What Can I expect in an In-person alexander technique lesson?
Through a combination of gentle touch and verbal instruction, the teacher will guide you through basic activities, such as sitting and standing, lying down, and walking. Later the teacher may help you integrate these simple activities into the more complex series of movements which define your everyday life (typing, writing, speaking, lifting, playing your instrument, playing sports, etc.)
During your first Alexander Technique lesson, your teacher will be observing your posture and habits of movement. In order to facilitate this, you may be asked to perform some simple movements while she places her hands in easy contact with your body. The hands serve both to gather kinaesthetic information about your movements as well as to communicate directions for improving your pattern of body use.
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What can I expect in a lesson online?
We offer group and individual sessions via Zoom, Skype, and FaceTime. Just like in a hands-on lesson, lessons online will give you an understanding of the Alexander Technique, and provide tools to tackle your habits in everyday life. We use the Primal Alexander Method as popularized by Mio Morales. Book a trial lesson and experience for yourself.
Teacher
Leigh Michelow
MM, MM, BM, BA, ATVD Certified Teacher of the Alexander Technique, I studied classical voice at the Eastman School in New York, and then at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. After many years struggling with chronic back pain and anxiety, a performing career seemed out of reach until a colleague introduced me to the Alexander Technique.
I teach because I want my clients to experience the relief, renewed joy, as well as sense of peace and control that the Alexander Technique has given me.
Who Was F.M. Alexander?
When actor F.M. Alexander began having serious difficulties with his speaking voice in 1898, there was little that doctors of the time could do to help him.
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And so, when Alexander was offered the biggest break of his acting career, he hesitated to accept the job, worrying that his voice would not withstand the pressures of performance. A prominent specialist instructed him to remain totally silent for six weeks, promising that by the time his performance arrived, he would have his voice back.
At the end of six weeks of silence, Alexander's voice had in fact
returned; yet within an hour of being on stage, it had gone again.
Alexander returned to the specialist and asked, "Would it be fair to say from this experience, that it is actually something that I am doing which is causing my trouble?"
"Yes, that's fair," said the doctor, "but I'm afraid I don't know how to help you stop doing it!"
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And so began Alexander's search for a technique which would allow him to change the bad habits which were causing his pain and dysfunction. The method he developed is what we know today as the Alexander Technique.
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Most people find the idea encouraging that it is something they are doing that is the underlying cause of their symptoms. If this is so, then it also means that it lies within our power to change our habits. Instead of addressing the human being in isolated parts – a pain in the knee, an anxiety disorder, etc. – the Alexander Technique aims to address the underlying cause of our symptoms in bringing to our awareness the harmful patterns of tension underlying our daily activities and developing a method to change them. The result is increased freedom in our ability to choose how we respond to the stimuli of our environment and a capacity to apply the Technique to prevent harmful patterns of tension in all our activities, creating a state of balance and poise. Through cultivating this freedom in choosing how to respond to the various stimuli of life, many students find their mood and outlook on life significantly changed.
