Kevin has spent his entire career explaining what he does. "In a way, it's a good thing that it can seem hard to understand," he says, "because there is no 'dummy' version of something so complex as a human being."
He has described Feldenkrais® this way:
Imagine a circle in the air, and inside that circle, picture a smaller circle. The bigger circle is what the human body is capable of when it comes to movement: bending, reaching, stretching… The smaller circle is what we actually do. Feldenkrais has many different strategies and techniques to help a person expand that inner circle. A tiny little change in way you move your pelvis might make an enormous difference in a pain you’re having in your neck, for example. A tiny shift in weight to the outside of your heel might reduce a knee or lower back pain.
He uses a similar metaphor for NLP:
The big circle is what the human mind is capable of. The smaller inside circle is what we use. NLP, like the Feldenkrais Method, is all about learning how to use more of our innate abilities to improve the quality of our lives.
So now that that's clear…
Kevin Creedon
Interview by Richard Wooley
You do a few things: Feldenkrais, NLP, Ericksonian hypnosis… Which came first?
In 1982, after dancing professionally for five years, I developed severe tendonitis in my Achilles. Professional dancers are used to pain—it’s considered part of the job. But the pain was getting so bad that it looked like my career was over. After I tried a lot of things, a dancer at City Ballet persuaded me to go to a Feldenkrais Practitioner.
What did you know about it up to that point? Did you think it would work?
I knew nothing about it yet, but I was ready to try anything. And at the end of the session my legs felt better than they had in years. I had no idea what he was doing, and I was honestly amazed. I wanted to know how to do that for other people.
So you gave up dance to do Feldenkrais?
No, not at all! Feldenkrais gave me a chance to dance for another 9 years—and I took it. But I also spent that time training in Feldenkrais, and that led to other things as well.
Such as…?
While I was intuitively good at Feldenkrais—I was a dancer, a gymnast, and very kinesthetic to begin with—I had pretty poor language skills. When I realized this was going to be a challenge for me as a Feldenkrais practitioner, a friend introduced me to NLP.
Did this become a major commitment?
Not right away. The friend just took me to an introduction, where they were teaching "Outcome Framing"—which is a set of very specific questions used to clarify goals. The next day, I used the outcome questions at the beginning of a practice Feldenkrais session. All of a sudden I knew so much more clearly what to do as a Feldenkrais practitioner.
All because you'd used a little NLP?
I knew then that NLP could help me become a truly excellent Feldenkrais Practitioner. I signed up for the NLP training just as I was finishing my Feldenkrais Certification.
Is the reverse true? Does Feldenkrais improve your ability to do NLP?
They work together. Each Awareness Through Movement® lesson is designed around how people do learn, not around how they think they learn. Understanding that has had an amazing influence on the way I design an NLP training program. And when I work with clients, I might even throw some hypnosis into the mix. At the deepest level, they’re all the same thing. They’re all about helping a person to learn to do something he’s capable of doing—but simply doesn’t know how to do yet.
What kinds of people do you work with?
For Feldenkrais, it’s dancers, athletes, musicians, people with hip, back and knee problems… Lately I’m getting a lot of people who want to “move younger,” people who are worried that they’re losing their youthful range of motion.
And for NLP?
Initially, I worked almost exclusively with people with HIV. Now I work with people with cancer, diabetes, sleep disorders, learning disabilities… Cancer especially. The question that drives me is: What does this person have to learn to become and stay healthy? To answer that, I look at beliefs, family history, the way they work, their reactions to stress…
And to be clear: I don't ask the same questions that, say, an oncologist should ask. An oncologist should ask, How do we get rid of the cancer? They’re very different frames, and both extremely useful. I want people to get the benefit of both.
Any situation that really surprised you?
This wasn't a surprise, but I often work in ways that would surprise people. A while back I was working with a little girl who had cancer. To someone watching, it looked like I was taking the little girl through the processes. But to get better, she needed her mother to go through the processes even more. So I had the mom help me lead the girl through everything we did, so that she and her daughter would both learn what they needed to.
And why is that?
The little girl was only seven years old. Little kids sense the beliefs, fears, hopes and worries of their parents. And by changing the mother’s beliefs, working indirectly with her—expanding that circle of what was possible for her daughter—we made enormous strides in her daughter’s health. After all, I only saw the girl for an hour or two a week; her mother is with her all the time. Her mom’s going to have a bigger influence on the outcome.
What about hypnosis? I imagine you get a lot of people who want to stop smoking.
Yes. But I'll rarely do hypnosis by itself for that.
Why?
I'll want the client to quit smoking for the rest of his life, not just for the next two or three years. To do that, I have to find the all the secondary motivations, not just the primary ones.
The "outcome framing" you mentioned earlier?
Yes. I had one client, years ago, whose wife had asked him to come see me to quit smoking. A little outcome framing revealed that he had no motivation to quit himself. Hypnosis alone is not going to do anything for a person like that. I don't want to waste his time.
Why not? It's his time to waste. And his money…
It's my time as well. And that's not the kind of foundation I want to run my business from.
That's interesting, because I understand you've also run business classes.
I teach a class called "Practices Worth Having." It's about keeping a small business healthy.
How did you get from dealing with people's life-threatening illnesses to dealing with small businesses?
About ten years ago I worked with a man with cancer. Twelve months later he was healthy as a horse, and he felt ready to try to take on his small business again. He asked me to refer him to a business coach. But, and this was an important BUT, typical business coaching might have undone all the health work we had done. I've learned a lot over the last decade about what makes a business healthy as opposed to just what makes it profitable—that it allows time for friends and family, for time off, vacations, and brings in enough money for retirement… so I took on the role.
You take on many roles, it seems.
I'll do almost anything to help my clients get where they want to be.
What do you get out of all of it?
It's very satisfying. What makes me happiest is the moment when the changes we've worked on start to show up spontaneously, wherever my clients need them. I end most sessions with a little homework assignment designed to make my work with each client faster. Not for me, but for them. When they do that little bit of homework—when they commit to their future on that level—that when I know that what I do is not just a good day's work; that's a life I want to be a part of.