Alexander Technique Upper West Side NYC

The Alexander Technique is an educational modality which aims to provide the client (student) with tools to retrain faulty sensory awareness and enhance safety in activity by identifying and correcting misuse in the musculoskeletal system.

BACKGROUND:

F. M. Alexander, (1869-1955) was born in Australia. At the age of 19, he embarked on a professional career as a solo orator. Very early in his career, Alexander began to suffer from chronic laryngitis. Doctors gave him many diagnoses, one of which was chronically inflamed mucous membranes. The treatments available to him consisted of gargling or inhaling steam with various mixtures. While he would improve for a short time, it was clear that the problem was becoming progressively worse.

After booking an engagement that could be a turning point in his career, Alexander once again sought the advice of a doctor. Alexander was aware that his difficulties only seemed to result from stage performance, and that his voice was fine during daily conversation. The doctor felt Alexander’s problems were caused by vocal fatigue and ordered F. M. to rest his voice for two weeks before his engagement. Alexander complied with his doctor’s instructions and was given a clean bill of health the day of his performance. Still, F. M. lost his voice completely by the end of the evening, and was unable even to whisper by the time the curtain came down.

Determined to solve his problem once and for all, Alexander returned to the doctor and put forth his conclusion: there something was he did while performing onstage which was causing his problems. The doctor agreed with his theory though could not offer any insight into to what F. M. might be doing wrong or how to change it. Unwilling to continue with an ineffective course of treatment, F. M. decided to solve his own problem.

He began a 9-year exploration of how he used himself (body and mind) to recite Shakespeare, and to perform all his activities. The tools he discovered during this exploration make up the foundation of the principles taught in The Alexander Technique.

The first observation F. M. made was that, although everything he was doing felt completely right, it must be wrong because he was experiencing progressive loss of his voice. He had studied voice and elocution and was following his teachers’ instructions for effective sound production, yet he was getting the opposite result.

Since he knew he could not feel what would be the right way to use himself to speak, he decided to observe himself in the mirror. He saw that when he was about to speak (or carry out any activity, for that matter) he would rotate his head "back and down" and exert a downward compression through his whole joint system. When he could alleviate this downward compression, a variety of other symptoms would disappear, such as compression on his voice box and an audible gasp whenever he took a breath in. As he became more skillful at interrupting the automatic habit of compressing his head onto his spine, his vocal problems lessened until they were completely gone.

While he was exploring and refining his method of improving how he used himself, he began to teach others the same principles. His brother, A. R. Alexander also taught the work. They became highly skilled in the use of their hands on their students to help bring about this more efficient, healthy balance within the body. People with a variety of conditions, including asthma, angina pectoris, dropped viscera, anxiety, depression, polio, stuttering and arthritis studied the Technique with the Alexander brothers and improved greatly.

CONCEPTS:

Habits & Misuse:

In the same way Pavlov’s dogs were classically conditioned to salivate when a bell rings, much of the way we think, move and use ourselves is classically conditioned reflex. We refer to this as habit in the Alexander Technique. Habits allow us to walk, talk, chew gum and make great art. That is the positive side of habit. On the negative side, very often our habits involve inefficient or even harmful excess muscle tension that puts pressure on nerves and joints.

In the Alexander Technique, the teacher helps the student recognize habitual movement patterns that may be inefficient, or even contrary to how the body is designed to move. When we decide to stand up from a chair and walk to the kitchen to get a glass of water, we do not have to think about each specific event. Many things happen, such as transferring weight from the seat on the chair to the feet, coming to upright posture, and taking a number of steps to the kitchen. The body has a "software" program it runs to perform those activities. However, habits almost always include unnecessary effort, which doesn’t register because the way each of us moves feels familiar. When something feels familiar we often conclude it is correct. Our habits allow us to get a great deal done, but with a cost.

