The Alexander Technique is a way of becoming more aware of balance, posture and movement in everyday activities. This can bring into consciousness tensions previously unnoticed, and helps us differentiate between necessary and unnecessary (appropriate and inappropriate) tensions and effort.

People take Alexander lessons for a variety of reasons. First, those suffering pain or discomfort from conditions such as bad backs, stiff necks, tension headaches, or asthma may be relieved through re-education. Next performance artists or those concerned with skill development. Regular practice of a difficult or delicate activity may result in habit or tension patterns which produce pain or limit performance. Thus actors, musicians, singers, dancers and sportsmen may benefit from studying the technique. Lastly, those who simply want to relax, take more responsibility for their own well being, increase their awareness, and feel more poised and graceful.

The mechanisms of support and balance (for which ‘poise’ is a useful term) can be seen working beautifully in most small children, but they are very delicate mechanisms and are easily interfered with. The emotional and physical strains accumulated through life can soon become fixed into the body in the form of chronic tensions and patterns of distortion throughout the physical structure. These patterns in turn restrict the workings of the natural postural mechanisms.

The role of the Alexander teacher is to use gentle guidance with the hands to help unravel the distortions and encourage the natural reflexes to work again. In this way a balance can be found between the necessary degree of muscle tone (tension) required to support the body against the downward pull of gravity, and the necessary degree of relaxation to allow unrestricted movement, breathing, circulation and digestion.

Along with manual guidance, the Alexander teacher also uses verbal instruction to help the students become conscious of their own patterns of interference and teaches them to project simple messages from the brain to the body that will help the natural mechanisms of poise to function more freely. It is for this reason that we call our work re-education and describe ourselves as teachers.

Liz Jeannet is a member of the Society of Teachers of Alexander Technique. She has been teaching the technique since 1986, and has a special interest in working with back pain. She works from Harley St, and also from Ivinghoe, Bucks, in a practice she shares with her partner John Kinski, sports medicine specialist. www.ivinghoenaturalhealth.co.uk