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What is the Alexander Technique?
What did Alexander Discover?
How does it help?
Why have Alexander Technique lessons?
What happens in an Alexander Technique lesson?
What about existing injuries?
How many lessons are appropriate?
The Alexander Technique,
developed in Australia by Frederick Matthias
Alexander, has been enthusiastically received the world over and is incorporated
into the training of groups as diverse as musicians, masseurs and fighter pilots. Surprisingly,
although it is widely
accepted throughout the UK, US and Europe, the Alexander Technique is only
now making waves here in the land of its developer.
The Alexander Technique is a practical educational method that can be learnt
and put into practice in everyday life. It can be used to help us understand how
we move, think and feel.
A pupil learns, through increased self-awareness and conscious control,
to interrupt his or her habitual response to a stimulus and then to substitute
a different, more appropriate response if desired.
The catalyst for Alexander's investigations was the desire to overcome his
chronic voice-loss. He found that how he had been using himself created the
problem. To restore his voice he had to consider his complete pattern of use.
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FM Alexander discovered several
important principles of human functioning when he was looking to cure
himself through observation and experimentation. These discoveries helped
him to help himself and also to help other people.
- Mind and body cannot be separated: each has a constant interaction with
and influence on the other that makes it essential to talk always
in terms of the whole person.
- To understand why some part of a person is malfunctioning, it is necessary to
look at the total pattern of use of that person.
- It is as important to look at what we should not do as it is to look at what
we should do. "Everyone is always teaching one what to do, leaving us
still doing the things we shouldn't do." (Alexander)
- Each person is born with a 'primary control' that organises and integrates
movement. This primary control operates as the head, neck and back
connect with each other. If it is disrupted then messages to and from
all the parts of the body are disturbed, movements become more awkward,
and unnecessary effort is needed to keep a person functioning.
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By learning to step aside from the patterns of years, and allow freedom and
expansion throughout the whole being, a student opens new possibilities for:
- The release of tension,
- Healing,
- Self-awareness and understanding,
- Self expression.
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The Alexander Technique can help to:
- Improve performance in skilled activities such as dance, music, acting or sport
- Relieve and prevent back, neck and limb pain, headaches and other musculo-skeletal problems
- Reduce tension in activities that are repetitive and/or strenuous such as bending, lifting, or typing
- Manage stress, improve wellbeing and self-understanding
- Restore freedom of movement after an accident or chronic illness
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"You are not here to do exercises or to learn to do something right, but to get
able to meet a stimulus that always puts you wrong and to learn to deal with it."
FM Alexander
Lessons in the Alexander Technique help a person take a fresh look at the way
activities are performed. A pupil learns to appreciate the practical implications
of thought and its effect on muscle activity. A teacher's hands encourage a
specific quality of muscle tone. This, together with words of instruction,
helps to release inappropriate tension and allows the pupil to become better
aligned and balanced.
A pupil learns, through increased self-awareness and conscious control,
to interrupt his or her habitual response to a stimulus and then to substitute
a different, more appropriate response if desired.
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The Alexander Technique works to help re-establish balance within the natural systems
of the body. As condidions change, pupils often experience relief from chronic
problems. However, the thrust of the work is educational, not therapeutic. You
are learning about yourself and how you can change your use of yourself. With
that knowledge, you can learn to stop actions that exacerbate your condition,
and to manage all movements more easily.
Please alert us if
you have an existing medical condition, so that we can
tailor our work to your situation.
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This is up to the pupil, and depends on the level of expertise they want to
attain in the Technique. As with learning any skill, this level is proportional
to the commitment. You can start using what you learn from the first lesson.
For adults, we suggest a course of 20-30 lessons over a period of 3-5 months
as a rough guide to the number of lessons that will give a pupil enough knowledge and experience
of practising the Technique to use it confidently in daily life.
The needs of your child should be discussed with the teacher both before
and after a first visit. Usually children can be helped in fewer lessons, as
their habit patterns are not strongly ingrained, and they are closer to the
better functioning we all experienced in infanthood.
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