What are the benefits of the Alexander technique and who is it for?

What are the benefits with Alexander technique?

Potential benefits include:

  • freedom from harmful habits and improved control of human reaction

  • increased ability to manage stress and anxiety and an increasingly calmed nervous system

  • improved pain management, due to increased ability to minimise/eliminate tension- and movement-related (or ‘use’-related) aches, pains, and injuries (ie, most neck, back, hip, and knee pain)

  • improved mobility, balance, and body alignment

  • greater stability, bodily connection, and poise (improved ‘posture’)

  • improved overall wellbeing

  • more efficient and economical body use

  • improved performance in a range of fields, including the performing arts, sports, and other activities requiring fine motor skills

  • improved sensory processing

  • refinements to voice and breathing

  • enhanced sensory and mind–body integration

  • improved feelings of safety in the body and increased comfort with touch – this helps our relationships with both our selves and others

  • increased mindfulness

  • having constructive tools for self-care and personal growth.

Learn about scientific research into the Alexander technique.

Who can use the Alexander technique?

Those who can benefit include:

  • people of all ages, including children

  • individuals encountering high levels of stress and anxiety, including those with post-traumatic stress

  • people with muscular pain, including back pain

  • people with sciatica

  • people with spinal curvatures (scoliosis, lordosis, and kyphosis)

  • people with mobility and balance problems

  • people with hypermobility-related problems, including hypermobility spectrum disorders and Ehlers–Danlos syndromes, needing increased bodily stability and connection

  • athletes and those who want to improve their physical condition and performance in both daily life and particular activities

  • performing artists – singers, dancers, musicians, and actors

  • people interested in the voice and those with possible breathing-related issues

  • the physically frail and older people – the Alexander technique is particularly good for falls prevention

  • pregnant women – the Alexander technique can help pregnancy-related back and postural pain and gives tools to deal with birth-related pain and stress

  • those who are ‘wired differently’ neurologically or neurodivergent (including those with autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, synaesthesia, obsessive compulsive disorder, the highly sensitive, those ‘gifted’ with neurological ‘overexcitabilities’, and those with sensory processing issues)

  • people who feel unsafe in their bodies, often due to traumatic experiences or childhood developmental and attachment problems

  • individuals interested in mindfulness and self-development.

Interested in booking a lesson or a free 15-minute consult?

“97% of people with back pain could benefit from learning the Alexander technique – it is only a very small minority of back pain sufferers that require medical intervention, such as surgery.”

— Jack Stern, Spinal Neurosurgeon

“The Alexander technique is based on exceptionally sophisticated observation, not only by means of vision, but to a surprising extent by using the sense of touch. I noticed with growing amazement, very striking improvements in such diverse things as high blood pressure, breathing, depth of sleep, overall cheerfulness, mental alertness, resilience against outside pressures and also in such refined skills as the playing of a stringed musical instrument.”

— Nikolaas Tinbergen, winner of the Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology