The Alexander Way…learning is a joyous adventure…

March 25, 2010 (PhysOrg.com)

A researcher from the University of the West of England is looking into the use of the Alexander Technique (AT) as a teaching method to help people with chronic back pain and to explore the role of a specific service in an NHS pain clinic.

UWE researcher Dr Stuart McClean will be working in collaboration with Dr Lesley Wye from the University of Bristol, health practitioners at St Michaels Hospital and STAT Alexander Technique teachers. Stuart explains that “The Alexander Technique uses hands-on to achieve greater ease and poise by removing unhelpful habits that get in the way of simple activities such as sitting, standing and walking. It is all about self management and awareness.”

He said, “Alexander Technique teaches people first to pause and to realise that there are conscious choices in everyday activities such as raising a hand, talking, using a computer, or playing a musical instrument.

“Alexander Technique requires significant effort on the part of the patient, which the AT teacher calls the ’student’. For this reason the long term impact can be very positive. Once the technique is learned the ’student’ can use and practice the technique themselves, emphasising self management so that the effects may last after any formal treatment.

The University of Bristol and University of Southampton carried out a randomised controlled trial, published in the BMJ, and found AT was both clinically and cost effective for the treatment of back pain in primary care. This research builds on that study, as the researchers are looking at what happens when AT is introduced into a hospital pain clinic.

A participant in the trial, Ann Downton, 67, said, “I suffered from arthritis in the spine. I began to feel the benefits after four or five lessons. If you want something other than tablets to help back pain it can be expensive. Alexander Technique should be available on the NHS.”

Dr Peter Brook, the lead consultant at St. Michael’s Pain Clinic in Bristol, said, “I was very interested to read the BMJ study on back pain. The results are very encouraging and something that should be further evaluated to ascertain its value in chronic back pain. The general ethos of the Pain Management Service at University Hospitals Bristol is to encourage a self management approach to long term conditions. If lessons in the Alexander Technique can contribute to this it will be a useful addition to our range of treatment options.”

If the study demonstrates that the AT service is feasible, acceptable, cost-neutral and beneficial to service users the AT teachers will seek longer term funding to extend the service. The findings will also be disseminated widely within the local Primary Care Trust and nationally at conferences. Stuart McClean concludes, “This is a scoping study but it could have a significant impact if AT is seen to demonstrate clear benefits to the service users as well as the NHS. The results will be widely published and used to inform future decisions surrounding pain management.”

Provided by University of the West of England

By Christie Johnson
Over 80% of women report back pain in pregnancy. Trying to balance the added weight of the growing baby can take its toll both physically in sitting, squatting and even climbing stairs, as well as emotionally as hormones shift. During delivery there is the challenge of maintaining calm amidst contractions. Then, after delivery there is the awkwardness of carrying baby, the car seat, the diaper bag and possibly groceries all in one load. How does one maintain balance and prevent injury through all of this? The Alexander Technique(AT) has been a valuable resource for mitigating these challenges.

A century old method, AT teaches movement efficiency. Pregnant women have found it extremely helpful in learning how to reduce stress and impact on the body. As the baby grows, there is a tendency for many women to accommodate the extra forward weight by leaning back. This can create lower back pain and sciatica. AT teaches Mom how to make the best use of the internal torso space to provide for better breathing, improve digestion and thus increase her energy.

During delivery AT promotes better balance, breath, coordination and support. Women learn how the pelvic floor is designed to release. Most importantly, they learn to focus on their body’s natural rhythms during the birthing process and find more resources within each moment versus thinking of just the end result of the birth.

Parents have found tremendous comfort in learning how to move more naturally with less tension using AT. Parents also learn to respond in an easier way to stimuli. This is especially useful in dealing with late night feedings, bathing, dressing, carrying and playing with babies.

Pregnancy and parenting require an immense amount of energy. The Alexander Technique helps redirect excess efforts into more resourceful energy allowing for better balance for all.

Article Courtesy of Healthy Times Newspaper Archives

Alexander Technique as a treatment for mental illness

re-printed from Times Online UK,   written by Naomi Shragai

In our culture today the connection between physical and emotional problems is gaining currency. Surprisingly, the best answer to coping with the stresses of life is by using a hands-on approach that straightens the body. This technique can help in balancing moods, changing behavioural patterns and managing life’s challenges.

To most people the Alexander Technique is a method of improving posture or relieving backache. However, the emotional and psychological benefits have convinced many to continue lessons long after their aches and pains have disappeared. Hilary, a 38-year-old barrister from North London, gained enormous psychological benefits from having lessons in the technique.

