About the Alexander Technique

Few people are as well coordinated as they could be. Ingrained habits of tension, poor posture, poor breathing, memories of old problems and unhelpful reactions to stress all interfere with our natural poise and freedom of movement, and tend to aggravate - or even cause - pain, injury, weakness and under-performance.

The Alexander Technique has been helping people to re-establish natural, healthy patterns of movement since its beginnings more than a hundred years ago. It is not a treatment or a therapy, but a way to learn to analyse your own habits of movement and to apply more awareness and skill to everyday situations.

The Alexander Technique is learned in one to one lessons - a bit like having piano lessons or driving lessons - which have been described as "a personalised, moving anatomy lesson" in which guidance is given both verbally and through touch. The hands-on work functions as a powerful catalyst for the student’s innate coordination of breathing and movement and helps to "untangle" postural distortions.

Learning to free ourselves from restrictive habits of tension is powerfully health-giving. Good habits of diet and exercise are well understood in their capacity literally to "change what we are". The long-term effects of good habits of movement and disciplined reaction are less well known, but no less life-changing: you get stronger, you become both more relaxed and more alert, aches and pains fade, you feel calm, confident and self-reliant, you have more stamina, you think more clearly, you recover from injury more quickly, you cope with stress better.