Alexander Technique

Frederick Matthias Alexander was a turn of the century Australian actor and orator who had no medical training, but who created the Alexander technique after studying how his own muscles worked. He developed laryngitis, and in an effort help himself, he worked to find a way to keep the muscle tension that he believed to have caused his vocal problems from interfering with speech and other functions. His chief discovery that neck tension can cause spinal compression and a host of other problems led him to develop the Alexander Technique to reduce and eliminate this tension through a hands-on approach.

The guiding principles that F. M. Alexander used to create the Alexander technique revolve around movement, intent and perception. He used mirrors to watch himself speak, then later to watch himself move. And he discovered a discrepancy between what he thought he was doing and the actual movements. This difference between his kinesthetic sense (what he felt) and what he did, led him to further study the connection between the mind and body.

A chief tenet of Alexander's belief was that what you thought directly affected your actions and your actions in turn directly affected your health. He believed that what people thought and did were the things most responsible for illness and poor well-being. The Alexander technique teaches people to become aware of their posture and movements, change them, and in doing so feel relief from pain and general discomfort,and live a healthier life.

The Alexander Technique isn't so much a massage therapy as a re-education of how to move your body, and how to think about movement. It's often used by people who use their hands a great deal during the course of working (including massage therapists!) and those who work for long hours with very little movement. Some people report immediate results when they start learning the technique and applying it, but often the best results come from a few to several months of lessons or study.

Alexander called the habits that we fall into while moving that allow us to perform similar movements again and again without focusing on whether we're moving correctly, “Debauchery of the Senses.” While the name has changed, his principle remains and is commonly referred to by behavioral therapists today as “Sensory Adaption.”

It's this Sensory Adaption and the habitual nature of movement that can make using the Alexander Technique difficult. We don't think about most movements, but do them automatically. But if one decides to move consciously, using the movements learned during study of the Alexander technique, the movements should start to feel fluid and natural.

You'll learn in front of a mirror, with a teacher or trained massage therapist gently guiding the proper movements and teaching you the best way to hold your head, your back, and swing your arms and legs as you walk. Then you can practice the Alexander Technique and reinforce this good behavior as you move while going about normal daily activities.

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