Franklin Method
About Franklin Method
The Franklin Method is a student-centered system that uses anatomy and imagery to teach functional movement so you feel better in body and mind.
We use massage balls and stretchy bands to work with our skeletal, muscular, and fascial structures to improve strength, resilience, and imagination while calming our nervous systems.
I am a level-3 Franklin Method Educator and have worked and studied directly with Eric Franklin, who is an international teacher, developed the system, and published more than 25 books on the pedagogy of imagery, movement teaching, and functional biomechanics.
“You get better at what you practice.”
-Eric Franklin
Franklin Method Drop-In Class
Join live, or rent a class in the video library.
Day: Mondays
Time: 5 – 6pm Eastern Time on Zoom
Price: Sliding scale: $15-35
Recommended Equipment: Franklin Method Balls and Bands**
**Both of these can be purchased at optp.com, or Amazon.
If this is your first class and you don’t have props, don’t worry about it! If available, grab a tennis-sized ball and stretchy band.
What can I expect from the Franklin Method?
In workshops and private sessions, you will learn:
- techniques that proven to increase flexibility and balance without stretching
- ways of calming your mind and nervous system
- how to find dynamic alignment so your body is free of tension
- how your body works and how to make it feel better
- how to improve your performance in exercise or creative expression
- how to improve your movement in daily life activites such as sitting, standing, walking, and using stairs
Franklin Method offers exercises you can do every day to strengthen and stabilize your structure while improving your mood, resilience, and imagination skills. You will create a deeper, more complete understanding of your body.
Workshops are taught in a circle using imagery and humor, calming techniques, partner exercises, breathing, functional biomechanics, myofascial work, and self-touch.
Here I am with dancer Cassandre Charles at Upward Spiral Studio in Cambridge, Massachusetts, demonstrating a metaphorical model of breathing using the Franklin Method. The first model is breathing which is functioning well. The second model shows what happens in breathing with a tight pelvic floor.
What is your Franklin Method training?
I am one of the few level 3 Franklin Method Educators in the world. The rigorous, multi-year movement and somatic teacher training enable teachers to learn complex biomechanics in a way that they can be taught simply through imagery. Franklin Method training requires that the Educator’s own nervous system shift to a calmer, more parasympathetic state in order to teach.
The Franklin Method influences all the artistic, creative, and healing work that I do. I use it to teach dancers, actors, runners, professional athletes, cancer survivors, folks with depression, young people, elders, and people who want to walk, sit, or stand better.
Any movement can be improved using Franklin Method principles, and it can be incorporated into any modality that uses the body.
What is your Franklin Method training?
I am one of the few level 3 Franklin Method Educators in the world. The rigorous, multi-year movement and somatic teacher training enable teachers to learn complex biomechanics in a way that they can be taught simply through imagery. Franklin Method training requires that the Educator’s own nervous system shift to a calmer, more parasympathetic state in order to teach.
The Franklin Method influences all the artistic, creative, and healing work that I do. I use it to teach dancers, actors, runners, professional athletes, cancer survivors, folks with depression, young people, elders, and people who want to walk, sit, or stand better.
Any movement can be improved using Franklin Method principles, and it can be incorporated into any modality that uses the body.
Jamie Ballou
She/Her
Dancer
The Franklin Method workshop allowed me to dive deeper into knowledge about my own body. Josie did a wonderful job creating a lot of visuals which helped me conceptualize ways to work/move in a safer, more effective way. Taking Josie’s foot workshop changed the way I danced onstage and improved my balance permanently!
Josie’s workshops are not only educational, they are fun and truly shift the way you think about your body.
Sam Fidler
Actor, Playwright
Josie Bray’s approach to movement work has not only made me a better actor, it has made me a healthier and more body-aware person. With Josie’s teaching of the Franklin Method, I have learned to infuse my text with vivid imagery that manifests as a tight focus and consistency in my performance. I rarely meet instructors as willing to figure out and provide what an individual student/actor needs in their work than Josie.
Shannon Sweeny
She/Her/Hers
Dancer
Studying the Franklin Method with Josie has given me what I’ve been missing in my 20 years of training. I have always been taught to push my muscles to their limit and with the Franklin Method I have learned to use my muscles in the way they are the most powerful. I have a self awareness I have never had before and it has changed me as a dancer.