Alexander Technique

The ‘Alexander Technique’ is an approach for the self-prevention of unhelpful or harmful habits that interfere with the mental and physical conditions best suited for the health and functioning of the individual as a whole. Learning to inhibit one’s “too quick and unthinking reactions” and to maintain openness and balance as we go about our daily activities can have wide-ranging benefits. The various teaching methods used to teach the Technique (which include hands-on guidance by the teacher) are also referred to as the Alexander Technique.

The Alexander Technique is usually learned from individual lessons with a teacher using specialized hand contact and verbal instructions. The Technique is also taught in groups, often using short individual lessons which in turn act as examples to the rest of the class.^[1] The Technique takes its name from F. Matthias Alexander, who first observed and formulated its principles between 1890 and 1900.

Benefits

Applications are subjective by nature; many testimonies exist on the Internet. Alexander Technique is regarded to be a helpful adjunct to traditional medical treatment regimens and not as a substitute.

Some regard the Alexander Technique as a first-hand experience of the reality of body/mind unity. Proponents believe that its practice results in improved awareness and descriptive ability, as well as improved ease of movement, improved balance, stamina and less muscular tension. Additionally, those who practice it often report that Alexander Technique gives them an enhanced ability to clarify their thinking, gain objectivity about themselves and free themselves from unintentional self-imposed limitations. Further, proponents see Alexander Technique as a way to use less effort for movement and thus perform more efficiently, feeling younger and moving gracefully.

It is curriculum in performance schools of dance^[4], acting, circus, music, voice and some athletic training^[5]. Suitable for those starting at any fitness level, it is also used as remedial movement education to complete recovery and provide pain management.

Although the Alexander Technique is considered by those in its field to be primarily educational—taught in a student/teacher relationship as compared to being a treatment regimen between client and practitioner—it is regarded by the United Kingdom National Health Service to offer an alternative and complementary management for many medical complaints. A partial list is: back problems, unlearning and avoiding Repetitive Strain Injury, improving ergonomics, stuttering, speech training and voice loss, coping with mobility for those with Parkinson’s disease, posture or balance problems, or to complete recovery from injury as an adjunct to Physical therapy.

Alexander Technique has also been known to help performers with getting past the plateau effect (despite trying, no improvement), performance anxiety, getting beyond a supposed “lack of talent” and to sharpen discrimination and descriptive ability. It has also helped people control unwanted reactions, phobias and depression.

Evidence of change is sought in verifiable outside feedback; using a mirror; by noting, comparing, or describing differences of the relative location of one’s eyes, balance or weight changes; a change in the sound of one’s voice or the effects on one’s objectives, props or environment.

Students often describe the immediate effect of an Alexander lesson as being an unfamiliar feeling of lightness or expansion. During hands-on lessons, most pupils report an immediate result of feeling less weighted down, despite their inability to evoke or sustain this state by themselves. Other reported experiences include altered perception of their voice or environment, noticing a change in self image, or having temporary disorientations of where their body is located spatially.

Gertrude Stein’s brother Leo called the Technique: “the method for keeping your eye on the ball applied to life”.^[6]

The English novelist Aldous Huxley was strongly influenced by F. M. Alexander and the Technique so much so that he included him as a character in the pacifist theme novel Eyeless in Gaza published in 1936. ^[7]

The American philosopher and educator John Dewey was very favorably impressed by F. M. Alexander and the Technique. In 1923, Dewey wrote the introduction to Alexander’s magnum opus Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual.^[8]