The Alexander Teacher will assist the student in understanding his or her habits and teach tools to begin to move more in accordance with the body’s innate balance and efficiency. In essence, the student is learning how to over-ride classically conditioned response, or habit.

The Startle Response:

Also referred to as the fight or flight syndrome, the startle response is an involuntary reaction to perceived danger. The startle response causes contraction of the head "back and down" onto the neck, the shoulders to elevate, and compression throughout the skeletal system.

An infant reacting to a loud noise is a classic example of the startle response. After the perceived danger has passed, the infant will fully release the pattern. As the child grows, he or she is constantly subjected to situations that elicit the startle reflex. In our current culture, there are pre-school classes, expectations from parents, classroom learning, testing, peer groups, video and computer games, television and more. The child is sent into startle response at such an ever-increasing rate, that he or she is unable to fully recover. The child begins to experience a near constant state of startle response and must learn new motor skills with a compromised nervous system.

Alexander felt that our post-industrial culture, where so much time is spent sedentary, was a major factor in our habits of compression. Another theory Alexander had to explain our state is that in our school system, we ask young children to sit still for long periods, when their bodies prefer movement. We introduce handwriting before the motor skill for fine movements in the hands and fingers develops in most children; to compensate, they generate tension in their necks and shoulders.

The Alexander Technique teaches the student to calm this lifetime of over-excitation and perform activities in a more efficient manner, with muscular effort appropriate to the activity.

Awareness, Inhibition, Direction: Students will learn to develop skill in three specific ways.

Awareness: Alexander had to be able to observe what he was doing in order to change it – by developing his awareness. By deepening awareness of the excess muscle effort carried into simple activity, students learn to monitor how they prepare, execute and recover from activity.

Inhibition: This is the tool that made it possible for Alexander to perform his activities in a non-habitual way, without pulling his head back and down. Inhibition means interrupting the familiar muscular pattern when performing common activities. The teacher works with the student in movement, such as sitting down and standing up from a chair, to help him or her develop the ability to recognize habits and learn to inhibit the habitual response to stimuli.

Direction: Alexander knew that he did not want to pull his head back and down. He recognized that this active tightening was interfering with the natural balance of his head on his spine. He described this balance as the "head moving forward and up" (a forward rotation and vertically up). He discovered that if he could think about allowing the head to move forward and up - by giving up the muscular activity that pulled it down - he experienced a decompression through his spine, which he described as lengthening. He did not actively reposition his head. Instead, he gave up the action that created the compression. Alexander is quoted as saying "If you don’t do the wrong thing, the right thing does itself."

Unreliable Sensory Appreciation:

As mentioned above, we perform activities in the most familiar way, since what feels familiar must be right. Alexander realized that although he was doing everything his voice and speech teachers instructed him to do, and it "felt" right, he was causing harm and interfering with effective use of his voice. This is why he began to use the mirror to make his discoveries.

The Alexander Teacher helps the student recognize areas where he or she over-works muscularly, and helps the student learn how to do less. Often, until the teacher brings the student’s attention to the area, the amount of effort there feels correct, or perhaps it feels like no effort at all. Alexander is quoted: "When the time comes that you can trust your feeling, you won’t want to use it." Through the study of the Alexander Technique, students learn tools to help bring about change, rather than relying on what feels right.

The Body Mind Connection:

Much of the skill a student learns in the Alexander Technique occurs with thinking. Thought has an immediate and dynamic impact on our state of being. When we decide to do something, at some level it passes through us as thought. Thirst registers in the body and mind and we get a glass of water. We are taking a test and as we read the test question, we retrieve the information from our memory and write it down. If we decide to wiggle a pinky toe, it takes no time for the impulse to reach the muscles – this is the longest any nerve impulse has to travel in the body.

In the Alexander Technique, the act of directing, which is a form of thinking, happens quickly. Often, students forget to continue thinking their directions and begin to feel for whether or not they have freed their neck to release their head away from their spine. Rather than feeling for it, students learn to practice thinking the thoughts - this is the tool that brings about change.

