Research: movement that gives back what illness takes

Parkinson's is the fastest growing neurological condition worldwide and remains incurable. Medication and surgery can slow its course — but they do not reach everything the illness takes. Because Parkinson's changes not only movement, breath, facial expression and voice. Over time something quieter changes too: the feeling of still being fully present, still fully oneself. Many people affected describe this as a kind of inner estrangement — it is not only the body that narrows, but the sense of self.

This is exactly where our project begins. Together with an interdisciplinary team — psychologists, cognitive scientists, Feldenkrais teachers, filmmakers and, most centrally, people with Parkinson's themselves — we are developing a four-week movement programme based on the Feldenkrais Method. The approach: not correction, not effort, but fine perception, discovery and reconnection with one's own body.

My starting assumption: most complementary therapies aim to maintain physical function. The programme I am co-developing in the team aims at something that is often overlooked — the lived sense of body and self that Parkinson's quietly undermines. Those who regain their body awareness and expressiveness often gain more than fewer symptoms: the experience of being more fully themselves again.

A documentary film project accompanies the entire process — it records not only what happens, but how it feels. The film will later be shown publicly and opens a conversation between participants, the Parkinson's community, professionals and a wider public.