Her psychiatrist had referred her to me after a two-week admission at The Priory Hospital for a psychotic, manic episode. Therapy and medication had had minimal impact on her subsequent depression, and both she and her psychiatrist were willing to try anything that might help. When I first met Hilary, who is married with a four-year-old son, her depression was so severe that she could not even engage in a 50-minute therapy session. Instead, I suggested three Alexander Technique lessons a week until her mood stabilised.

Hilary says she was suffering extreme depression at the time. “I was completely non-functional,” she recalls. “My son, Peter, was three months old and I had to leave him with a full-time nanny to look after him. I wasn’t doing anything except trying not to kill myself.”

The effects of the technique in balancing her mood and helping her to think rationally were powerful. “Before, I had ten years of antidepressants and therapy to some effect, bringing some stability. Using the Alexander Technique helped me to achieve a degree of healing that wasn’t possible with just talk therapy and pills. For me, the technique became a lifeline. I felt calmer from the first lesson.”

The Alexander technique is a way of re-educating the body towards balance and alignment. In individual lessons, a qualified teacher helps the student to recognise faulty muscular use and poor posture through gentle touch and guidance (see panel, facing page). There is an emphasis on lengthening and widening the back, and freeing the spine to achieve a more co-ordinated movement.

With the aid of the teacher’s hands, the student learns to release and lengthen muscles that have been shortened over time because of stress and misuse. But how can stopping unnecessary muscular tension heal emotional wounds? Unconscious experiences, such as unhealed traumas, unexpressed feelings and painful memories can be pushed into the body where they are not free to be dealt with in the mind. These tensions might turn into physical symptoms and ailments, but can also lead to mental illness, such as depression and anxiety.

Frederick Alexander, the founder of the technique, taught that how we use our bodies has an extraordinary effect on our ability to accurately perceive the world around us, as well as our emotional and physical health.

“I had been holding fear in my muscles” Hilary says the technique helped her to cope with emotional scars from her childhood. “One experience I had is that I would just let the fear out of my body. I would lie on the treatment table and I would just let it flow out. I had been holding it in my muscles. So, with lessons over time, the world seemed like a less scary place. I had less fear. I look back now and realise that this fear made me perceive anything anyone did to me as a threat. As a result, I was basically confrontational all the time, with everyone.

“Of course, at the time I couldn’t see it. As my balance improved, my perceptions softened and with less fear came less confrontation. I was better able to connect with reality.

“With balance in your body, you feel less vulnerable, more able to cope. A good example of that is my son’s crying. When I started Alexander lessons, Peter’s crying was the sound of m failure as a mother. It was heartbreaking to me. Obviously, a child’s crying is not that, but I had made it all about me, using it to condemn myself. With the Alexander Technique I was able to reassess the situation – it’s just the sound of a baby’s crying. It didn’t pierce my heart. A feeling of stability replaced the fear and self-loathing.”

For Hilary, the physical space gained in lessons in lengthening and widening the body translates to a mental space available for thinking and reflecting.

Another Alexander Technique student, Sally, a 50-year-old mother of two and a theatrical agent from Central London, initially came to see me for psychotherapy for family problems. Further into the therapy we agreed that it might be beneficial to use the technique. Sally says: “Whatever is thrown at me now, my spine supports me. I feel that I can hold myself physically and emotionally. I no longer see my brain in my head, I see my mind and body completely co-ordinated. I’m much more balanced, more selective in what I say.

“I used to rescue everybody. That was my role in life. That was the norm. I’d get up in the morning and I’d rescue people. The armour was on and I went into battle because that was the only thing I knew. It’s very different now. I’m looking after myself, I think I’ve come out of it much more selfish. What I didn’t know was that if you look after yourself, you’re going to be so much better with other people.”

Anne, 39, a single woman from North London, had attended psychotherapy sessions for nearly seven years for depression. Although the insight she gained was essential for her to make sense of her life, she felt frustrated when her depression recurred at stressful times.

“For me, the Alexander Technique was more helpful for depression than therapy,” she says. “With good posture and balance you are more able to withstand the physical and emotional knocks that life throws at you. A feeling of a lightness and ease in standing and sitting replaces the sense of being held together by tension and fragmented body parts. With lessons, my body started to feel less fragmented, more cohesive, and with that cohesion came a new clarity of thought.”

These three women had psychotherapy sessions alongside the technique, but all benefited from their improved body use. It helped them to translate the insights gained in psychotherapy into changed behaviour.