APPLICATION:

How does The Alexander Technique aid in the Student’s recovery process?

Through re-education, the student comes to understand how her or his spine and skeletal system are ideally designed to function. She or he becomes able to recognize the unique patterns of misuse (habits) which have been contributing to tension, stress, and perhaps even the injury itself. These habits are more often than not the result of compensation, developed over a lifetime of managing less than ideal circumstances. Long hours spent sitting in study, learning to hold a pencil and write at a young age, typing at a computer, driving a car, or even lifting groceries or a toddler, can contribute to compression and irritation of joints and nerves along the spine. Imbalance in muscles groups can cause over-articulation in the lumbar or cervical areas of the spine, poorly distributed weight-bearing which requires more effort for upright posture, and a subtle, yet constant tension which creates compression in joints.

By learning to ease this stress through direct inhibitory action, the student can learn to relieve these internal pressures throughout the day, and combat some of the long-term effects of compression.

Releasing Secondary Stress:

In certain cases where there is an injury, post-injury pain and stress, or a chronic condition, such as arthritis or joint deterioration, the Alexander Technique may not have any direct effect on the primary injury. However, it can teach students a valuable tool to release secondary stress. Secondary stress is the response to the pain or imbalance resulting from the condition. For example, if you have a weak ankle joint, which sometimes turns over, or you experience unpredictable sharp pain in your knee, you can learn to let go of the overall body response after the pain has passed. Over time, secondary stress can begin to cause chronic compression throughout the joints. The Alexander Technique can help the student learn to monitor and let go of the unnecessary muscle tone resulting from secondary stress.

The Alexander Technique can be highly effective in helping people reduce muscle and joint pain, stress and fatigue. People often enjoy improved skill in specialized activities, such as golf, skiing, playing a musical instrument, or dealing with performance anxiety.

What happens in the lessons:

To work with someone dealing with an injury, I begin the same way I would with any other student: exploring habits. The Alexander Technique is a unique tool to learn to bring greater and greater efficiency and ease to the task of living by knowing how to identify overuse of muscles, mental and physical energy, and lessen that overuse.

With any new student, I am going to begin with the simple activity of moving in and out of a chair (chairwork). This is a rich "laboratory" in which to bring habits of thought and movement to light for a student and teach them how to interrupt those habits, allowing for new and more effective patterns to become available.

The process of learning the Alexander Technique asks the student to suspend their interest in being right. F. M. Alexander learned through his exploration that in trying to reason out a solution to his vocal problem (chronic hoarseness) he was using his sensation to tell him whether he was right or not. He was relying on his sensation to tell him he had the correct amount of muscle energy; the proper alignment; and the appropriate volume of voice to gain his end: reciting text. However, how he used his voice habitually had always felt right to him all along, and using his voice that way was how he had created his vocal problems to begin with. F. M. soon realized he would have to "ignore" sensation to find a solution to his self-created mis-use. That meant things would very probably feel wrong. So, I repeat: The process of learning the Alexander Technique asks the student to suspend their interest in being right.

Examples of working with injured students:

Example #1

Dierdra was told she had torn the disc between her sacrum and lowest lumbar vertebrae. When we had our first lesson, she had been experiencing progressively worsening pain for over three months. Dierdra was lying on her couch when I arrived, and she winced in obvious pain as she changed positions on the couch, and when she was walking. When we began the first lesson, she was walking bent forward at her waist, with sciatica pain referring down her left leg.

I began working with her at her desk chair, since she spent a lot of time sitting at work. She was able to stand and sit using her legs, and change her habit of arching her lumbar spine. She immediately understood how using her hip joints instead of bending her waist could help stop some of the irritation and compression on her nerves.

