- Do you have back pain? Neck pain? Shoulder tension? Poor posture?
- Would you like to stand, sit and walk with more ease and lightness?
- Would you like to improve your performance as an actor, dancer, or musician?
- Would you like to become more mindful in your everyday life, and find better ways to relieve stress?
The Alexander Technique can help!
The Alexander Technique is a means of optimizing body awareness, use and function. It has been used all over the world for over 100 years, and is recognized by and incorporated into the curricula of many of the world’s leading music and drama schools.
The Technique works by restoring the natural balance and postural freedom that are inherent in the human body. Years of habitual misuse have obscured that balance and freedom in most of us. With the Alexander Technique, we can get them back.
The Alexander Technique is not a therapy or a treatment, but in the course of learning to improve our overall use of ourselves, many specific symptoms and complaints – back pain, neck tension, shoulder or hip issues, repetitive strain injuries (like carpal tunnel syndrome), breathing problems – can be improved or eliminated, because the body is allowed to lengthen and expand into its natural, full three-dimensional presence.
Who can benefit from Alexander Technique lessons?
- Musicians, actors, computer workers, business professionals, athletes
- People with repetitive strain injuries, chronic joint pain, flexibility issues or balance issues
The Alexander Technique has many famous students, including:
Aldous Huxley – Hugh Jackman – Madonna – Sir Paul McCartney – George Bernard Shaw
Patrick Stewart – Sting – Robin Williams – Dame Judy Dench – Roald Dahl – Dr. Andrew Weil
John Cleese: “I find the Alexander Technique very helpful in my work. Things happen without you trying. They get to be light and relaxed. You must get an Alexander teacher to show it to you.”
William Hurt: “The Alexander Technique has helped me to undo knots, unblock energy and deal with almost paralysing stage fright.”
Kevin Kline: “The Technique’s many benefits for actors include minimized tension, centredness, vocal relaxation, responsiveness, mind/body connection and about an inch and a half of additional height.”
Aldous Huxley: “The Alexander Technique gives us all the things we have been looking for in a system of physical education; relief from strain due to maladjustment and consequent improvement in physical and mental health; and along with this a heightening of consciousness on all levels. We cannot ask more from any system; nor, if we seriously desire to alter human beings in a desirable direction, can we ask any less.”
Nicholas Tinbergen, 1973 Nobel Prize in Medicine: “I recommend the Alexander Technique as an extremely sophisticated form of rehabilitation. From personal experience we can already confirm some of the seemingly fantastic claims made by Alexander and his followers – namely that many types of under-performance and even ailments, both mental and physical, can be alleviated, sometimes to a surprising degree, by teaching the body musculature to function differently. We already notice, with growing amazement, very striking improvements in such diverse things as high blood pressure, breathing, depth of sleep, overall cheerfulness and mental alertness, resilience against outside pressures and in such a refined skill as playing a musical instrument.”
My name is Alex Watts. I am a member of AmSAT, the American Society for the Alexander Technique, having completed a three-year, 1600-hour AmSAT-approved training course. I teach in the University Heights neighborhood of San Diego, just north of downtown.
I can be reached at alex@theexpandingself.com, or by telephone at 619-299-2807.