What is the Alexander Technique?
This technique, now over 100 years old, has changed the lives of so many people, especially performers and people with chronic pain and injuries. The balance of our skull on top of the spine seems so obvious and yet eludes almost every adult. As we grow and mature from perfectly poised children we add tension and poor habits to our movement patterns. We begin the descent into an imbalanced body leading to many physical ailments including poor posture, back pain, headaches, fatigue and low energy. This happens slowly and with many repetitions of faulty movement patterns.
With a few simple directions and a little hands-on encouragement the body happily embraces the more natural and effortless ways of moving. We are able to return to effortless standing, walking and sitting. Our bodies remember the feeling of ease and lightness we had as children, even if we may not recall it consciously. As children, most of us do not need to learn to balance our head on top of the vertebral column. As adults, we long to return to our innate right to length and width throughout the body, with the head leading the way.
An Alexander Technique lesson can offer a solution to many modern ailments: some results may be improved breathing and less ‘fog’, more energy throughout the day, fewer set backs when injury and pain patterns threaten and even improvements in mood and resilience to life’s challenges. Integrating knowledge of voice and vocal strain as part of Alexander’s concepts ( after all, he was an actor, too) is part of the work, helping you ‘find your voice’ whether or not you are an actor or singer.
Frederick Matthias (F.M.) Alexander’s search for improved vocal health gave the world a new way of approaching change: Movement patterns are changed through altered thinking patterns. A truly personal experience of empowerment and change.
Combining the Alexander Technique and Pilates
Learning how to walk is for toddlers. We learn to stand up, balance that heavy head, hover over the joints of our legs and then move our legs forward. We learn it once and then never again.
Until things go wrong. We don’t even need to go to the most unfortunate scenarios to imagine struggling with our gait. A sore back or years of misuse of the body will alter movement. We compensate and work around the tight or sore areas. Injury can result from altered movement patterns but can also be the cause. And we know that injury can be physical or mental. A state of deep depression can move us to stoop down, lower our head or tighten the chest. My approach combines the work of F.M. Alexander with my knowledge of anatomy and exercise for strength and rehabilitation. The most loved table lessons always concludes a session.