In walking, I helped Dierdra locate how high the top of her spine is and helped her release some compression from the top down. When I showed her where her knees are and how her legs could move, she was able to walk without pain. She saw how her anticipation of the pain and her attempt to keep weight off the sore leg was actually causing her to use her waist to lift the sore leg to move it for each step. When I showed her how she could let her leg swing in the hip joint to take a step, the waist area was no longer being bent back and forth and there was less irritation to the nerves.

When we finished, Dierdra felt much better. She said she also felt more hopeful about her recovery. She'd started feeling depressed and was emotionally as well as physically relieved after our work together. She was quickly able to understand how the tools she was learning helped her situation. As dramatic and immediate as her relief was (and not everyone will get results as quickly) it made sense to her that the new awareness could have such a direct impact on her pain level.

Example #2

When Patricia first came to me for lessons in February of 2001, she was dealing with inflammation in her right elbow. Her doctor had given her a forearm brace to help her avoid overusing the arm. She was already noticing a similar irritation developing in the left arm, now that she was using it to perform most of the activities she had done with her right arm. In the seven months we have been working together, she has observed her condition worsen overall.

I heard each week for months about her progress and setbacks. I asked her if she felt the lessons were helping. She told me she left every single session feeling better in her arms and enjoying an overall relaxed state. As we worked together each week, it was clear to me that Patricia had a good deal of skill in applying the Alexander principles when she had the assistance of my hands-on support in my studio. Our challenge was to get her to a level of skill where she could and would replicate this improved use on her own.

Patricia finds it most challenging to retain her new use in her familiar environment, where she is less likely to slow down and yet most in need of improving her way of doing things. She has begun to recognize that she performs daily activities with such excess tension in her arms that this irritates them. The challenge for her, as for all of us, is that she can’t feel this excess tension. Her habitual way of doing things feels right, yet she knows her habits are harmful because her arms feel inflamed and fatigued. It is an incremental process to fully grasp the fact that she is not accurate or aware of how she actually does things.

At our most recent lesson, Patricia said she began releasing her habitual reaction to the subway (gripping her shoulders, locking her knees and tightening her jaw) on her way to my studio. She began to achieve the relaxed state she looks forward to at each lesson before she got here. At her lessons, we work to apply her Alexander tools to her stretches and exercises for her arms; fine motor activities such as writing, typing, grasping and lifting objects; exercises she does with her personal trainer; and stretching and self work on the floor.

How the Alexander Technique complements Physical Therapy:

Physical therapy often uses exercise to increase strength, improve flexibility or improve posture. The challenge is that when translated through the familiar kinesthetic habit of the patient, he or she often carries out the exercises with poor coordination or inefficient muscle deployment.

The Alexander Teacher re-educates the patient to move more in accordance with the design of the skeleton. People often over-articulate the cervical or lumbar region, unable to access full mobility at the atlanto-occipital joint or full range of motion in the hip joint. Often, students have no knowledge or frame of reference to know whether or not they are accurate. Those who do have an academic knowledge of anatomy rarely consider that their actual mechanical movements may feel right but are not.

While in the recovery process, patients often develop compensation patterns due to limitations in movement or because of pain. Examples of this include favoring use of an uninjured arm or leg; minimizing movement or stiffening in a tender or sore region; or contracting in response to momentary pain, then maintaining the tension after the pain abates. The Alexander Teacher is skilled at recognizing the asymmetry and patterns that are taken on as compensation and can help the student recognize and release these newly established habits when they no longer serve a purpose.

Students are often inefficient in using muscles during exercises. Most effort to perform an exercise is accompanied by a tightening and shortening in the muscles of the neck and upper back. Many students grip around joints before exercising them, contributing to compression and wear in the joint. Without understanding the elastic quality of muscles, students often maintain a baseline of isometric contraction when in repose, and don’t know the sensation of fully lengthening a muscle. As the Alexander Teacher works with them, they learn tools to account for their unreliable sensory feedback and how to move more fully through the muscle’s range of motion in activity.