Another student, Tim, 52, a single professional man from South London, who also suffered depression, says the technique even helped him to contain suicidal thoughts. He describes how lessons left him with a heightened sensitivity to feelings, as well as a greater capacity to hold and think about these rather than being overwhelmed by them. He says: “You feel yourself getting into gear, but you don’t actually end up driving.” Making the neurological connection Missy Vineyard, who runs a training course for Alexander Technique teachers in Massachusetts and is the author of the book How You Stand, How You Move, How You Live, describes the lessons as learning how to consciously stop unwanted behaviour at a neurological level. She believes that the technique teaches conscious inhibition by activating the pre-frontal cortex, the area of the brain responsible for impulse control.

Lucy Brown is a professor of neurology and neuroscience at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York and a student of the Alexander Technique. She is committed to understanding the technique’s neurological and psychological links.

According to Professor Brown, studies suggest that the technique activates those parts of the brain involved with cognition, learning and emotions. She says: “It is reasonable to speculate that areas of the pre-frontal cortex would be activated under the circumstances of a lesson and long-term learning from the technique.” While further research is needed to establish exactly how the technique produces these benefits, people’s experiences speak for themselves.

Students of the Alexander Technique will confirm that the mind is not just located in the brain, but in the muscles, cells and organs throughout the body. The writer and novelist Aldous Huxley, a student of Frederick Alexander’s, knew these truths all too well. In writing about Alexander’s work, he said: “If you teach an individual first to be aware of his physical organism and then to use it as it was meant to be used, you can often change his entire attitude to life and cure his neurotic tendencies.”

(The names of the students have been changed.)

THE LOWDOWN

What is it? The Alexander Technique was developed by the actor Frederick Mathias Alexander around 1900. He believed that correct alignment of the head, neck and spine would alleviate back pain, breathing disorders and stress-related conditions. He claimed the technique frees the neck of muscular tension. It also allows the head to move forward so that it balances lightly at the top of the spine, which encourages the back to lengthen and widen, giving the body freer movement.

Suitable for Treating neck and back pain, poor posture, migraines and arthritis. It is increasingly accepted as useful for treating chronic problems such as arthritis, Parkinson’s disease. What little good-quality research there is suggests that there could be some merit for these claims.

author: Naomi Shragai is a psychotherapist and teacher of the Alexander Technique in North London. She is a member of the UK Council for Psychotherapy, the Association of Family Therapy and the Society of Teachers of the Alexander Technique

Tags: alexander technique, boston, boston healing tao, chi kung, consciousness, posture, USA

Jamee Culbertson

Healing Tao and Alexander Technique Instructor

Winter 2010 Schedule:

Hello friends,

The following is my Winter 2010 schedule offering Alexander Technique lessons and workshops:

Where? Winchester and Concord Massachusetts

Private Lessons (All lessons are by appointment only.)

When?
Thursdays and Tuesdays in Winchester, MA
Fridays from 2pm to 8pm in Concord, MA

How Much? Private lesson? Semi-private? Call me for my rates. 617-290-7102

On the Web:

*Note* the Back Pain Study published in the British Medical Journal:

This study stated that 579 patients with chronic or recurrent low back pain were treated with either Alexander Technique lessons, exercise or massage. 144 of them had 6 Alexander Technique lessons and 144 of them had 24 lessons.  Results  The results showed that lessons in the Alexander Technique reported the number of days with back pain was lower after lessons and the quality of life improved significantly. Lessons in the Alexander Technique remained effective one year later as well.  Conclusion: One to one lessons in the Alexander Technique from a certified teacher have long term benefits for patients with chronic back pain.

For more info About Jamee please click here

Watch some videos on the Alexander Technique on Jamee’s YouTube channel.

Here is one for example:
The Alexander Technique in the Corporate Atmosphere

Other videos:

The Alexander Technique in Tai Chi and Gardening

The Alexander Technique and Playing Piano

The Alexander Technique at Music School

Follow Jamee on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jameec

and on Facebook: www.facebook.com/jamee.culbertson

Tags: alexander technique, boston, boston healing tao, chi kung, consciousness, iron shirt chi kung, posture, USA

PA Photos

She’s been wearing towering stilettos her whole life – but Victoria Beckham fears her love of lavish footwear may leave her with a hunchback look as she gets older.

Instead of ditching the heels in favour of a nice pair of flatties, however, Victoria has turned to the Alexander Technique, a famous regime which can help strengthen core muscles and re-align the spine.

