What is the Alexander Technique?

We are made for movement…

The Alexander Technique is a method of Psycho-Physical Education that teaches us to become more aware of how we use our bodies in our everyday lives, in any activity.  We hold within us beliefs and habits of a lifetime that can interfere with our sense of ease and well-being. These postural and movement habits are usually unconscious and are often the underlying cause of chronic pain and discomfort.

Through the use of light touch and verbal guidance, The Alexander Technique addresses the underlying causes and interferences within a persons structure, and reawakens an individual’s kinesthetic sense to bring about lasting change.  This is the sense that is responsible for whether we are moving well in a coordinated way or not.

When our kinesthetic sense or proprioception is dampened, due to stress, injury, surgery or poor habits repeated over time, we lose out ability to sense the difference between ease and tension, relaxed or strained, and cause unnecessary compression patterns throughout our skeletal and muscular system in order to cope.

The Alexander Technique guides a person to discover for him/herself the specific movement habits that are interfering with performing the simple activities of standing and walking or more complex ones such as playing a sport or a musical instrument. Whether we are sitting at a computer for long hours, or preparing to speak in front of a large audience, we can learn to use our bodies well. By bringing our awareness to the chronic patterns of misuse first, we learn how to let them go and relearn a way of moving that is easeful and natural: we learn to inhabit our bodies in the  way nature intended!

In essence as a teacher of the Alexander Technique, I speak to the innate wisdom within your body, that seeks  freedom and balance both physically and emotionally, and guide you to discover for yourself, your potential for living a life of wholeness.

The Alexander Technique is for FOR EVERYONE including musicians, dancers, singers, athletes, artists, yogis, body workers, bakers, craftspeople, carpenters, farmers, gardeners, teachers, service industry and health professionals, office workers, lawyers, public speakers, pregnant woman, infants, children, young adults, elders, and folks from all walks of life 

The Alexander Technique helps you:

  • Identify and change poor movement habits that are often at the root of your nagging body issues

  • Increase body awareness and improve your breathing, vocal expression, posture, balance, coordination and more.

  • Improve your personal and professional relationships by strengthening your psycho-physical boundaries between self and others

  • Manage and relieve chronic pain

  • Overcome and prevent injury and surgery.

  • Reduce the cycle of dependence on pharmaceuticals and invasive medical procedures.

  • Improve your performance in any activity at work and doing what your love.

How to Study:

The Alexander Technique Method employs hands-on alignment work and verbal instruction. Its effects are often immediate, but are sustained through repeated sessions over the course of several months or more.  I offer introductory lessons and workshops to introduce you to the work and to give you a taste of your own potential,  but lasting change takes time.  For the most benefit, I encourage my students to consider working with me for a course of at least 10 sessions.

Please contact me to discuss your needs. I wish to serve people of all ages, life experience and backgrounds.

In every Lesson you will:

  • IDENTIFY one or more of your interfering movement habits

  • RECEIVE postural guidance in sitting, standing andwalking

  • RECEIVE the therapeutic benefits of a table lesson to align your body, undo interfering patterns of tension, and re-pattern the Central Nervous System

  • LEARN a simple restorative self-care technique that realigns the spine naturally

  • EXPERIENCE what it feels like to move in a balanced and coordinated way

  • TASTE your own potential for moving with less pain and effort and more ease and freedom

  • BE EMPOWERED to practice more self awareness in order to get out of a cycle of pain

Benefits and Medical Research

The Alexander Technique is for musicians, dancers, singers, athletes, artists, yogis, body workers, craftspeople, carpenters, service industry and health professionals, public speakers, pregnant woman, infants, children, young adults, elders, and folks from all walks of life.

People choose to study the technique for many reasons. Some are motivated by a wish to be free of pain, recover from injury, or avoid surgery. Doctors now recommend Alexander Technique for many conditions. (see below)

Others may be concerned about themselves and want to prevent injury and improve their performance and their quality of life.

Some people may simply want to look, speak and feel more poised and empowered in their lives.

A pregnant woman for example, will study the technique to avoid back pain and to create the conditions for an easier birth by learning to maintain a natural alignment. The technique will also teach her how use herself well, and avoid injury while caring for her child.

A study published in the British Medical Journal in 2008 showed that the Alexander Technique is beneficial for the long term relief of back pain.

Nikolaas Tinbergen, 1973 Nobel Prize Winner for Medicine and Physiology, devoted a significant portion of his Nobel lecture to talking about F. M. Alexander, the Alexander Technique, and the importance of Alexander's discoveries, including the benefits he and his wife experienced from lessons.

For more information and resources on the Alexander Technique visit: www.alexandertechnique.com