CONCLUSION:

As a teacher, I do not diagnose or treat physical conditions. I educate my student in the principles of the work of F. M. Alexander. When someone comes to see me who has pain, I always recommend they be evaluated by a medical professional and seek the appropriate treatment available. If they are already in treatment, I tell them to continue to pursue their treatment with their healthcare providers while we work together. I am able to help my students develop strategies to use their new skill to minimize compression and stress to their spines; to observe and avoid injurious positions or motions during everyday activities; and to practice constructive rest periods throughout the day.

©2001, N. Brooke Lieb, C.T.A.T.

Member, American Society for the Alexander Technique (AmSAT) Faculty Member, American Center for the Alexander Technique (ACAT)

(212) 866-0679 o brookelieb@mindspring.com o www.brookelieb.com

This month's issue of New Age Journal has an article about back pain, citing the re-education process of the Alexander Technique as a valuable tool in back care. After our recent victory with the New York State Massage Board, who determined that the Alexander Technique does not fall under the scope of practice of any of the licensed professions in New York, it is more clear than ever that our work is truly educational in nature, though it can have quite an impact on physical well-being. The technique is truly a body/mind tool.

When someone with back pain chooses to come for lessons, we have a useful tool to teach them. The Alexander Technique is not a replacement for medical intervention. It is a valuable addition to anyone's skills for living (whether in pain or not).

Basics:

To work with someone having back pain, I begin where I would with any other student: exploring habits. The Alexander Technique is a unique tool to learn to bring greater and greater efficiency and ease to the task of living by knowing how to identify overuse of muscles, mental and physical energy, and lessen that overuse.

With any new student, I am going to begin with the simple activity of moving in and out of a chair (chairwork). This is a rich "laboratory" in which to bring habits of thought and movement to light for a student and teach them how to interrupt those habits, allowing for new and more effective patterns to become available.

The process of learning the Alexander Technique asks the student to suspend their interest in being right. F. M. Alexander learned through his exploration that in trying to reason out a solution to his vocal problem (chronic hoarseness) he was using his sensation to tell him whether he was right or not. He was relying on his sensation to tell him he had the correct amount of muscle energy; the proper alignment; and the appropriate volume of voice to gain his end: reciting text. However, how he used his voice habitually had always felt right to him all along, and using his voice that way was how he had created his vocal problems to begin with. F. M. soon realized he would have to "ignore" sensation to find a solution to his self-created mis-use. That meant things would very probably feel wrong. So, I repeat: The process of learning the Alexander Technique asks the student to suspend their interest in being right.

Two Examples of working with students with back pain:

1) Yesterday I had the pleasure of watching my colleague, Judy Stern, give a first lesson in the Alexander Technique to a woman named Alice, who was having sciatica (pain referring down her lower leg into her foot) from a pinched nerve.

Before Judy began working with her, she wanted to get a sense of Alice's discomfort. On a scale of 0 - 10, 0 being no pain, 10 being the worst, Alice was at about a 4-5. Judy then gave an basic introductory lesson to Alice, with a particular emphasis on the idea of teaching her how to decompress through her spine, and use her legs for support. Judy worked with her the same way any of us would work with any student, teaching the principles of awareness, inhibition and direction. There was no special attention paid to any one part of Alice. Rather, Judy taught her how to use her whole self by releasing her head from her neck.

After the lesson, Alice reported her pain at 1/2 to 0. At the end, Judy asked Alice if she'd ever had a massage (she had) and if this was like massage. Alice’s reply: "No, this is not at all like massage."

Watching Judy reminded me all over again how much potential our work has to teach people how to use their bodies in a healthier, more accurate way.

2) Quite coincidentally, I have a friend, Dierdra, who recently tore the disc between her sacrum and lowest lumbar vertebrae. I saw her this past weekend and she agreed to try Alexander lessons to help her with her injury.