Friends in LA recommended Victoria try the Alexander Technique after recent upset about her photos displaying a round-shouldered look.

A source explained, ‘Victoria has been working hard on getting a straight back and correcting her terrible posture‘.

It seems years of bad postural habits have ‘caused her bones to be improperly aligned, with her muscles, joints and ligaments taking more stress than they should’.

The regime appears to be doing the trick. Said the source, ‘You can tell that something is working as the years of Victoria’s shoulders being slumped are now over‘.

Many actors and dancers practice the correction regime in an attempt to improve movement and eliminate bad postural habits, which can be picked up over the years.

Actress Juliet Stevenson hailed the method as ‘miraculous‘ while novelist Aldous Huxley claimed it cured him of ‘neurotic tendencies‘.

Even Lenny Henry and Anthea Turner have had practitioner courses in the technique, which is said to drain stress and tension from the muscles, ease back pain and improve breathing problems. It also boosts physical endurance and flexibility, with claims it can improve women’s fertility.

Victoria, who is already said to be ‘walking straighter,’ is hoping for a double whammy of results for her twice-daily, post-gym efforts.

The designer also suffers problems with her feet. Recent reports say the workaholic mum-of-three refused a painful-sounding bunionectomy operation because the medical procedure would have left her out-of-action for weeks.

Re-printed from marieclaire.co.uk

Tags: alexander technique, boston, chi kung, consciousness, posture, USA

Upcoming Alexander Technique

and Related Workshops

Introductory Workshop for the American Guild of Organists

When: Sunday, November 15 from 2-4 PM

Where: First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church, 2 Westford Street, Chelmsford MA.

The Posture of Consciousness:
The Alexander Technique and Iron Shirt Chi Kung ~learn More
~learn more > click here for AT and  > here for IS

Instructors: Jamee Culbertson and Marie Favorito

When: Saturday, December 5th  9:30am to Noon

Where: 440 Somerville Avenue, Somerville, MA

Fee: $80.00

6 Healing Sounds and the Phoenix Chi Kung ~learn more
Instructors: Marie Favorito and Jamee Culbertson

When: Saturday, December 12th  9:30am to Noon

Where: 440 Somerville Avenue, Somerville, MA

Fee: $80.00

Tags: alexander technique, boston, boston healing tao, chi kung, consciousness, iron shirt chi kung, posture, USA

While the Alexander Technique is more often misunderstood as a means to improve posture it is actually much deeper then that. Yes, one’s posture will often improve but that is a result of learning the technique. This technique addresses the ‘Self’.  Who is the one standing anyway?  There is more information on that in other articles on this blog. Take a look around and enjoy.  Your comments are welcome!  In the meantime here is a short list of experiences that people often have after having some lessons:

People can expect to feel:

Taller
Lighter
Grounded
Liberated
Connected
A sense of relationship

Improvements are noted in:

Coordination
Eyesight
Listening ability
High blood Pressure
Posture
Voice resonance
Breathing
Depth of sleep
Overall cheerfulness
Mental alertness
Resilience against outside pressures
Refined skills in the playing of a musical instrument

People can expect to:

-Have verbal and sensitive hands-on guidance
-Feel supported towards desired changes in patterns of movement and perception
-Experience the indivisible nature of mind and body
-Learn skills to reduce physical, emotional, and mental tension and fatigue, whether carried over from the past or over concerns for the future
-Have ‘experiential learning’ and understanding
-Experience a new inner pacing

From the ATI website:

Olympic level athletes have similarly used the Technique to improve their performance as have leading golfers and business people. Medical studies have shown the Technique to be as effective in lowering blood pressure as the normally prescribed beta-blocking drugs. Other studies have shown significant improvement in respiratory function.

The common factor in all these aspects of life is that how we are using ourselves – the way we do things – affects the results we get. The Alexander Technique is a means of improving that use. It has been called a “pre-technique” which people can apply to furthering their own special skills and activities.. It is also essentially a preventative technique with which we can learn to improve and maintain our health.

The individual is the focus of the Alexander Technique. We are all unique, with different bodies, different experiences and different problems. We go about the process of change in different ways and at different rates. For these reasons what happens in a lesson depends very much on the needs of the student at the time. But basically you will learn an attitude of not trying to gain your ends at any cost and at the same time how to prevent your present harmful habits that cause unnecessary stress and restrict your capabilities.

