Teaching Staff
The teaching staff consist of outstanding accredited trainers and assistant trainers. The Educational Directors are Susan Hillier and Zoran Kovich. Jeff Haller, 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. Jeff Haller CFT PhD Seattle Washington USA
Profound events as a high school basketball player, as well as extraordinary synchronous events in life, have lead Jeff into a lifelong passion for personal self-emergence. As a high school basketball player, he profoundly experienced “The Zone” in several games he played in. In 1981, he received his first degree blackbelt, and began his doctoral internship program with the St. Joseph’s University Hawks basketball team in Philadelphia. He worked with the team teaching Aikido and Feldenkrais to improve movement and self-awareness skills of the players.
Jeff Haller studied directly with Dr Moshe Feldenkrais, the founder of the Feldenkrais Method®. In 1983, Jeff graduated from his own professional training program in Amherst, Massachusetts.
After graduation from his Feldenkrais training in 1983, Jeff named his business Inside Moves. Over the years, Inside Moves has gone through many different forms including as a movement arts center in Seattle, WA begun in 1984 to 1991 where classes in Feldenkrais, Aikido, Yoga, Tai Chi, meditation were offered.
From 1993 to the present day Jeff’s primary focus has been to train Feldenkrais Method teachers. In the following years, he developed and refined his skills, traveling and working in Feldenkrais training programs, while building an extensive private practice in his hometowns of Bend, Oregon and Seattle, Washington.
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.