Last night, I gave her a lesson. When we began working, she was walking bent forward at her waist, with sciatica pain down her left leg. Unlike Alice, I watched Dierdra wincing in obvious pain as she changed positions while lying on her couch, and at moments when she was walking.

I began working with her at her desk chair, since she spent a lot of time sitting at work. She was able to stand and sit using her legs, and change her habit of arching her lumbar spine. She immediately understood how using her hip joints instead of bending her waist could help stop some of the irritation and compression on her nerves.

In walking, I helped Dierdra locate how high the top of her spine goes and helped her release some downward compression from the top down. When I showed her where her knees are and how her legs could move, she was able to walk without pain. She saw how her anticipation of the pain and her attempt to keep weight off the sore leg was actually causing her to use her waist to lift her sore leg to move it for a step. When I showed her how she could let her leg swing in the hip joint to take a step, the waist area was no longer being bent back and forth and there was less irritation to the nerves.

When we finished, Dierdra felt much better. She said she also felt more hopeful about her recovery. She'd started feeling depressed and was emotionally as well as physically relieved.

I was not at all surprised by the results Dierdra and Alice had from their lessons. They both understood how the tools they were learning helped their situations. As dramatic and immediate as their relief was (and not everyone will get results as quickly) it made sense. The Alexander Technique teaches a simple set of principles which help anyone interested access more accuracy in their body by engaging their mind in a clear way.

Conclusion:

As a teacher, I do not diagnose or treat physical conditions. I educate my student in the principles of the work of F. M. Alexander. When someone comes to see me who has pain, I always recommend they be evaluated by the medical world and seek the appropriate treatment available. If they are already in treatment, I tell them to continue to pursue their treatment with their healthcare providers while we work together.

©2000, N. Brooke Lieb; Certified Teacher of the Alexander Technique; Member, American Society for the Alexander Technique (AmSAT); Faculty Member, American Center for the Alexander Technique (ACAT); (212) 866-0679 o brookelieb@mindspring.com o www.brookelieb.com

The Alexander Technique has long been known as the Performing Artists’ secret weapon, helping a whole host of challenges from stage fright, (now referred to as performance anxiety) to improved voice production to injury prevention to improved dexterity and facility. In addition to these more physically based results, people often report clearer thinking, a sense of peacefulness and an awareness of how their own habits of thought can create physical tension and stress. The Alexander Technique is truly a body/mind tool.

When someone chooses to come for lessons, we have an invaluable tool to teach them about the mastery of being. The Alexander Technique is a robust addition to anyone's skills for living (whether suffering the effects or stress, or not) and offers a portable set of principles to assist you in self care.

Basics:

To work with someone interested in managing stress and deepening their skill in tapping into the body/mind tool, I begin where I would with any other student: exploring habits. We perform highly complex tasks all day long, from brushing our teeth and writing our names to managing our balance as we carry heavy bags or negotiate the change in grade as we step off a curb. We are able to perform these activities without having to stop and think about them because they are habitual and familiar. If we have less than ideal muscle deployment in the way we do these task, over time this can take a toll. The Alexander Technique is a unique tool to learn to bring greater and greater efficiency and ease to the task of living by knowing how to identify overuse of muscles, mental and physical energy, and lessen that overuse.

With any new student, I am going to begin with the simple activity of moving in and out of a chair (chairwork). This is a rich "laboratory" in which to bring habits of thought and movement to light for a student and teach them how to interrupt those habits, allowing for new and more effective patterns to become available.

The process of learning the Alexander Technique asks the student to suspend their interest in being right. F. M. Alexander learned through his exploration that in trying to reason out a solution to his vocal problem (chronic hoarseness) he was using his sensation to tell him whether he was right or not. He was relying on his sensation to tell him he had the correct amount of muscle energy; the proper alignment; and the appropriate volume of voice to gain his end: reciting text. However, how he used his voice habitually had always felt right to him all along, and using his voice that way was how he had created his vocal problems to begin with. F. M. soon realized he would have to "ignore" sensation to find a solution to his self-created mis-use. That meant things would very probably feel wrong. So, I repeat: The process of learning the Alexander Technique asks the student to suspend their interest in being right.