Obviously, since what you are changing are patterns built up over many years, a permanent change will not be brought about overnight. However, the person who learns to stop and take time, to think constructively about how he/she uses him/herself in everyday life will find that this simple procedure can have far reaching results.

Although the Alexander Technique has therapeutic value, the effects are not brought about by treatment or manipulation.  Your own learning process will bring about an increased awareness of the freedom to change. Further information about the Alexander Technique is best gained from a teacher near you as your changing experiences through lessons are the only real way to understand what is possible.

Tags: alexander technique, boston MA, consciousness, ease, posture

written by Jamee Culbertson, Dan Arsenault and David Arsenault

(Editor’s note: Contributions to this story come from three authors. In order to spare some confusion, the names of the authors are used prior to each paragraph.)

(Dan): The irony is not lost on me. When I got the phone call from my sister-in-law Laurie that my brother David had been in a bad car accident, I was just getting ready for an Alexander Technique lesson with my teacher, Jamee Culbertson. It was the eve of the Thanksgiving holiday, the start of a four-day weekend. I’m sure I was not an apt pupil at that lesson, but, on my way out, Jamee offered to see David as soon as he was well enough.

(David): I had a car accident on November 25, 1998. I broke both my hips and shattered my right kneecap. While I was recovering at home I had a visiting nurse and a physical therapist but it was obvious to those who knew me that I was really uncomfortable, not in any undue pain but my body no longer seemed to fit very well. My brother told me he knew someone who did something called the Alexander Technique, and he thought it might help. I met Jamee two weeks later and began lessons. From the first few minutes it was clear to me that this was helping me a great deal. Like many people who have had massive trauma, I felt deli-cate and tense, as if I was trying to hold myself together by brute force. The lessons have taught me to find the time and to allow myself the room to move freely. Jamee would frequently talk about making some room in the joints and allowing me to find my proper place.

(Jamee): When I first went to see David he was at home in a hospital bed recovering from his injuries. I wanted to approach him easily and gently at first without much overt movement until I found out what his limitations were. He had had surgery on both hips and his right knee and there remained a consid-erable amount of hardware inside keeping him together to aid in the healing process. He suffered temporary nerve damage in his left leg, which left him unable to flex his foot very far. While we were saying our hellos, I assessed just how I wanted to approach working with him in the most cooperative way. The head of the bed was up against the wall so I couldn’t put my hands directly on his head and neck right away. There were movable brackets on both sides of the bed but it seemed the most unobtrusive to begin at his feet. I pulled up a chair and began at his left side making contact with David through his feet. There was no inter- ference in David’s ability to access his postural reflex, what F.M. Alexander calls the primary control, “…that which governs the working of all the mechanisms and so renders the control of the complex human organism comparatively simple…it depends upon a certain use of the head and neck in relation to the use of the rest of the body…” (quoted from The Use Of the Self, pp. 59-60). The Primary Control is a first and primary movement that allows for a freedom of movement throughout. Head-neck reflexes are the central mechanism that orients us to our environment. It is “…the primary relation upon which all more ultimate relations depend.” (Frank Jones, Body Awareness in Action pp. 60). David first noticed a lengthening along his left side as a sigh of relief came over him. He moved to stretch a bit and discovered that he could flex his foot farther than he could before.

(Dan): After passing the life or death stage there is a natural tendency to rely on the wisdom of the medical professionals. While I knew what benefit David could derive from Alexander lessons, I’m sure David would have been highly circumspect about doing anything that his medical team did not know about and approve. The key here was an enlightened physical therapist.

(David): I told my physical therapist what I was learning at the lessons and she approved heartily. She had heard of the Technique and knew it to be beneficial. She thought that in conjunction with doing the prescribed exercises the Technique would allow me to use myself
to my best advantage and allow my recovery to proceed faster.

(Jamee): David was finding a great deal of relief in the lessons. The first report was more mobility with his left foot, a decrease in his pain medication and finally, a good night’s sleep! David has a growing understanding of what Alexander called “Inhibition,” an awareness of indirect action, a decision to cease giving permission to habitual unconscious reactions. “In the presence of a stimulus to move, inhibition facilitates lengthening of the spine and adds to the efficiency of the movement. Too quick a response will shorten muscles in the neck and prevent the lengthening of the spine.” (Frank Jones Body Awareness in Action pp. 149.) Inhibition has allowed David to learn to bring conscious choice into his response to the stimulus created by his desires. At first we worked with his reaction to the pain he was experiencing so that his reaction to the pain would not make his overall experience worse. “The Alexander Technique is the only method of improving human use and functioning which teaches an indirect method of consciously preventing interference with one’s best use and functioning and is the only method where its teachers consciously use these principles at the same time they are teaching the Technique to others.” (Quoted from the ATI Professional Development Committee report on the ATI web site, www.ati-net.com.)

