Around twenty years ago, during my martial arts practice I discovered an ability that proved to be a game changer,. I realized that I was ALWAYS CONNECTED to my partners, — even when we were yards apart! This ongoing, unbroken sense of relating, proved to be the "Holy Grail" which I'd sought for over two decades through Martial Arts, dance, the Feldenkrais Method of Movement and Awareness, Pilates, Bodywork, Somatics, and Contact Improvisation. 

In my boxing practice I became very hard to hit, and in Tai Chi Push Hands, it became very difficult for others to land much pressure on my body. A visiting teacher from Beijing remarked [in frustration], "James's listening is so good that I can't do anything to him!" Contact Improvisation Dance and my Bodywork practice also benefitted.  

Sometime after this, during my boxing practice, I discovered that I’d gained an effortless punching power which I needed to tone down! What finally brought me this long-sought power was my four-year long Feldenkrais Practitioner training. Spending hundreds of hours on the floor doing slow, relaxed, Awareness through Movement lessons, profoundly integrated my body and nervous system. An added benefit was that sensing myself far more clearly enabled me to sense other people far more effectively. -Embodied Physical Relating was bornI

Since then, two major life events have forced me to really “walk my talk!”. In 2015, a martial arts injury and osteoarthritis required me to have both hips replaced. Within six-weeks of the surgery I’d resumed teaching and actively participating in my martial arts practice. Within four-months I was coaching boxing and sparring again. -This would never have been possible without my access to Feldenkrais Awareness through Movement lessons! Then in 2025 I suffered a serious spinal injury from a car crash. Against all the odds I made a full recovery and eventually returned to doing all of the things I’d done prior to the accident. I understand that my shattered and severely crushed L-4 vertebra will never rebuild itself. Yet great good fortune and the gift of the Feldenkrais Method have restored all of my previous skill and function. The fact that the method works directly with the brain and nervous system is possibly what’s enabled me to “go around” the major roadblocks of prosthetic hips and a shattered vertebra located right in the middle of my body. For my own good fortune, -I’m deeply grateful!

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To reflect the path that led to my own breakthroughs,

I offer two separate classes;

one in Martial Arts: “Embodied Relating skills”,

and the other in Feldenkrais Movement Improvement: “Embodied Movement”.

They’re very complementary, so if you can only take one class, you’ll still be exposed to elements of the other.

My Embodied Movement [“Feel Great without Working Hard”] class, aims to perfect your own self-use in a nurturing and non-performatory environment.

Embodied Relating Skills works to perfect both your own self-sensing. and effective responsiveness to others in martial arts and other relational activities.