How does the Alexander Technique reduce stress?:

F. M. Alexander identified the fact that most of us are in a perpetual state of "fight or flight syndrome", also know as the startle response. If you have ever seen a newborn or young infant react to a loud, unexpected noise, you may recall their shoulders come up to their ears and their heads are pulled or fall back – they are clearly startled by the experience. In a few moments, as the event passes, they return to their prior state, which is relaxed, alert, and engaged.

As we grow up in our fast paced society, we face a constant onslaught of stressful events. We are in the process of recovery from one event when yet another stimulus hits our systems, and so we begin to function in a constant state of startle response. Because our nervous system adapts to the new level of stress, we cease to register it as too much and so never fully return to the easeful state of the newborn. Instead, we increase muscular effort throughout our lives. The analogy I use to describe this constant state of over-contraction is that of driving with the parking brake on. We use much more energy to perform simple activities than we actually need, which is a wasteful process.

F. M. Alexander’s recognition that his sensory feedback was unreliable gave him a window into changing his chronic overuse of muscle effort to a more efficient, appropriate level when accomplishing his activities. By learning to inhibit his startle response upon receiving stimulus, he was not only able to change muscle tension in his body, he was also able to change the biochemical messages being sent through his nervous system. What was once stressful when performed with the old habit patterns became easeful, poised and appropriate to the task at hand. This tool of inhibiting the old response is a skill that can be learned and enhanced with practice. This is how the Alexander Technique reduces psycho-physical stress.

Examples of reducing stress with Alexander Technique:

When I began my teacher training course in January of 1987, I was experiencing anxiety attacks, which most often manifested in a feeling like a rush of adrenaline through my body, lightheadedness, a sense I couldn’t catch my breath and hyperventilating. I had already studied the technique for 3 years before I started having anxiety attacks, and so when an attack began I was able to regulate my breathing by singing long phrases, which brought my breathing back to a calm place and relieved the other symptoms. The reason I knew how to do this was that I had a certain level of skill at inhibition. As frightening as the initial rush was, I had a tool to keep part of my mind away from the panic and able to call upon the skills I had in order to preempt the chemical rush of the stimulus/response pattern that had been started.

A Professor of Singing, with an active performance schedule, came to me for a single lesson in January of 2001. She had only had one group Alexander course one semester while studying for her D.M.A. back in the mid-70’s and told me she had no recollection of what the technique was. I saw her April of the same year, and she recounted how since our lesson and some reading she’s done on her own, she has come to recognize herself as someone in a classic, chronic state of startle response. She is now very skillful at calming herself during traffic jams, releasing chronic vocal tension and improving her breath capacity for singing, and releasing tension is her arms and shoulder while she writes on the blackboard while lecturing.

Conclusion:

As a teacher, I do not diagnose or treat physical conditions. I educate my student in the principles of the work of F. M. Alexander. When someone comes to see me who has stress, I work with them in the same way I would with someone who came seeking a better golf game, relief from back pain, or a desire to improve their skill on an instrument. The simple tool of inhibiting excess tension while reasoning out an efficient, simple way to perform any task has the delightful side effect of reducing stress levels.

©2001, N. Brooke Lieb, Certified Teacher of the Alexander Technique; Member, American Society for the Alexander Technique (AmSAT); Faculty Member, American Center for the Alexander Technique (ACAT); (212) 866-0679 o brookelieb@mindspring.com o www.brookelieb.com

The Alexander Technique teaches you how to identify and change muscular patterns that may interfere with your body’s optimal functioning, helping you to access greater ease in thought and movement. The Alexander Technique is an educational tool, and is unlike exercise, which seeks to strengthen and stretch the muscular system, or manual therapies (ex: Massage Therapy, Rolfing), which seek to change tissue through external, mechanical manipulation. Instead, the Alexander Technique teaches you to strategically observe and retrain your habitual muscle patterns in order to perform the activities of life with maximum efficiency and minimum stress on your musculoskeletal system.