(David): Around Christmas I was allowed to stand, and at the end of January I began to learn how to walk again. The Technique was very helpful in these early stages. In the beginning walking was very awkward. My legs did not feel as if they belonged to me and would obey very few commands. I had a walker at first and crutches a week later, but even in this sort of condition the Technique helped. I needed to be conscious all the time of my position and how I wanted to move. Jamee and I discussed the rare opportunity that presented itself in learning how to walk almost from the very start but with an adult sensibility and the Technique to apply. It was mid-March when I traded in my crutches for canes. We kept doing lessons all along and by the time I could stand a little straighter on my canes I was ready to do so. Although most of my lesson happens with me reclined we always focus on the kinetic aspects of the Technique and as I became more kinetic it helped more and more. This last week I have been able to discard my last cane, I had been walking with one cane for the last month. At all these stages there has been improvement in my posture and in the way I use my hips to move. As I learn to control my muscles again and as the strength comes back into them it becomes ever more important to apply the things I have learned. I get both lazy and occasionally stupid and forget to apply what I know, but fortunately there is a price to be paid almost immediately so I tend to remember more often.
I am about half way through my recovery now, but I hope I am only starting to learn the Alexander Technique. As I continue to grow stronger and better I hope to apply what I learn to improve how I use my body. I am an amateur actor so I hope to be able to apply some of the Technique to my work on stage. I am in a fall production so we shall see how well I have learned. There are so many things to try to remember when one is on stage that the Technique will have to be well ingrained. I am also a piledriver and I hope to get back to work around Thanksgiving if the doctor gives the O.K. This will be the real test for me. The type of construction work I do can be very demanding, but I feel certain that I will be able to do it again.
I am waiting somewhat impatiently to see how the Technique will affect the way I per-form both on stage and at work, but also how it will be when I really am recovered. I hope that I can learn to do things wholly and with better focus so I can enjoy the act in each case for itself. We shall see.

(Dan): It goes without saying that David’s trauma was not his alone. His wife, Laurie has, understandably, had a lot to deal with over the last several months. From bedpans to ‘helpful’ relatives, from finances to somehow finding the strength to continue. Laurie has also been taking Alexander lessons with Jamee. It has been of equal benefit to her, I believe, although in a much different way. Laurie, I think, sees the Technique as a treat for her body and soul. She typically can’t wait for her next lesson.

(Jamee): During Laurie’s first lesson she said with tears in her eyes, “This is the first deep breath I’ve had in weeks!”
They continue to be apt students and are making their way through this challenging time together.

Jamee Culbertson is a Practitioner of the Alexander Technique, Certified by Alexander Technique International.  She is past Chair of Alexander Technique International, (ATI). Jamee has a private practice in Concord, Massachusetts and teaches throughout the United States and Canada. You can reach her by email: : atlessons@verizon.net or by phone: 617-290-7102

Tags: Add new tag, alexander technique, boston, boston MA, car accident, consciousness, ease, hospital, posture

written by Andrea M. Matthews
Alexander Technique Teacher and member of Alexander Technique International

“Most of us, including members of the medical and educational professions, tend to look on pain and illness as natural concomitants of the stresses of living and old age.  But such stresses are caused by uncoordinated movements which accelerate the process of ageing.”

This simple but seemingly radical idea is at the heart of what the Alexander Technique offers.  In our culture, we are constantly told that age and gravity work against us, grinding us inevitably down into decrepitude and immobility.  This scenario is based on a misreading of how we are constructed to process gravity.  Rather than compressing ourselves by our own weight into the earth like a column, we are actually ingeniously built to process gravity by means of reflexes that in fact suspend us lightly off the planet.  Rather than gravity pulling us down, gravity serves to project us up into life and activity.

Despite these widespread and hampering ideas about age and gravity, older persons are seeking the means to improve their quality of life, to cope with concerns that seem to limit their activities more each day, and to retain their independence and mobility.   By means of a few simple principles, thoughtful and non-strenuous movement, and the development in students of their ability to self-observe and gradually take responsibility for how they choose to move, the Alexander Technique provides a powerful answer.

