What is the Alexander Technique?
The Alexander Technique is a practical and powerful means of overcoming the tyranny of neuromuscular habit, which may have led to pain, tension, stress and impaired health. Lessons in the technique will restore your natural balance and coordination. It will help you recognise and change those habits related to posture, movement and tension. It will enable you to develop mindful awareness of the way you sit, stand, and move, and give you a greater ease in everything you do. It is suitable for all ages.
People choose to have lessons for a variety of reasons:
- To improve performance, manage stage fright and prevent injury in music, drama and sport
- To enhance business and presentation skills
- To help deal with pain, injury, illness or stress
- As rehabilitation after surgery
- To gain greater awareness and poise in day to day life
- To develop coping skills in order to deal with chronic illness and/or life difficulties
By learning to stop interfering with our natural functioning, the Alexander Technique can help anyone to live a more balanced and fulfilling life. It is a highly practical method for self-improvement and self-help. Anyone can benefit and the Technique has been learned and used by people from all walks of life.
How do you learn?
You can learn the Alexander Technique through one-to-one lessons with me at my practice in Chiswick, West London, or from your own home online.
Although there are no specific exercises, learning the Technique involves changing long-standing habits of movement, and relies on your active participation. It can be practised wherever you are. Learning the Alexander Technique is possible for people of all ages and levels of physical mobility.
Each lesson is designed around the individual. The number of lessons you take will depend on your particular needs and goals, but regular lessons – at least at the beginning – are important.
Lessons in Chiswick
I teach one-to-one private lessons from my practice in Chiswick, West London.
The Technique is all about learning a new experience. It is taught through gentle hands-on guidance and discussion to help you find ease and balance within yourself, whilst performing simple movements and everyday activities such as sitting, standing, walking or bending. Part of the lesson usually also includes you lying down in the classic Alexander Technique semi-supine position, which allows maximum support and relief for the back.
One to one lessons last about 45 minutes and cost £65.00.
Online Lessons
During lockdown it became necessary to adapt lessons to be given online and I have discovered that this is an effective and rewarding way to learn. There is a different quality of attention with online teaching – it is very focused, practical and flexible.
Accessible wherever you are in the world.
You can accommodate lessons into your own lifestyle, timetable and environment, which can help you feel more relaxed.
You can record your lessons if you want to.
Online lessons last about 45 minutes and cost £65.00. Lessons take place via Facetime or Skype.
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but having new eyes…”
Research
There is a huge amount of published research about the efficacy of the Alexander Technique in many areas, including back, neck and other pain, osteoarthritis, Parkinson’s, posture, ergonomics, balance, movement & co-ordination, musical performance and general wellbeing.
Find more details using the STAT Research Listings search facility.
My Own Alexander Journey
After many years of chronic back pain and ricocheting between doctors, physiotherapists and chiropractors, I turned to the Alexander Technique in hope. Discovering the Technique was not just a revelation, it has also been a salvation. In a short space of time, I found that my recently developed headaches disappeared and I experienced a profound change in the state of my well-being. Here was a technique which was not a short-lived, quick-fix solution to what was affecting me. Instead I found something which empowered me to change for the long term. The Alexander Technique allowed me to pause, take time to think and make different choices in my life.
Practising the Technique inspired me to begin training as an Alexander teacher a few years later. I completed my three year training in London at the Constructive Teaching Centre, the oldest school for the Alexander Technique in the world, in 2012. In 2015 I attended Ron Colyer’s Alexander Re-education centre for a post-graduate term. More recently I have completed the Developing Self Education Training course and I am certified to deliver the Alexander in Education course (allowing me to teach it in Primary school, Secondary school and Tertiary Level institutions). In the last year I have also refined my online teaching skills by following Penelope Easton’s Advanced online training course, which means I can deliver lessons online as well as in person.
Having established myself as an Alexander Technique teacher, I have benefited enormously by having my own private practice in West London, as well as teaching at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts, ArtsEd School in Chiswick and the Associated Studios. Whilst my private clients are drawn from all walks of life and ages, at the music and drama schools I have worked with students for whom movement, poise, breathing and the use of voice are fundamental to their careers. It has allowed me to really understand the broad benefits of the Technique, whether you are an artist, a financier, carer or journalist.
That is the power of the Alexander Technique, it is truly for everyone.