Hello! I am Michelle Huber, a Guild Certified Feldenkrais® Practitioner based in Northampton MA. I also facilitate Circling Practice, work as a Counselor, and dance. I offer people a way to be in their bodies and relationships that is curious, non-judgemental and deeply self- connective.

Feldenkrais:

I discovered Feldenkrais as a dance student at Sarah Lawrence College in 2011. I didn’t know much about it when I enrolled, simply that it was gentle and relaxing, so, “why not?” From the very first lesson that I took, I felt a dramatic change in my entire being. I felt taller, my chest opened and my mind felt quieter. “What was that?” This trend continued throughout the semester each week. I had no idea why I felt so good after lying on my back, often drifting into sleep during the initial scan as a tired college student, and then doing some slow movements with awareness guided by my wonderful professor, Barbara Forbes. I loved the slowness and the attention practice. I felt like I was getting to know myself on a deep level.

 After graduation, I set an intention for myself to offer embodied, healing practices. I tried out many different modalities, and some little voice inside always kept whispering to me, “Feldenkrais.” After quitting my job as a Spanish teacher and traveling for 10 months through Berlin, Israel and other European countries, I enrolled in the Boston III training to become a practitioner in 2016. When I arrived in training, I witnessed my first hands-on Feldenkrais session. It reminded me of Thai massage, because I saw the practitioner moving the students’ body around, however, it seemed more subtle. I could tell there was a particular sensitivity and listening to this practice. I thought, “this is exactly the hands-on embodied practice I have been looking for!” I can remember lying on the floor after hours of Awareness Through Movement Lessons, listening to my trainer Aliza Stewart talk about the power of the method for personal agency and feeling tears fill my eyes thinking, “I’m in the right place.” 

Credentials:

Feldenkrais Guild Certification for teaching Awareness Through Movement in 2018
Feldenkrais Guild Certification for practicing hands-on Functional Integration in 2020

Circling

I have always had a love for diving deep into relational dynamics and personal growth. My friends know this about me, so when my friend Peter Benjamin discovered Circling practice, he quickly invited me to join. What struck me as essential to my personal growth in Circling was the opportunity to speak my truth. Although it was a value I always had, I tended to be quite conflict avoidant and afraid to stir the pot. I tended to be distant if I felt dissonance and didn’t have a lot of confidence naming my experience honestly. From the very first Circle I attended, I felt the power and safety of the space to voice my discomforts. I discovered that people actually loved hearing my truth, it made them feel closer and more connected to me. I also discovered that when I socialized, my attention was usually directed outwards and I rarely knew what was happening inside of myself. Circling offered me time to practice staying connected to myself while being with others. Needless to say, I was hooked!

Although I was living in Northampton, I commuted to Boston for my first Circling Facilitation training with the Connection Institute in the winter of 2018. Later that year, I began facilitating Circles locally. Someone in my community approached me with an idea to start a group household revolving around Circling Practice. I had just a week prior decided I wanted to move, and the fates had brought me the next opportunity. I moved into a group home with four people, which grew into eight people in September of 2017. My partner is one of my housemates, and Circling has always been a foundation for our relationship. It supports us to to communicate in a way which is honest, curious and non-blaming. I’ve been living in this Circling home for the past 3 years exploring the practice deeply, both the benefits and the drawbacks. I remain committed, humbled, in the learning process and continue to lead Circling groups in Northampton and online. 

Credentials:

Circling Facilitation Training with the Connection Institute 2018
Circling Facilitation Training Assistant with the Connection Institute 2019
Restorative Justice Facilitation Training 2020

Emotions + the Body

Ever since college, I’ve been passionate about the body/ mind connection.  I am committed to embodiment and emotional expression. In 2016, at the same time I started my Feldenkrais training, I also began a local Peer Counseling course with Rythea Lee and Samantha Burnell. Peer counseling was a perfect compliment to my Feldenkrais training as an opportunity to process my feelings. After immersing myself in the practice for two years, I became a class assistant for two more years. Out of this experience, I co-taught, The Embodied Counselor in the Mental Health Counseling Graduate Department at Westfield State from 2019-2020. The course supported soon-to-be counselors in exploring their inner worlds and patterns.  

Credentials:

Teaching Assistant: Radical Closeness for the People 2018-2019
Co-Teacher: The Embodied Counselor, Westfield State University 2019-2020

Dance

I always loved to dance. My parents brought me up attending ecstatic dances and Dance New England’s summer camp, although I didn’t formally study dance until college. I was tremendously lucky to land at Sarah Lawrence College which emphasized dance as a somatic experience of authentic expression, not solely aesthetics or technique. I felt out of place at first, not having studied ballet for example, but over the years I found my place as a performer and somatics student. I have performed in New York City, Boston, Berlin, London and Northampton, MA.

Embodied Awareness Practices

For me, Feldenkrais, Circling, Dance, and Emotional Counseling are connected. They’re all pointing to the question-- “how do I live my most true, heart-opened, embodied life?”

All of these practices support discovering unconscious habits to be a more empowered, loving, embodied, and an honest human.

Other Practices I love and that influence me:

Authentic Movement, Body Mind Centering, Breath Work, Shaking, Vocalizing, Performance, Contact Improvisation, Gardening