IFF Research Journal

Editing my first volume of the IFF-Academy Research Journal, I want to build on the editorial written by Carolin Theuring in Volume two of the journal “Choosing the Path of Least Resistance”, and have decided to name this editorial “Choosing the Path of Slightly More Resistance.”

As our profession continues to evolve, so should our research and research journal continue to evolve. With that in mind, I made a suggestion to the IFF Academy that we should make the IFF Academy Research Journal peer reviewed. The Academy agreed and we set out to find people with varied backgrounds who were willing to serve on the Editorial Board of the Journal. We were looking for a board that came from different countries and had different backgrounds. I asked for input from a wide variety of practitioners and got names of practitioners who had seemed suitable. One name led to another and now I can proudly say that this is an extremely diverse and well qualified editorial board that compares with any editorial board of any journal.

The members of the editorial board are (in alphabetical order, with some of their specialties):

Staffan Elgelid (United States. Physical Therapy/Rehab)
Zoran Kovich (Australia. Dance/Somatic Education)
Franz Mechsner (United Kingdom. Psychology, Human Movement Control, Cognition)
Ryan Nagy (United States. Psychology)
Lynette Reid (Canada. Ethics/Philosophy)
Claudia Schlebusch (Germany. Physics)
Robert Schleip (Germany. Somatic Education/Bodywork)
Anna Yeatman (Canada. Research/Social and Political Theory)

Once the editorial board was put together, we decided to have “The Future of Research in the Feldenkrais Method” as the theme for Volume 3. Approximately 25 Feldenkrais practitioners, trainers, and academicians from 8 different countries were invited to write an article about the future of research in the Feldenkrais Method. The invitation also went out to two people who had knowledge about the Feldenkrais Method, but who were not practitioners, as a way to get the view from someone outside of the Feldenkrais Method. Out of the 30, eight people agreed to write an article for the IFF journal.

The articles range from the very simple to the very elaborate. Please note that the articles are written in very different styles. At this point in the evolution of the journal, the important part is to get people to write. Therefore we will accept articles written in APA, AMA or any other recognizable style. The important part is that each article represents a different idea about how to do research about the Feldenkrais Method and that the articles contain the author’s personal convictions. Personally, while reading the articles, I got a sense that this is each author’s voice and conviction about where we need to go. I hope that all you readers will get the same sense of conviction.

What about the future?
So where do we go from here? I will collect input from the members of the editorial board as well as from the readers of this volume of the IFF Research Journal regarding where we need to go next. I have some ideas for the next volume. A call for articles will go out to each national guild/organization sometime in the fall of 2008. I also hope that the series about the future of research will be continued in the next volume of the journal. I know some people were interested in writing for this volume, but did not have time this spring. Maybe they will have more time next year. I also invite the readers to suggest possible authors for the Future of Research. We will also look for abstracts of articles about the Feldenkrais Method from other journals. If you have ideas for another theme for the journal, or have any other ideas, please let me know.

As Feldenkrais teachers we are doing many remarkable things on a daily basis, but we do not write them up for publication. The easiest was for most practitioners to get involved with research is to write up a case study. Dr. Alan Fogel has been kind enough to write an article on how to write case studies. I hope that Dr. Fogel’s article can inspire practitioners worldwide to start documenting what we do in our practice. As an example of a case study in the style that Dr. Fogel has written about, Dr. Larry Goldfarb has given us permission to publish one of his case studies. Some of the exercises in Dr. Fogel’s article will refer to Dr. Goldfarb’s case study. As a result of Dr Fogel’s article I hope that we will see some case studies in Volume 4 of this journal.

I had better stop here or the “slightly more resistance” will lead to so much to do that there will be tremendous amounts of resistance. As the IFF-Academy Research Journal continues to develop, I am looking for more and more pieces to be added, but I hope that practitioners will drive it and that the growth of the journal will happen in an organic way and not with resistance.