Frequently
Asked Questions
Why do I need
the Alexander Technique?
You
may be mystified by your back pain, excess tension
or lack of coordination. You might have a chronic
physical problem you'd like to solve. Perhaps you
see your problem as hereditary, structural, unchangeable.
You may be unaware that how you move could be creating
or compounding your problem. You may not realize
that how you go through your daily activities needlessly
strains your joints and muscles.
How
can the Alexander Technique help me?
The Technique
offers you a way to streamline what you do, making your activities less stressful
and more pleasurable. You come to understand how your body can move most
efficiently. As you learn to move more easily, you make surprising improvements
in how you look and feel. As you learn to apply Alexander's principles, you
practice an effective, lasting method of self care.
What
is the Alexander Technique?
The Alexander
Technique is an intelligent way to solve the common movement problems that
cause chronic pain and stress. It is a way to notice your movement habits,
release compression and move with ease and expansion. A proven self care
method, it is a set of skills that you learn to relieve pain, prevent injury
and
enhance performance.
How
is the Alexander Technique different from other approaches?
- It is not a treatment,
such as chiropractic or massage. Any treatment has its own unique benefits.
The Alexander Technique's unique contribution is a mode of self-management
that gives you independence in maintaining your health. Rather than being
solely a recipient, you learn to soothe your own nervous system, release
your own muscles and balance your own structure. Alexander skills also
make you a more informed, receptive patient when you do need any kind
of treatment.
- It is not a set
of exercises such as those you might learn in yoga, physical therapy,
Feldenkrais, Pilates or the gym. Because the Alexander Technique is
a way to heighten awareness of how you move and to better coordinate
your body during activity, it helps you do specific postures, procedures
or exercises with less strain and more comfort. Since it is a tool
to improve your overall coordination, you become a more intelligent
exerciser who can focus effort during a strenuous challenge. You learn
more about the body, and bring that refined understanding to a class
or set of stretches.
What
are the Alexander Technique's benefits?
People who
learn the Alexander Technique can better handle daily stress and develop
a long-term solution to chronic pain and muscular tension. They acquire an
enduring way to perceive tensions as they arise and to restore their own
balance.
- Self care -
As the premier form of self care, the Alexander Technique helps people
prevent injury and recover from chronic back, hip and neck disorders,
traumatic or repetitive strain injuries, balance and coordination disorders,
arthritis and muscle spasms. It can also be helpful for people with asthma
and stress-related disorders, such as migraine headaches, sleep disorders
and panic attacks.
- Skill enhancement -
Athletes use the Technique to help them improve strength, endurance,
flexibility and responsiveness. Performing artists use it to lessen performance
anxiety while improving concentration and stage presence. Public speakers
use it to improve vocal projection and voice quality. Those in business
find it enhances presentation skills and increases confidence.
- Mental health -
As your posture and movement style improve, you look and feel better.
As your breathing capacity expands, you have a greater resource of energy.
Physicians recommend the Alexander Technique to lessen the depression
and anxiety associated with chronic conditions. Psychotherapists also
refer their patients to Alexander Technique teachers. While you
unravel muscular tensions, you may perceive an emotional link to your
physical symptom. Study of the Alexander Technique can help release emotion,
can provoke deeper understanding of the self, and can complement psychotherapy.
Who
studies the Alexander Technique?
People of all
types are Alexander students. They might come to recuperate from an injury
or for relief from chronic pain. They may hear of the Technique from friends,
physicians or other health professionals. Here are some examples of the many
who have used the Alexander Technique to improve their comfort level, professional
achievement and their lives:
performing artists
parents
executives
computer users
the wheelchair bound
What
problems and conditions can the Alexander Technique help me with?
- Stress in daily
life - Because the Alexander Technique helps you change your response
to stress, it can help you relieve or eliminate stress-related conditions.
