Early life
Ilana Rubenfeld was born in Tel Aviv on August 20, 1934 to Leopold and Bluma Churgrin. She came to the United States at an early age under duress, her family escaping their hometown just before it was bombed in 1939. Music was her love and her healing. After graduating from the High School of Music and Art in New York in 1952, she went to live and work for a year on a kibbutz in Israel. She returned to New York City to develop her musical talents at the Manhattan School of Music. After graduation, she went on to intensive study in conducting at the Juilliard School of Music where she met her mentor Pablo Casals, a cellist, composer and conductor who would have a major impact on her sensibility and emotional development as well as her acoustic ear for the emotions. Her talent to conduct was recognized by the Frank Damrosch Award for Outstanding Conducting in 1960, and her appointment as assistant conductor of the Juilliard Chorus and Orchestra. She graduated with her B.S. degree in 1961 with professional ambitions to conduct. However, it was the 1960s, and Ilana experienced a glass ceiling for women conductors in a profession dominated by men. Her response was to try harder still, but the effort resulted in debilitating back and shoulder spasms that impaired her ability to work.
Her pivot
Seeking relief, Ilana went to an Alexander Technique practitioner for help, but when she burst into emotional tears at the touch of the practitioner’s hands on her painful shoulder, the session abruptly ended with a referral to a psychotherapist. Two weeks later in the psychotherapist’s office, she sat down in a chair with her musically trained composure to talk and…nothing happened. No emotions welled up. It was her “Aha” moment. Soon she was applying her natural musical talent for conducting to the holistic healing arts, where she became a pioneer in somatic therapy and education that orchestrates both touching the emotional body and talking verbally about feelings as one harmonious expression. She became known especially for her graceful, empathic and contactful approach to somatic-emotional release. On her journey, Rubenfeld trained in the Alexander Technique and studied with Charlotte Selver in Sensory Awareness, Moshe Feldenkrais in the Feldenkrais Method, and Fritz and Laura Perls in Gestalt Counseling. She directed the Rubenfeld Synergy Training Program in Manhattan and in Geneva Park outside of Toronto for three decades, teaching the Listening Hand method to nearly a thousand holistic psychotherapists and somatic practitioners while inspiring seekers of holistic health from all walks of life.
Ilana Rubenfeld: Synergy and Method.
Her legacy
Ilana Rubenfeld was a familiar face and comforting hand for many decades in countless workshops at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, New York, the Hollyhock Retreat Center on Cortes Island in British Columbia, and the Rowe Conference Center in the foothills of the Berkshire Mountains in Massachusetts. She traveled extensively in North and South America teaching workshops and sharing her method for emotional, mental and physical healing with those in need. Ilana embodied musicality in her hands and voice throughout her life, and shared her sense of the emotions as acoustic vibrations that we conduct live in the moment of a feeling. Her innovative approach influenced practitioners on both sides of the mindbody divide to integrate empathetic listening touch with empathetic listening talk in their holistic healing practices. In 2002, Ilana published her book The Listening Hand: Self Healing Through the Rubenfeld Synergy Method® of Talk and Touch with Penguin Random House. In 2009, she coauthored with Camilla Griggers, PhD “Bodymind is One Word” in Somatics Journal, and in 2015, they coauthored the chapter “Somatic-Emotional Release Work among Hands-on Practitioners” in The Handbook of Body Psychotherapy and Somatic Psychology. Ilana Rubenfeld passed on December 23, 2022, leaving behind a rich legacy of work in the fields of body psychotherapy and psychophysical education.
Quotes about Ilana Rubenfeld
Thomas Claire, author of “Bodywork: What type of Massage to get and how to Make the Most of It”:
“Ilana Rubenfeld is the grande dame of the body/mind movement. Before most people even had a clue that the body and mind are interconnected, she was pioneering a revolutionary therapeutic method that united touch and talk therapies. The Rubenfeld Synergy Method is an innovative approach to healing that honors the unity of body, mind and spirit for true healing and personal transformation.”
Candace Pert, PhD., neuroscientist, Research professor & author of “Molecules of Emotion”:
“All of our organs and tissues are storage places for emotional memory. Using both touch and talk therapy, the Rubenfeld Synergy Method® empowers us to EXPERIENCE our feelings and the connection between our minds and bodies in extremely useful ways.”
Chungliang Al Huang, President, Living Tao Foundation & author of “Embrace Tiger,” “Return to Mountain,” & “Quantum Soup”:
“At long last, Ilana Rubenfeld, one of the most admired and experienced healers of our time, a pioneer in the body-oriented psychotherapy movement, is offering us her life’s work in a clear, easy to follow guide book for optimal health and personal well-being. It is a labor of love, full of wisdom, empathy, compassion, and humor. I wholeheartedly recommend it.”
Jean Houston, director and co-founder of the Foundation for Mind Research, author of over 26 books, called Ilana Rubenfeld a “midwife to psychological transformation.”
“Ilana Rubenfeld, the genius of touch, has more than a touch of genius. The richly comic and wildly innovative author teaches the way of integrating body, mind, and emotion in a method as productive as it is profound.”
Larry Dossey, M.D., author of “Reinventing Medicine and Healing Words”:
“Ilana Rubenfeld is the godmother of talk-and-touch therapies in culture. Her insights have helped thousands find healing and fulfillment in their lives. Rubenfeld’s work honors body, mind, and spirit.”
Christiane Northrup, M.D., author of “Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom”, 1994:
“About 40 years ago, Ilana Rubenfeld discovered that emotions reside and are held in the body and that skillful touch combined with talk could release emotions and heal pain, thus freeing people to live healthier, more effective lives.”
