Alexander Technique

What is the Alexander Technique?

The Alexander Technique is a powerful tool for personal change. It is a process of re-education that offers liberation from unhelpful habits that may contribute towards discomfort and illness. Although difficult to describe, the experience of lessons offers a sense of ease and well-being.

The Alexander Technique is holistic. It examines the cause of a person’s problems rather than simply treating the symptoms, and therefore specific problems are often resolved in the process. Pupils gradually learn to apply the technique for themselves and engage in ongoing self-practice. The benefits are general and wide-ranging and can include lasting improvements in physical and mental health.

Who are Alexander Technique Lessons for?

People increasingly turn to the health and lifestyle benefits of the technique. They learn strategies for stress management and self-empowerment. The technique also restores vitality and enhances sexual health and functioning.

Office workers and those with sedentary lifestyles find the Technique of enormous benefit in resolving their daily aches and pains. Muscles relax, breathing improves and the body returns to a more mobile and harmonious state.

Although the technique is not a treatment, many find solutions for anxiety, fatigue, breathing disorders, neck and shoulder tension, flat feet, clenched jaw and TMJ problems, back pain, IT strain and RSI, and other medical conditions.

Actors, musicians, dancers and sportspeople learn the technique to avoid injury, improve coordination and balance, and enhance spontaneity and performance skills. It also benefits the practice of martial arts, swimming and horse riding.

The Alexander Technique is particularly effective for pregnant women, not just during the difficult months of pregnancy, but also during the birth process and in early motherhood.

Mind and Body

The Alexander Technique is not just about bodies, even though many come with physical troubles. Alexander claimed that the mind and body are really aspects of a unified psychophysical self. For example, a migraine headache may be connected to the stress of deadlines, and a collapsed posture to an attitude of resignation.

Alexander pupils can expect a growing understanding of themselves as they actively participate in the adventures of everyday life. They realise that their own narratives are dramatised on the stage of their bodies. The Alexander Technique encourages a change in the quality of thinking which informs and transforms the body, rather than directly demanding a change in posture. The technique emphasises self-responsibility, and along with the postural and muscular release, it can lead to emotional growth and healing.

Why participate in Alexander Technique Lessons?

Young children react and move with grace and poise. But due to the stresses and strains of modern life, this inborn innocence and freedom are soon lost. Adults today misuse themselves and seem to swing from manic over-activity to fatigue, from startle to collapse. The adult form is fixed and distorted and incapable of meeting and adapting to the challenges of living.

Many people are dissatisfied with being passive in their existence. They seek ways to re-organise their life, and as much as possible, to live it.

The technique is designed to restore a state of both relaxation and alertness. On a postural level, this involves a dynamic mix of flexibility and tone. The technique teaches how to maintain this new use in the face of life’s demands. Pupils can feel lighter, move freer and even sleep better.