Alexander Technique

The Alexander Technique is a unique and practical method for learning to reduce stress and release harmful habits. It is a powerful tool for increasing your self-awareness. Learning to apply the Alexander Technique to daily life can help you alleviate pain, naturally restore balance of mind and body, and develop poise, freedom of movement and calmness of mind. It offers a practical solution to dealing with the pressures of everyday life. Anyone can learn the Technique and everyone can benefit.

An Alexander Technique teacher teaches by a mixture of verbal instruction and 'hands-on' work. The pupil is actively engaged in the process. Guided by the teacher's hands and voice, they learn how to use their thinking process to help them let go of undue muscular tension and discover in themselves a state of poise and ease.

The pupil is taught how to allow this naturally calm and balanced state to be the basis of daily activities and the starting place from which they can respond freely to life's delights and challenges.

The benefits

The Alexander Technique can help with:

• Prevention and management of pain; e.g. back, neck and joint pain, headaches, RSI
• Anxiety and stress-related conditions
• Improving posture, coordination, balance and poise
• Recovery after injury, illness or surgery
• Increasing confidence and self-esteem and improved interactions with others
• Enhancing skills and preventing injuries in the workplace, sports, music, voice
• Breathing and vocal problems
• Enhancing personal development, self-awareness and learning new skills
• Enhanced vitality, mental clarity and focus

Many people who learn the Alexander Technique speak of the benefits using phrases such as "I no longer feel trapped in my own body", "I feel more engaged with the world", "I feel up, buoyant and full of energy", "I can do things in life that I thought I'd never be able to do", "I feel spacious and expanded", "I feel I can live life to the full".

Posture

The Alexander Technique is popularly thought of as a method of improving posture. If you have what is thought of as 'poor posture', it has come about through habitual over-tension. Harmful patterns of standing, sitting and moving have become ingrained. With the release of this over-tension, possible through the Alexander Technique, you can open out and be your full height, and at the same time free yourself from associated pain, aches and stiffness.

Pain

Most of us experience aches and pains on a regular basis but often we choose to ignore them, or accept them as a 'fact of life'. Over time, we may resort increasingly to painkillers, believing that is the only way to cope. We may develop chronic pain which can be relieved temporarily by painkillers, massage or physiotherapy, but which keeps recurring. The Alexander Technique helps release the habitual tensions which cause the pain. It tackles the root of the problem rather than just the symptoms. It can also treat painful conditions including RSI, Frozen Shoulder and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. In 2009 research published in the British Medical Journal proved conclusively that the Alexander Technique helps alleviate back pain.

Performance

Many music, drama and sports teachers encourage their students to learn the Alexander Technique. The ability to perform effectively and to full capacity is affected by many factors, including aches and pains, injury, the effects of stress, and feelings of having reached one's limit. Through the Alexander Technique a person can find relief from all these factors. Pain is alleviated, injury avoided, and anxiety or 'stress' can be things of the past. Movement becomes easy and flowing. The result is that the person can enjoy performing to their full potential and exploring creativity without limits.

The whole person

An Alexander Technique teacher works with the whole person. A problem such as a sore knee or aching shoulder is viewed as a symptom of the way the person uses themselves, and is not dealt with directly but instead only ever in relation to the whole.

Consequently, in one person there may be many benefits to learning and practising the Alexander Technique. For example, an improvement in violin performance together with increased mobility in the knees, easing of back pain and greater self confidence.

What the Alexander Technique can help with – a more detailed list

Below is an alphabetical list of cases in which the Alexander Technique has been found to be effective. (NB this is not an exhaustive list, so if your particular problem does not appear here, please do not hesitate to contact our practitioners to ask.)

• Aches, pain and stiffness
• Anxiety
• Arthritis
• Back, neck or shoulder pain
• Breathing and voice issues
• Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
• Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (M.E.) and related conditions
• Discomfort while using a computer or doing repetitive work
• Fear of public-speaking
• Frozen shoulder
• Injury
• Lack of confidence, shyness or low self-esteem
• Migraines and headaches
• Multiple schlerosis (M.S.)
• Musculo-skeletal conditions
• Not achieving full potential in singing, acting, music or sport
• Parkinson's Disease
• Poor posture
• RSI and Tennis Elbow
• Sciatica
• Scoliosis
• Shock or trauma following an event or accident
• Stiff neck
• Stress
• Stuttering and other speech difficulties
• Temporal mandibular joint dysfunction (TMJ)
• Tiredness