A great strength of the Technique is its ability to address the whole student as an organic system, avoiding the trap of an unending series of specific “fixes.”    By starting with the reflexive system of the head and neck that F.M. Alexander (who developed the Technique a century ago) termed the “Primary Control,”  the Technique addresses indirectly a host of related issues in well-being and movement.  His empirical discovery that this primary control (a certain dynamic relationship-rather than a fixed position-of the head and neck) controls the balance and coordination of the entire organism was later confirmed by scientific studies of vertebrate movement.

Alexander discovered that from a very young age and continuing through life, most of us learn unwittingly to interfere with our mechanisms of balance, starting by contracting the muscles in the area where our heads rest on our necks.   Because natural balance and coordination are immediately impaired by this interference, a series of “compensations” arises, further distorting coordination.  Instead of being a poised and available system “tuned” by a balanced distribution of tonus and compression throughout, we learn to feel “normal” as a discontinuous collection of some slack and other excessively tensed parts that we must heave around like so many bricks.  It never seems to strike us as peculiar that we even find it harder and harder to get out of a chair!

As time goes by, the imbalance becomes ever more pronounced, and is fed by the very fear of falling that it engenders.   Moving our joints against the forces tending to immobilize them generates tremendous wear and tear, leading to pain and injury.  We realize, without knowing how or why, that we have somehow become stiff, top-heavy, unstable and less able to respond flexibly.  Fear of being injured in a fall ironically makes us tense up more, increasing those qualities that make us unstable.  Balance and falling become major concerns-and often, major limitations.

neck pinched… head pulled back and down…stiffening …cantilevered…top-heavy…out of balance…static…braced

Fig. 1  This person’s head is pulled back and down, interfering with reflexes of balance and coordination, forcing rest of body to compensate with bracing and stiffness, in order to prevent falling forward.   This is only one example of the forms that distorted balance can take, but they all begin with a disruption of the balance of the head on the neck.  Such a posture as this can only work in that position and offers no responsiveness to change of any kind, let alone an unexpected one.  Such vulnerability leads to fear and even more interfering tension.

Restoring Balance

Fortunately, Alexander also discovered that it is possible to interrupt and reverse this unhappy process.    The delicate balance of the head and neck can be consciously restored, imparting balance and flexibility to our movements.   With a slight change in how we think about what we’re doing, we stop contracting our necks and pulling our heads back, the interference with the reflexes of balance ceases, the dynamic relationship of our head and neck restores itself, and our balance and confidence return.

In theory, this simple principle, that we should cease our interfering contractions, hardly seems revolutionary. It doesn’t seem like it should be very hard to put into practice, either. Nor would it be in practice, were it not for this paradoxical obstacle:  Habit.  The very thing we are trying to prevent is what feels “right,” and has become an ingrained habit.  It is often only when we attempt to change such a habit that we realize how shockingly resistant it can be to alteration, because we are constantly seduced by its feeling of rightness.  It seems so natural to strive to be “right.” And so unnatural not to!

For this reason, the benefits of the Alexander Technique are much more easily attained through the help of a teacher who can objectively observe how the student actually moves and uses himself.  Gradually the student also learns to catch how he “gets set” to move and learns to inhibit (to interrupt, not repress) that impulse, allowing the movement to be carried out with natural, unimpeded grace.  The philosopher John Dewey, himself an enthusiastic student and supporter of Alexander, called this skill of using conscious awareness to cooperate rather than interfere with reflex coordination, “Thinking in Activity.”

A Rising Tide

Because Alexander Technique resists the temptation of chasing down and fixing particular “symptoms” such as stiffness, pain, and fear of falling, in favor of addressing the fundamental interference that generates those symptoms, it sets off a wave of indirect benefits of value to all students, and in particular to older students.  Young people tend to have a greater latitude for error and misuse than older persons, and thus can “afford” more excess tension and interference.  Those who are older or suffer from illness have a decreased margin for error and thus need to regain every degree of flexibility possible.  The rising tide of balance and flexibility set off by use of the Technique lifts many “boats.”  The relief of pressure and redistribution of tonus at the head and neck is transmitted throughout the body,

• restoring poise and balance, helping to prevent falls

• increasing flexibility at joints and reducing excessive pull on bones, lessening damage when falls do occur

• helping to regain and maintain mobility

• increasing economy of movement by re-enlisting normal antigravity reflexes of the body, improving stamina and lightness

• promoting ease in activities from the simple and routine, such as rising out of a chair, to the more complex, such as lifting, reaching, golfing, gardening, etc.