The body's reaction to threat a fear reflex marked by a tight
neck and contracted body is a natural, adaptive response. But
if the body does not unwind from this contraction and stays in a constant
state of emergency, we pay a physical price. You can learn to re-stabilize
and recuperate from stress with the Alexander Technique: a set of body/mind
skills that helps you release contracted muscles, calm the nervous
system and handle stressors more easily.
- Chronic pain -
Chronic pain can be the result of injury, disease, structural abnormality
or muscular tension. Though the Technique is not a miracle cure for medical
conditions, by reducing the stress response it can often provide a surprising
degree of relief. For conditions that cannot be changed such as
rheumatoid arthritis it can still help the individual release
the muscular tension and fear response that accompany injury or disease.
- Back problems -
One of the most effective approaches to chronic back problems, the Technique
can address the underlying cause and often relieve the condition completely.
When there are unchangeable factors of disease or structure, the Alexander
teacher's soothing hands and helpful guidance enables you whatever
your limitation to reach your full potential for function.
- Arthritis -
Studying the Alexander Technique will help you relieve pain, retain mobility
and increase range of motion. The Alexander Technique teacher helps you
see what in your movement style causes joint compression and might exacerbate
your condition. As you re-educate your overall coordination, the torso
muscles support rather than compress the spine. Reduced compression allows
your body to expand during daily activities and can help reduce pain.
- Postural problems -
Many people develop unhealthy posture and movement habits that become
deep-seated patterns of strain. These habits are typically expressed
by tight back and neck muscles and collapsed stature. With the hands-on
guidance of a trained Alexander Technique teacher, you learn to elicit
the primary control an easy, dynamic relationship between the head
and spine. You gain access to the body's elegant power steering. You
learn that finding poise can help to ease discomfort and streamline movement.
With greater fluidity and stability, you gain confidence and a more positive
self-image.
- Asthma and other
breathing disorders - Asthma is the body's respiratory reflex gone
awry. Neck muscles tighten, shoulders yank up to the ears, and the
abdominal muscles contract. Sufferers say the greatest problem is rising
panic at an attack's onset the fear that they won't win the fight
for the next breath. These responses are elements of the startle pattern.
With the Alexander Technique, asthmatics can halt the startle pattern
and calm the nervous system, inviting an easier balance in body and
mind. They can control or conquer their symptoms. Expanded space in
the torso and information about how to breathe can help anyone who
wants to improve breathing capacity and, with it, overall vitality.
- Repetitive strain
injury & carpal tunnel syndrome - The Alexander Technique addresses
the cause of these widespread injuries: lack of postural support and
excess joint compression while working. With the Alexander Technique,
you learn to eliminate strain and perform repetitive movements with
ease and comfort. Much of our current epidemic of repetitive strain
injury and carpal tunnel syndrome could be alleviated if more people
learned how to:
- sit upright
easily
- do repeated
motions with less muscular tension in the shoulders, arms and wrists
- tap the keyboard
and mouse lightly
- attune to their
bodies' signals
How
do I learn the Alexander Technique?
You learn the Technique from a highly trained professional in a series of one-on-one
sessions. Some teachers offer group classes, but the Technique is most commonly
offered privately. The teacher gives you expert coaching tailored to your specific
needs.
What
happens in an Alexander Technique session?
In an Alexander
Technique session, your teacher instructs you with words and touch to
approach movement differently. Using a mirror, s/he helps you recognize your
ingrained patterns and highlights how your movement style relates to your
symptoms. Your teacher uses a specialized hands-on method to help you release
areas of tension and elicit your body's capacity for dynamic expansion. With
this expert guidance, you learn the skills to replicate that ease and expansion
on your own. Over a course of sessions, you strip away the movement habits
at the root of your discomfort. You acquire a way to guide yourself through
daily activities that stays with you for the rest of your life.
What
do I wear?
You come to your Alexander lesson wearing loose, comfortable
clothing.
What
is an Alexander studio like?
The Alexander teacher's studio is a low-tech environment
with a chair, bodywork table and a mirror.
How
long are sessions?
