In Memory of Chava Shelhav

Dear Students:
Chava Shelhav the Creator of the Child’Space Method & one of the original 13 students trained by Moshe Feldenkrais passed into the spirit world on July 22.  I am saddened to say she is another great Feldenkrais Trainer & mother figure of mine that entered another spiritual realm this year.

I was very fortunate to have been trained by Dr. Chava Shelhav in her 2nd Chicago, Child’Space training more than a decade ago.  She took her vast knowledge from Feldenkrais & applied it to the method that she created for parents & babies. She was a powerful matriarch that could immediately silence & grab the attention of a room full of mothers & grandmothers due to an innate sense of wisdom that exuded from her.

Chava influenced my teaching to a large degree & to this day, I hear her voice inside my head when I am teaching. During my training, I was in awe of her knowledge of childhood development & by how quickly she picked up on the family dynamics that shaped each little one she worked with.  I would watch her very intently as she taught families to support the health of their child so I could absorb as much as possible from her expertise. 

Many adults did not realize until the moment Chava pointed out an intimate truth about their parenting, that to enhance their infant’s development the whole unit of care givers had to be made aware & taught about what that meant on many levels.  Each one of them would also have to learn how to enforce that which supported the betterment of their family’s environment.  I wrote a blog post called, A Baby’s Motor Development that you could read by clicking on it to understand the challenges of what that would entail.

After I graduated from Dr. Shelhav’s training I became a volunteer assistant teacher at the New York City Child’Space training the following year because I wanted to be around her teaching as long as I could!  I am so grateful to have had those experiences & for the gift Chava gave to us called the Child’Space Method.

I will miss that Dr. Shelhav will no longer be with us physically but I do know that she will be with us in spirit.  I am confident that she will explore her new reality with as much vigor & curiosity as she did when studying through the Feldenkrais Method. Peace to all on Earth!
~Donna