What is the Alexander Technique?
It’s a practical skill relevant to all aspects of human experience: the simple things, like the way we brush teeth or bang in a nail, as well as more complex things, like the skill of playing a musical instrument or how we handle challenges in life.
The Technique evolved by F.M Alexander incorporates knowledge way ahead of Alexander’s time, anticipating the scientific study of the brain and nervous system, as well as the practical application of anatomical knowledge, the mechanics of movement and release of entrenched muscle tension.
Increasing our awareness of the way we move, – and the thought processes involved, helps us to become more comfortable, creative and to enjoy our lives.
The Technique is known for the help it provides musicians, actors and sportspeople, but reducing tension and improving coordination is useful for people from all walks of life.
It is known as an effective technique for improving and managing postural issues and chronic pain, and for offering significant help with various challenges such as pregnancy and childbirth, scoliosis, Parkinson’s, repetitive strain, chronic fatigue, Guillain-Barré syndrome, and many more.
Furthermore, it can play an important supporting role in the recovery from trauma by re-regulating the responses of the nervous system.
Learning the Alexander Technique fosters positive ageing and enables many to defy negative stereotypes about old age.
The Technique can be useful for:
- Identifying and reducing habitual tension
- Matching muscular effort to the task at hand
- Synchronising mind and body in activities
- Becoming more attentive and aware
- Clarifying intentions to cultivate ease in movement
- Understanding living anatomy and mechanics
There are many ways to experience the Technique at ATTSW, from Private Lessons and Voice Work to our Teacher Training Course and Professional Development.
“When you stop doing the wrong thing, the right thing does itself.”
– F.M Alexander.
The Origins of A.T
The Alexander Technique was developed in the late 19th and early 20th century by F.M Alexander.
Alexander was born and grew up in Tasmania. As a young man he began to offer amateur recitals and to pursue an acting career. Before long, he began to lose his voice. He refused to accept that nothing could be done and was determined to discover the cause.
He began by studying himself in mirrors and learning the breathing and vocal techniques of contemporary practitioners. Gradually he developed his own ideas, rejecting and augmenting elements of what he had learned, based on his observations of himself.
The Technique he evolved is both timeless and ahead of his time. His use of anatomical knowledge to develop an appreciation of the mechanics of movement and to enable release of excessive muscle tension is a case in point.
His understanding of the Self as whole or “psychophysical”, and his assertions about the depleting effects of pervasive, fear-based habit seem to have been affirmed by recent scientific research into the brain and nervous system, as well by many of the shifts that have occurred culturally since his death in 1955.