Usually 45-60 minutes, the Alexander lesson is instruction tailored to your
needs.
What's
the point of a lesson?
An Alexander Technique session is an opportunity for you
to unwind and observe how your mind and body work. Your teacher
gives you focused, supportive coaching on how to use your increased
awareness to calm your system and raise your level of functioning.
What
will we do?
Your Alexander teacher observes you doing simple actions,
such as sitting, standing or walking. Using a mirror, s/he
helps you see and sense how your movement style relates to
your problem. There are two aspects to an Alexander lesson:
- Table
work - While you lie clothed on a bodywork table
and settle into restful state, the teacher gently moves
your head and limbs, encouraging expansion. S/he guides
you with a unique, informative touch that does not
intrude or manipulate, but suggests soothing release
and an enlivened kinesthetic sense.
- Guidance
during activity - While you perform ordinary movements,
the teacher gives you verbal, visual and conceptual
cues to help you sit, stand, walk or reach more comfortably.
You consider activities you would like to enhance,
such as public speaking, lifting and carrying, computer
work, practicing yoga or a martial art, playing your
favorite sport or even sleeping comfortably. Performers
can choose to work on a monologue, an aria or a dance
movement. If you would like to refine a specialized
activity - such as how you swing a tennis racket,
lift a child or play an instrument - the teacher can
help you reduce compression and increase overall physical
support as you do it.
How
can an Alexander Technique teacher help me?
Your Alexander
Technique teacher offers personally tailored instruction with a unique hands-on
approach, helping you see what in your individual movement style contributes
to your recurring problem. As he or she helps you to release muscular tension
and restore your body's original poise, you learn to sit, stand and move
with safety, balance and ease. Your teacher can point out the source of your
problem. With anatomical pictures s/he helps you to better understand the
body's functioning. S/he considers your entire body not just segments and
looks at you as the dynamic creature you are.
Who
can benefit from learning the Alexander Technique?
- Computer users -
In the current epidemic of repetitive strain injury, carpal tunnel syndrome,
chronic back pain, headaches and stress related disorders, many computer
users suffer. While ergonomic design can improve the work station chair
design, monitor and keyboard placement the Alexander Technique
enables you to use your own body's design, even when the work station
is not ideal. By understanding the Technique's basic alphabet of movement,
you can avoid injury and often relieve the agonizing symptoms associated
with computer use.
Your Alexander Technique teacher guides you to:
- sit upright
without strain
- prevent spinal
compression and muscular tension in the neck, shoulders and
upper back.
- encourage
freer range of motion in the joints and muscles
- tap the keyboard
and mouse lightly to reduce stress on the wrist and carpal tunnel
- attune to
your body's signals, heed early warning stress signs and
ward off pain before it escalates
- breathe properly to
prevent fatigue and soothe the nervous system
- restore balance
in your back - during and after work - each day
- Singers, dancers,
actors and musicians - Performing artists study the Technique to
reduce performance anxiety, lessen the likelihood of injury and enhance
stage presence. The Alexander Technique gives them sharp focus, a highly
refined sensory awareness, efficient use of their energy, excellent
balance and coordination and an inner sense of calm.
Some of the renowned actors and musicians who have been using the Alexander
Technique since the beginning of this century are: Julie Andrews, William
Hurt, Jeremy Irons, James Earl Jones, Paul McCartney, Kelley McGillis, Patti
Lupone, Paul Newman, Sting, Maggie Smith, Mary Steenbergen, Robin Williams,
Joanne Woodward, and members of the New York Philharmonic.
- Athletes & fitness
enthusiasts - Though the Technique is a wonderful stress-reducer,
you can also use it during vigorous activities. If you work out, proper
form and degree of muscular tension are just as important as how strenuously
or how often you exercise. By demonstrating principles of efficient
movement, the Alexander teacher offers the fitness enthusiast a way
to prevent injury and gain better results.
