The Alexander Technique

“When you stop doing the wrong thing, the right thing does itself.”
F. M. Alexander

The Alexan­der Tech­nique is an approach to over­com­ing poor habits of move­ment and coor­di­na­tion. The tech­nique is taught in pri­vate lessons and pro­vides a way for you to solve prob­lems you may be hav­ing with every­day activities.

The Alexan­der Tech­nique is an immensely use­ful, prac­ti­cal, and pow­er­ful method for chang­ing pat­terns of ten­sion and mis­use that can cause fatigue, pain or injury. It is not a med­ical treat­ment or a form of body­work, although it can have ther­a­peu­tic results. It does not involve spe­cific exer­cises, but can be applied to exer­cis­ing, or to any other form of move­ment. It uses thought, atten­tion and aware­ness to effect change in all areas of daily life.

Con­tem­po­rary life, with its fast pace, com­plex­ity, and con­stant change, poses many chal­lenges. Fre­quently we react to stress with uncon­scious habits of mus­cle ten­sion. Exam­ples of this abound:

  • The com­muter stuck in a traf­fic jam, her jaw clenched in frustration;
  • The cell phone user, his shoul­der tense and raised;
  • The writer sit­ting in the front of the com­puter, absorbed in her work, her spine and arms collapsed;
  • The flutist twist­ing his neck and forc­ing his breath while playing.

These habit­ual reac­tions inter­fere with activ­i­ties and can cause fatigue, pain and injury. Stress­ful sit­u­a­tions are some­times unavoid­able, but you can learn how to avoid react­ing to them with mus­cu­lar ten­sion, and to choose a more con­struc­tive response.

News

Read com­ments on Yelp by my stu­dents about their Alexan­der lessons.

Inter­view

I talk with Robert Rick­over about how the Alexan­der Tech­nique helps musi­cians (May 2010).

BBC Health News

Long-term back pain can be relieved through encour­ag­ing suf­fer­ers to adopt good pos­ture through the Alexan­der tech­nique, say UK researchers.

Blue Rivers Podcast

To hear Josh Wait inter­view me about the Alexan­der Tech­nique, please visit Blue Rivers. Once you’ve arrived at the site, sim­ply click the pod­cast link and wait a few sec­onds for it to load.

To set up an appoint­ment or for more infor­ma­tion, please email me or call (510) 845‑6619.

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