As movement becomes less effortful and pressure is taken off joints and organs, the student’s general well-being is enhanced.  She will often experience:

• improved breathing

• improved organ function

• improved digestion and absorption

• lowered blood pressure

It is important to note that in addition to heart problems, high blood pressure is now found to be associated, along with lack of activity, with bone loss.  By reducing blood pressure and making physical activity more pleasurable and manageable, Alexander Technique may also contribute to retention of bone mass.

• improved ability to cope with chronic illness and/or pain

For example, arthritis sufferers benefit from the Technique also because it reduces pressure on joints and promotes activity.  Studies are also being conducted on patients with Parkinson’s disease that indicate improvement in movement and outlook.

The human organism being indivisible in its physical and psychological aspects (its “psychophysical unity,” in Alexander’s words), such apparently bodily improvements immediately manifest as emotional benefits to the person as well.  Improved physical function and balance

• lessen anxiety

• improve mood and sense of well-being

• restore independence and a sense of self-determination

• restore natural coordination, control and choice

• reconnect the individual with a feeling of support both from within and from the environment

A Means for All Seasons

Walter Carrington, a teacher of the Technique who trained with F.M. Alexander, stressed the value of the work for older students in a talk recorded in the book, Thinking Aloud.

I remember what was probably Alexander’s last lesson…an old lady who had been a pupil of his for some years.  She must have had quite a number of lessons, off and on, and she was quite old.  Of course, so was he by then-he being nearly 87.  The relevance of age is that people find that life becomes more difficult in all sorts of small, unexpected respects when they get older.  They never thought or hesitated about climbing stairs and carrying things, or even lifting their hands up to a high shelf.  The physical demands that you have taken for granted do become more difficult as you get older, and that is where you really need all the help you can get.  Alexander help is particularly appreciated here.  In fact, old age really is the testing time from the point of view of the Technique.

So here was this old lady and when F.M. finished the lesson, he patted her on the shoulder and said, “Now, my dear, see that you don’t stiffen your neck, and see that you’ve always got something to look forward to.”  And that was the summary of the whole thing.

The Alexander Technique is not just for young professional athletes or performing artists, though they are often thought of as its primary beneficiaries and historically have been the first to recognize its enormous value.  Ease of movement, confidence in balance, and enthusiasm for life’s activities are our birthright as human beings at any age and it’s never too late to start to reclaim them.

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Somewhere in the early eighties, I started having back pain.  It was usually in my upper back between my shoulder blades on the left side of my spine.  It felt like a pencil was somehow wedged between the vertebrae.  When the pain started initially,  I went to see a chiropractor for many weeks.  Each adjustment would bring some relief, but the pain always returned in a few days.

A couple of years later,  I went to see my physician who found nothing peculiar in the x-ray images of my spine.  He started me on stretching and strengthening exercises which helped a little bit but never removed the pain.  After about 10 years of trying to find relief, I gave up and just accepted the pain for another 10 years.  Most days I would be slightly uncomfortable.  But once or twice a year the pain was really bad and I’d miss work, lie on my back to relieve the pressure, and take ibuprofen.

In August 2008, I read a study that found the Alexander Technique provided long lasting relief.  I had never heard of the Alexander Technique and became very interested.  I searched around on the web and found Jamee Culbertson and called her immediately.

After my first lesson, I had a lot of things to think about.  Jamee helped me become aware of my body’s alignment and muscle usage by using visualizations and body positioning.  I found myself constantly fighting with myself to relax.  That was very odd to me because I’ve always thought of myself as a very relaxed and laid back person.  Jamee was able to read unbelievably subtle clues to identify which muscles I was holding tight and which ones were relaxed.  She taught me to read some of the same clues and make adjustments to how I used my muscles and positioned my body.

During the first lesson, I was following Jamee’s visualizations and relaxing my muscles when my neck popped as if it had been adjusted by a chiropractor, bringing a little bit of relief. After the end of my second lesson, my back pain started to go away but returned quickly.  After the end of my third lesson, I could actively make my back pain go away in a couple of minutes and it would stay that way for hours.  Frequently my neck and back would pop and crack as I would change the way I was standing and holding my muscles.

After about five or six lessons, my pain was gone. Maybe once or twice a week I would notice it trying to resurrect itself, and I was able to dispatch it within minutes.  I was 99% sure I had some physical deformity or injury to my back before I started the Alexander Technique.  Now I would say that I was unconsciously and incorrectly using my muscles which caused that pain for over 20 years.

Now, regardless of the cause, I no longer have the pain.   Thank you Jamee.

Mark Lundberg, Software Engineer

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