Studying the Technique gives you the skills to prevent pain
while you improve breathing, balance and posture. Together,
you and your Alexander teacher
can explore how to solve movement problems and optimize your performance,
adding to your achievement and enjoyment. You can apply the Technique to
any activity tennis, golf, skiing, baseball, horseback riding, basketball,
etc.
- Pregnant women -
The Alexander Technique has much to offer women before, during and after
childbirth.
- Before pregnancy,
you can use the Technique to unlearn harmful postural habits while
improving balance and coordination. This enables you to manage
your body during the changes pregnancy brings.
- During pregnancy,
the Alexander teacher can help eliminate lower back pain caused
by increased weight in front of the body. The baby's growth limits
the mother's internal space and her organs become compressed. This
can result in digestive problems and shortness of breath. Use of
the Alexander Technique will allow more internal space for both
mother and baby. With more breath and mobility, the mother can
stay active. To help the mother prepare for labor and delivery,
Alexander Technique lessons coordinate breathing and strengthen
pelvic muscles.
- During childbirth,
the Alexander Technique can help the mother manage the physical
challenges.
- After childbirth,
a mother can continue to use the Technique to help focus on her
own self care while nourishing and caring for her child. Both parents
can learn how to manage the constant lifting and carrying that
come with parenthood.
How
did the Alexander Technique begin?
The Alexander Technique was developed by F.M. Alexander (1869-1955). As a young
Australian actor, he suffered from a vocal problem that interrupted his burgeoning
career as a Shakespearean actor. Frustrated by this limitation, he studied
his own movement for the cause of his problem. Through a long process of self-observation
and experiment, he evolved a way to restore full use of his voice. In exploring
how to help himself and others, he discovered the crucial importance of the
relationship between the head, neck and spine. He named this relationship the
primary control because he perceived it as primary in controlling posture,
breath and movement. He developed a way to teach people how to elicit the
primary control in their daily lives.
What
are the Alexander Technique's basic ideas?
Though your body is much more elaborate and subtle than any machine,
you can understand the Alexander Technique's basic ideas by comparing
it to driving
a car. You use the mirrors (awareness), the brake (inhibition) and the gas
(direction). As you develop each of these skills and learn to use them all
together, you gain access to your body's power steering the primary
control. Just as you don't have to focus on every detail of a car's operation,
you learn about your body's capacity to respond and coordinate each of its
systems to work together, as an integrated whole.
- Primary control -
The primary control is the relationship between the head, neck and spine.
The quality of that relationship compressed or free determines
the quality of our overall movement and functioning. When the neck is
not overworking, the head balances lightly atop the spine, the torso
expands and breath comes more easily. We restore the efficacy of the
postural reflex a natural, dynamic force that counters gravity
and easily guides the torso upward. You elicit your body's primary control
by developing three interlocking skills:
- Awareness -
Many people don't realize the source of their limitation, aches or chronic
pain. You acquire a powerful tool when you refine awareness of your habitual
tendencies, observe how you operate moment to moment and understand how
your body works best.
- Inhibition -
Though we often tend to think we're not doing enough, Alexander found
that our habits of tension and compression interfere with our body's
ingenious design. By catching ourselves as we move with compression and
reducing excess muscular effort, we can inhibit (or stop) compressive
habits and stress responses. We can actually accomplish more by doing
less.
- Direction -
Each of us has the capacity to visualize movement and mentally guide
the flow of force through the body. Rather than gunning the motor and
muscling our way through an activity, we can use the mind to direct or
envision dynamic expansion while moving. By doing so, the body's
reflexive coordination seems to handle the action by itself, gracefully
and effortlessly.
How
long will it be before I see results?
Each lesson will bring new insights that you can apply immediately , and you
will probably feel the effects of your Alexander Technique work within the
first 6-10 lessons. As you continue and your understanding grows, you will
be able to apply what you've learned to a wider range of activities. Instead
of a quick fix with a fleeting effect, you will experience a gradual change
and long-term results.
How
long should I take lessons to get the full benefit?
