method, worked with a practitioner for three months and was running again pain free. She soon began competing in marathons and triathlons again.
Last month she placed second in her age division at the Triple Trail Challenge in Park City.
Moshe Feldenkrais was fascinated by infants and children. Other animals are born with fully developed brains and legs ready to run within hours or days. Humans learn to control motion over several years. It begins with an intent (to stand, feed oneself, crawl, etc.) and pushing against gravity.
If an adult is feeling pain or stiffness in some part of the body, it’s likely because those muscles or joints are being used too much or too little. As a physicist, Feldenkrais began studying how the body moved as a machine. He discovered that over use or under use in one part of the body is usually caused by a problem somewhere else.
The method leads clients in slow, gentle movements to retrain the brain in commanding motion. Inspired by infants, practitioners encourage clients to focus on an intentional movement. The method consists of two types of therapy: a functional integration session consisting of a practitioner working with a client, and an “awareness through movement class” that somewhat resembles a yoga or Pilates session.
“In both types, I teach individuals what they’re doing that’s getting in the way of having optimal movement,” Starika explained. “If you’re not aware of what you’re doing, there’s no way you can stop. Awareness is key, or the first ingredient that allows change to occur.”
Massage and chiropractic therapy will fix a problem, but they don’t always find the cause of the problem, so the discomfort comes back. The Feldenkrais Method will show people what movements are harmful and how to move in a different way.
“What I love about this work, and what is my greatest passion, is that I’m giving them extraordinary self-empowerment. That’s my greatest joy,” she said. “I give tools and people implement change on their own.”
Client Kent Winterholler read about the method while researching treatments to improve his golf game.
“It’s diminished, fairly significantly, some lower-back pain and problems I’d been developing having to do with my posture,” he said. “It’s surprising the difference it makes.”
Client Liz Hecht said the method has worked wonders in improving her posture for dressage competitions in horse shows.
“I feel that I’m doing much better. My position is better, I’m more comfortable and my horse and I have been performing better as a team,” she said. “I think it helps with achieving the correct posture for whatever your sport might be in a way that’s comfortable, instead of forcing it.”
Joyce Mathie suffers from fibromyalgia and said the Feldenkrais Method is the “kindest, gentlest, most effective thing I’ve ever seen.” She said Starika’s methods “for organizing and balancing the skeleton are just amazing.”
AT’TITUDES
www.attitudesforu.com
5201 Cove Canyon Drive #B
655-1989