Teaching Staff
The teaching staff consist of outstanding accredited trainers and assistant trainers. The Educational Directors are Susan Hillier and Zoran Kovich. Larry Goldfarb, Beatriz Walterspeil, Julie Peck and Stephanie Spink, will also be part of the educational team for this program along with Assistant Trainers from across Australia. Working as a team, the staff teach Awareness Through Movement, give Functional Integration lessons and demonstrations, lead discussions, and direct small groups.
The international training accreditation guidelines require that we maintain a student to teacher ratio of 20-to-1 for the first half of the program and of 15-to-1 for the remaining time. To insure that you receive individual attention, we are committed to meeting, or exceeding, this requirement in every segment. Jenni Evans as the Program Director will co-ordinate online activities and liaise with the trainees.
Experienced Feldenkrais practitioners may also be part of the educational faculty. They will serve as tutor practitioners to provide support for the training and give FI lessons.
To insure continuity and congruence, all staff will work cooperatively to prepare and review the program content.
Educational Directors
Dr Susan Hillier, CFT, Ph.D., Adelaide Australia
Susan graduated from the Melbourne 1 Training program in 1991. Since then she has conducted her own private practice, incorporating the Feldenkrais Method into her work with people regaining function after catastrophic injury or illness. She also works as an academic, teaching and researching in the broad area of neuroscience with a particular interest in motor control and motor learning. The combination of her work with clients, her research into better ways to promote brain recovery post-injury and her teaching means that she is grounded, up-to-date and relevant.
Zoran Kovich, CFT MSc(Cog.Sc), BA(Soc.Sc), BA(Perf.Arts) Sydney Australia
Zoran graduated from the Melbourne I Feldenkrais training in 1991 and completed his masters degree in cognitive science in 1995, focusing on the relationship between movement, perception, and thought.
Having a passion for teaching and learning, Zoran commenced working in trainings in 2000, and became an assistant trainer in 2004. From 1990 to 2009 he lectured in university performing arts programs, using Feldenkrais/Somatic Education pedagogy to construct courses designed to enhance performing artist’s abilities. Since 2005 he has been facilitating a variety of regular, ongoing post-graduate programs for Feldenkrais teachers.
Zoran maintains a practice in Sydney using his knowledge of Feldenkrais, somatic education systems, martial arts, performing arts, cognitive and social sciences, to create practical lessons that address peoples’ personal and professional needs and interests.
Trainers
Dr Laurence Wm. Goldfarb CFT Ph D Santa Cruz, California USA
Larry is a multimedia author, movement scientist, and pioneering Feldenkrais teacher and trainer. He was a student and colleague of Heinz von Foerster, trained with the founders of NLP, and is the founder of Mind In Motion. Larry currently directs the 5th Amsterdam International Feldenkrais teacher Training and serves on the faculty of programs around the world. Besides offering practitioner supervision, postgraduate courses, and mentor training programs, both in person and online, he maintains the private practice he started over 30 years ago in Santa Cruz, California. He is engaged in, and committed to, developing the international community of Feldenkrais teachers and students. Larry is known for his ability to demystify the method and his interest in each student’s learning.
Beatriz Walterspiel CFT B. Ed
After having finished her studies in education at the Universities of Freiburg and Münster, Germany, Beatriz continued to search for different pathways around learning, human growth and maturation. After a lot of research her way led her to study the breathing therapy with Ilse Middendorf, and the the Movement Work of Elsa Gindler, Berlin, later Tai Chi and other eastern movement arts. In the seventies she met the work of Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais. She studied with Moshe in Amherst, USA.(1980-1983) Since that time she has been working exclusively with this work. Since 1993 she has been working as a trainer in trainings, in advanced programs and master-classes around the world and has been the educational director of the programms in Sweden, Norway, Argentina, Spain and Germany. She lives and works in her practice in Freiburg in Southern Germany.
She published Awareness Through Movement® lessons: Das Abenteuer der Bewegung: Die Feldenkrais Methode, Koesel 1989, and Dreh Dich und Versteh Dich, Kösel 2011.
Julie Peck, Certified Feldenkrais Trainer (CFT), B.App.Sc.(Physio), Perth, WA
Julie has a background in Physiotherapy and has maintained a busy private practice in Perth since graduating from the Sydney 1 FPTP in 1990. She became an Assistant Trainer in 1995 and Australia’s first Trainer in 2003.
Julie finds her private practice and sharing her experiences with colleagues, clients and students are the main source of her continual learning. She has found the journey of being both a Feldenkrais practitioner and trainer has enhanced and refined her abilities in innumerable ways, particularly in stimulating her ability to direct her own discoveries and learning. She is committed to furthering the understanding and practice of the Feldenkrais Method in Australia and to have fun while doing it!
Stephanie Spink, B.App.Sc.(Physio), CFT, Melbourne Australia
Stephanie Spink became involved with the Feldenkrais Method in 1982 and graduated from the first Melbourne Feldenkrais Training graduating in 1991. She organised the second Melbourne Feldenkrais Training Program and worked as the continuity assistant in the Melbourne III FPTP. She has a background in Physiotherapy, and since 1997, has taught functional anatomy workshops and advanced trainings in Australia and New Zealand. She was certified as an Assistant Trainer in 1998 and Trainer in 2010. She has worked in training programs in Melbourne, Sydney, Perth New Zealand and Japan. She has been an active member of the Australian Training and Accreditation Board since 2002. She continues to maintain a Feldenkrais Private Practice in Eltham. She enjoys learning, life and travelling.