Alexander at work: His hands guide the pupil towards a balanced relationship between her head, neck and torso.

The Alexander Technique teaches the skill of using the body's structure to move with efficiency and natural buoyancy. It can help prevent injuries, avoid pain and facilitate learning and the creative process.

Most people start their life moving with ease and grace.Yet as we grow older we tend to override our inherent freedom of movement with habits that confine and compress our bodies. Usually we are unaware of them until we experience pain. Common modern afflictions such as back pain, neck tension and headache can be attributed in many cases to poor use of the body. The Alexander technique address the cause of these problems by teaching students to identify harmful habits and change them. It is not a series of treatments or exercises, but rather a set of principals that are used to reeducate the mind and body.

How it works

The body functions with maximum efficiency when all its parts are in dynamic balance with one another. F.M Alexander, founder of the technique, discovered that the key to this balance is the relationship between the head, neck and torso. When the neck is free of tension and the head is poised lightly on top of it, movement is organized by a set of postural reflexes that insure easeful coordination. When the head is pulled down by the neck muscles pressing on the spine, this inherent organization is short-circuited, creating unnecessary tension in the body. It is easier to see how this works in animals; Imagine a horse running, its head continually aiming forward as the spine follows in the direction of the run. To stop the horse, the rider interrupts this natural flow by pulling its head back. Without knowing it, most people regularly pull their head back on their spine, creating a chain of related tensions in the rest of their body.

A teacher of the Alexander Technique looks at how people use their bodies as they move. Doing a simple task as sitting down and getting up, the teacher helps the student experience how to move without undue tension in the neck and back. This typically is accompanied with a sense of lightness and ease. The teacher gives the student tools to bypass habits and access their natural coordination consciously.