WHAT IS THE ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE?
The Alexander Technique works directly with hands-on guidance in everything from sitting, standing, bending, lifting, working at a computer, walking, housework, gardening, driving etc, and with breathing, resting and relaxing.
It re-tunes your body so it re-discovers the easy balanced way to do things, as you need it and when you need it - in the midst of your activities - as you go about daily life.
Alexander is very relaxing too, and teaches simple techniques that may enable you to relax in the midst of the stresses and strains of daily life. By improving what we refer to as your 'Use' of yourself in everyday life it may relieve pain and promote positive good health.
How does it work?
In a nutshell, Alexander frees us from the stresses and strains which are created by inappropriate habits of tension, movement and posture etc in everyday activities. It stimulates the body's natural ease and poise to be restored so it may use it's extraordinary capacity to recover.
Alexander lessons give simple one-to-one hands-on guidance and instruction to refresh, re-tune and re-balance the body and our awareness, so the body moves and works freely and easily, as Nature intended. Habits have a lot to answer for, and most people may have more harmful habits than they realise. Experiencing what it's like with fewer habits may be quite a revelation, but why do habits occur?
Pain and 'compensation'
Alexander is helpful in many areas of life. Traditionally it has always been closely associated with acting, singing, dance and other performing arts, since Alexander was himself an actor when he devised the technique.
Many people however have lessons because of musculo-skeletal problems such as backache, tension and whiplash etc, which is how I found out about it. In this area, Alexander is based on the simple observation that if the body gets 'out of kilter' with itself then sooner or later we tend to end up getting aches and pain and tension etc.
Injuries and accidents are an obvious way the body can be put 'out' so it is no longer in a state of natural ease and poise. But any pain, and even a minor niggle, can be a significant cause of this if it goes on long enough. Whether the change from a healthy state of use of the body to one associated with tension and pain is sudden or gradual, in Alexander we almost always find it is linked with some degree of "compensating" in some way.
Compensating is a term which includes the automatic response of the body to adjust itself in various ways to reduce discomfort. For example, the body may get rid of pain quickly and easily by altering alignment to reduce pressure on an area of pain, or by holding itself stiffly to reduce movement to reduce pain. The compensation may help at the time, which is great - but the problem is that, when recovered, the body doesn't automatically go back to how it was before the problem occured and the compensations started.
If we take an example that standing lopsided helped to reduce pain to start with, for instance, then the body quickly adapts to thinking that lopsided is 'right', when it should feel wrong and prompt the person to correct it. The person is now stuck with the habit of standing lopsided actually causing a variety of associated tensions and disturbances, and usually there are a number of subtle compensations which combine to have a bigger effect which also need unravelling.
This is a very significant issue, because the internal imbalances and tensions that the compensations cause mean the body is stuck fighting against itself. Long term problems in particular may end up becoming worse and worse and lasting longer and longer with the compensations that were meant to help it recover being a major ongoing cause of the problem! The compensations turn into habits which cause disruptive and unnecessary internal tensions and forces which manifest as pain, but if we change the habits we may change the end result.
Well done if you have read this far! I try to keep it simple, and when you get this point of view and experience it, it is simple.
Tension and habits
Tension and pain also often build up only gradually below the surface because of other causes such as drifting into poor patterns of posture and tension, and it may also be due to reactions related to emotional stress for example. In effect, the body ends up getting so used to being ill at ease it 'forgets' how to relax, and it may need to re-learn how to let go.
This is the focus of Alexander: to work simply with the body and our awareness to unravel such habits, to re-tune, re-balance and re-educate . . .
It is like re-tuning a musical instrument and having some more lessons . . . or de-fragmenting a computer hard drive and learning some better procedures . . . or re-aligning the wheels of a car and having some refresher lessons on driving technique and awareness. All areas of our use of the body in different activities and situations can have implications either in that activity or another, so Alexander works both with specific issues and the person as a whole to bring about greater awareness and better use. The testimonials below are examples of how people have found they have benefitted from this simple approach.
Who is it for?
Alexander may be helpful for any age from 9 to 99. You may be fit and healthy and perhaps only slightly concerned about your health and wellbeing now or for the future, or you may have been suffering with constant discomfort for many years.
You may have tried anything from pain management to Osteopathy, Chiropractic, Physiotherapy, Acupuncture and other similar treatments, or want a gentle and effective method to use alongside them or instead of them. Or you may do Gymwork, Yoga, Pilates, Tai Chi, or use Reiki, Bowen and other methods.
And as well as being excellent for back problems?
Other benefits of Alexander may include being helpful for developing a more intimate understanding of how our mental and emotional state may often be reflected in various ways in the use of physical body, so working with mindfulness in simple everyday activity may be very complementary to counselling and other such approaches. It may be very helpful for coping better with stress, improving relaxation, breathing, nervousness and improving general health and wellbeing in a variety of ways.
The Alexander Technique is offered by
Steve Knowland
Testimonials
Click here to read some experiences of Alexander lessons with Steve
Alexander Technique Health Guides
Click here for brief descriptions of how the Alexander approach can help a variety of problems such as migraine, panic attacks, asthma, low self esteem, pain management etc
Articles on The Alexander Technique from the press
"What people like about the Alexander Technique is that it's very, very gentle. There is no question of manipulation. It is not invasive." "The other thing they really like is that it puts the person in control. We are teaching them how to remedy themselves." (quotes from an Alexander teacher)
Click here to read an article in the Dublin Herald
AT Back to basics
Are you a slumper? Ashley Seager was, but cured his bad posture - and chronic back pain - with the Alexander Technique
AT Mind over Matter
From scuba diving to learning Esperanto, Jeanne Day does more in her 80s than most people half her age.
What is her secret? The Alexander Technique, she tells Carol Dix
AT Strokes of Genius
An aquatic form of Alexander Technique is set to rewrite the swimming manuals. Peter Silverton tests the water.
AT Fit for my age
We need more exercise, not less, as we get older. But, says Joan Bakewell, when you're in your 70s, it pays to pace yourself and know your limitations.
Useful links
www.stat.org.uk The Society of Teachers of the Alexander Technique
www.alexanderalliance.com An interesting site by an American Alexander school