Like any skill, it takes practice. A series of 30 lessons, once or twice a
week for three to six months, is the best way for you to learn the Technique.
Does
everyone need the same number of lessons?
The number of lessons you need depends upon your goals, interests and physical
condition. Some students study for 3-5 months, others continue taking lessons
after reaching their initial goals and continue for years. Duration of study
is up to you.
Do
the Alexander Technique's benefits wear off when I stop taking lessons?
Not if you continue to use what you have learned! While taking lessons, you
reclaim your body's natural sense of ease and increase your understanding of
how you function. This practice enables you to take the mind/body process wherever
you go and apply it to anything you do, such as riding a bike, sitting through
a long meeting, playing an instrument, swinging a racket or carrying luggage.
You can continue to build your skills on your own after you stop taking lessons.
Since
F.M. Alexander was not a physician, why should the medical field take
the Alexander Technique seriously?
Because it works! The Alexander Technique is a proven, safe, self care method
to stop pain, muscle tension and stress cause by everyday misuse of the body.
- Endorsed by physicians
and health care professionals - The Alexander Technique is offered
in wellness centers and health education programs. Medical professionals
of every kind recommend the Alexander Technique for chronic back pain,
migraines, repetitive stress injuries, balance and coordination problems
and for the depression and anxiety that often accompanies chronic pain
and stress.
- Endorsed by scientists -
Alexander's findings are supported by behavioral scientists and physiologists
including Nobel laureate Sir Charles Sherrington, Dr. Rudolph Magnus,
G.E Coghill, Frank Pierce Jones and Nikolaus Tinbergen, who noted Alexander's
discoveries in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech.
- An established
record of success - Clinical studies have shown that the Technique
modifies stress responses while improving breathing capacity and posture.
In a 1988 study of chronic pain sufferers, the Alexander Technique
was chosen as patients' preferred method of reducing pain.
Is
the Alexander Technique just another health fad?
Now over 100 years old, the Alexander Technique has a long track record of
helping people with back problems, chronic pain and tension, posture and movement
disorders, asthma, migraines and whiplash. As its wide applications are understood
and its successes continue to multiply, the reputation of the Technique is
growing. Today there are about 2500 teachers worldwide, with about 700 in the
United States.
What
are Alexander Technique teachers like?
Many have come from the performing arts, such as dance, theater or music. Some
are physical therapists, massage therapists or teachers in another field.
What
training is required to be an Alexander Technique teacher?
AmSAT-certified
Alexander Technique teachers must complete 1,600 hours of training over a
minimum of three years in an AmSAT-approved training program. To assure
quality instruction, each Alexander Teaching Training Program maintains a
five-to-one
student/teacher ratio.
Alexander teachers must
practice what they teach: the ability to integrate and streamline their
own movement while guiding their clients toward improved functioning. They
acquire this ability from expert mentors through long hours of intense,
focused hands-on training.
Alexander practitioners
are trained in careful visual observation to spot the source of movement
problems. They are schooled in teaching skills that encourage learning
in a non-judgmental, supportive atmosphere. And they are trained in the
unique Alexander touch, a complex combination of kinesthetic receptivity
and the subtle suggestion of expansion and lightness in movement. Additional
studies include anatomy, study of F.M. Alexander's theoretical writings,
literature and research by Alexander scholars and those in related fields.
What
is AmSAT?
The American Society of the Alexander Technique is the largest professional
association of certified Alexander Technique teachers in the United States.
Its mission is to maintain the integrity of the Alexander Technique as developed
by F.M. Alexander (1869-1955). AmSAT maintains the nation's highest standards
for teacher training, certification and membership and maintains affiliations
with similar credentialing bodies worldwide. Since its formation in 1987,
over 600 teachers have completed a rigorous training process to earn AmSAT
certification.
© 1997 Joan Arnold
by Joan
Arnold (joanarn@aol.com) & Hope Gillerman (hopeg@bway.net)
Certified Teachers of the Alexander Technique
with Terry Zimmerer