What is the Alexander Technique?
The Alexander Technique is a practical method for releasing excess tension and improving your coordination in everyday activities such as standing, walking, sitting and speaking.
Alexander Technique lessons can help you
Release unnecessary tension and strain
Alleviate pain and discomfort
Find easier ways of responding to everyday activities, including sitting, standing, walking and deskwork.
Improve your well-being
In 1:1 lessons, you learn to recognise habits that may be interfering with the way you move and function. With gentle hands-on guidance and verbal instructions, you find a way to stop reacting automatically, giving yourself time to think and respond in an easier way.
F. M. Alexander (1869-1955) was a Tasmanian actor and reciter who developed persistent problems with his voice. When medical treatment brought only temporary relief, he began investigating what he was doing while speaking.
He discovered that, in preparing to speak, he habitually tightened his neck and interfered with the natural relationship between his head, neck and back. Through careful observation and experiment, he developed a way of stopping these habitual responses and approaching movement and activity differently.
As his voice improved, he began to recognise the wider implications of his discoveries. He developed a method of re-education that could be applied to the way we move and respond to everyday life.
Alexander described his work in terms of ‘re-education and coordination’.
The Alexander Technique is taught at drama and music schools all over the world.