What makes the Alexander technique different?

The Alexander technique is different from other hands-on therapies or disciplines. Here are some of the ways it is different.

• The Alexander technique is a form of mind–body (or ‘psychophysical’) re-education. It deals specifically with the problem of conditioned and acquired harmful habits of use and reactions to stimuli.

• The Alexander technique is not a therapy. The person who goes for Alexander technique sessions and receives Alexander hands-on work is not a passive recipient or patient.

  • Patients are reliant on a therapist and are left unaware of how they might stop themselves from getting into a state of tension or pain.

  • In the Alexander technique, a client, or ‘student’, comes for ‘lessons’ and not treatments. In my sessions, I aim to empower my clients. They are taught how to prevent themselves from getting into a state of tension, pain, or stress.

• Alexander technique lessons are one to one. I tailor my sessions to each person and their specific needs.

  • The Alexander technique has a history of teaching showing ongoing, fundamental change in students. There is also increasing amounts of evidence-based research into its benefits. This research includes a randomised controlled trial published in the British Medical Journal confirming a course of 24 individual lessons offers long-term health benefits, including pain relief, improved quality of life, and behavioural change. (Find out more about the Alexander technique and the scientific research.)

• The Alexander technique does not involve exercises or manipulation.

  • I work with my clients to retrain habits, including how they perform everyday activities. I am very happy to work with any particular habits, activities, or situations that a client may want to work with that are causing them difficulty (eg, playing an instrument; singing; performing in public; dealing with anxiety, stress or sensory overload; reaching an important goal; or dealing with emotional or environmental triggers, etc). As part of this, there are specific Alexander procedures I teach, and I do recommend students work with these in particular situations.

  • It is up to my client to work with what I have taught them and to put what I have taught them into practice.

• As a mind–body re-education in the ‘use of the self’, the Alexander technique is not just ‘body work’ as the mind and mindfulness are very much involved.

  • While some Alexander teachers refer to the Alexander technique as ‘a movement re-education’ or ‘postural retraining’, it involves much more than this. I personally believe the Alexander technique is more concerned with stopping habit than movement. FM Alexander himself said, “My technique is based on inhibition, the inhibition of undesirable, unwanted responses to stimuli, and hence it is primarily a technique for the development of the control of human reaction.” My teaching reflects this and I place emphasis on working with changing habit and changing responses to stimuli. Changes in movement mostly then come from this.

  • Patrick Macdonald, a master first-generation teacher trained by Alexander, gave the following definition of the Alexander technique: “The Technique is generally regarded as one for altering the postural behaviour of individuals, and indeed it can be so regarded. However, it concerns itself with considerably more than this. It is a technique for altering the reaction of the individual to the stimuli of his environment, and thus it can be applied to the whole range of human activities, whether these be regarded as just thought processes or processes involving predominantly muscular activity.” (The Alexander technique as I see it, pp. 52–53)

• Alexander lessons cultivate a more mindful expanded mind–body awareness to be used while responding to different stimuli in daily-life activities. (This is often called 'thinking in activity' within the Alexander technique.)

  • This type of thinking contrasts with relying on unconscious habit. It is taught through Alexander’s practical principles of inhibition (stopping) of automatic responses to stimuli and sending anti-stress directions to the body. These directions are particularly sent to the head, neck, and back so to prevent the physical startle pattern and fight–flight, freeze, and fawn stress responses. (I teach these principles within my Alexander lessons.)

  • When put into action, inhibition and direction-sending prevent the repetition of potentially harmful unconscious habitual actions and reactions and lead to more conscious, considered responses. They allow more freedom in thought and action moment by moment.

• Alexander lessons empower clients or students to overcome their previous obstacles and to respond in new ways.

  • In working with me, my clients learn to self-work with increasing awareness over a course of lessons through applying Alexander’s principles of inhibition and direction so that they are increasingly ready to meet challenging stimuli that have previously put them wrong in their daily-life activities and interactions.

• The touch and hands-on work received by the client is unique to the Alexander technique and is highly skilled.

  • The Alexander technique uses gentle but firm and supportive touch in the hands-on work.

  • In my Alexander lessons, I use my hands-on work to help my clients to stop (or ‘inhibit’) their old habits and to learn ‘direct’ their bodies in a new, more balanced way as they meet varying stimuli.

  • The relationship developed between myself as an Alexander teacher and my client through touch aims to be a nurturing, healing process that helps them feel looked after, safe, and reassured. I am also using my nervous system to begin to calm my clients’ more activated nervous systems. This relationship through touch can mirror early childhood developmental and attachment processes. It aims to make my client feel safe and reassured. It also aims to foster increasing wellbeing and independence over time.

• Due to the unique nature of Alexander technique hands-on work, the teacher must be in a balanced state themselves before putting their hands on a client and instructing them. As a result, Alexander teachers undergo more thorough training than most other hands-on disciplines or therapies.

  • I underwent 1600 hours of full-time continuous Alexander technique teacher training over 3 years. The teacher/trainee ratio in my training was 1:5. The training also consisted of 80% practical work to ensure I gained the required hands-on skills.

  • Since completing my training, I have continued my professional development. I work with other teachers both locally and overseas to ensure I continue to improve my teaching and my understanding of Alexander work.