Habits/Classical Conditioning:

Every time you brush your teeth, take a step or lift your arm to touch your face, you are relying on your own classical conditioning. You do not have to think about how far to lift your foot, or how far to swing your leg. The Alexander Technique is based on the appreciation that our habitual way of performing our daily tasks often involves excess muscle tension, imbalance and inefficiency. Whether it is how you sit, stand, concentrate, or even hold a pen, you do not need to think about how to do each of these activities. We take our body’s coordination when performing these simple tasks for granted. However, we tend to perform these activities with excess tension, and with increased pressure on joints, nerves or discs, which can contribute to imbalance, pain and even injury. Observe yourself next time you are writing with pencil or pen. Do you really need to grip the writing instrument as tightly as you are? And yet, if you do not think about it, you will use more energy than is necessary.

Startle Response:

The Alexander Technique recognizes that with the overwhelming amount of stimulus in our daily environment, we live in a chronic state of startle response. Some of the observable elements of the startle response include raised shoulders; held breath; the head pulled back and down; and an increase in adrenaline and other stress chemicals in the bloodstream. Also known as the "fight or flight" response, we are ever vigilant, at the ready to respond to a ringing telephone; someone’s question; a traffic light changing from green to yellow; or a foreign object coming at us with great speed. From early on in childhood, we have been in a state of startle pattern, going on to learn lessons in school, athletics and other motor skills, including handwriting, while in a compromised state.

Unreliable Sensory Appreciation:

If you have ever bitten down on sand or a stray piece of aluminum foil, you will appreciate how much more muscle power you are using to chew your food than in necessary. As you are reading this, see if you can allow your jaw to relax, and your shoulders to drop. Perhaps you were carrying some excess tension there, but it didn’t feel like too much until you began to observe it. Throughout the day, we use more energy and more force than in actually needed to get things done. Because we have always done it this way, it rarely occurs to us to question how we’re doing things, until we begin to feel pain or fatigue. The Alexander Technique recognizes that our sensory feedback is inaccurate and seeks to re-educate us to a more reliable feedback.

Directing:

Thinking to your body can create change. The Alexander Technique helps students to develop and refine this skill to relieve habitual tension. Imagine you have a fifty-pound concrete block sitting on the top of your head. Now imagine that the weight is removed. Think of your arms being heavy and raise your arms. Now imagine they are filled with helium and raise them again. Perhaps you notice there is a difference, merely as a result of thinking.

How Alexander Technique can Benefit People with Scoliosis:

The Alexander Technique is an educational process, and is to be used in conjunction with your on-going medical supervision. In no way is it intended to replace proper medical care. Adult patients often see deterioration in their posture, though on x-ray, the curves are stabilized. This is due to postural habits, and the flexibility of the muscles and ligaments of shoulder girdle, rib cage and torso. The Alexander Technique is highly effective in giving student’s tools to maintain and even increase the length and balance of postural muscles. This in turn relieves compression on discs, nerves and joints throughout the body. Think of a muscle like a rubber band, which can change it’s length and tension. While muscles can habitually shorten and pull asymmetrically on the skeleton, it is possible to educate the muscles to lengthen and thus reduce those pulls on the body. With partial fusion, there is still movement in other areas of the spine, and maximum lengthening can help reduce pain and improve alignment. With a total fusion, the concepts of good use can reduce tension which can cause pain - and increase ease of movement through other joints in the body.

Observing Yourself:

Watch for symmetry, and watch for habits that feed into the curves and possible rotations you may have within the curve. Observe yourself in a mirror to begin to recognize your curves. Be aware which side you carry a briefcase or shoulder bag on. If you have one shoulder that tends to be higher, you may want to carry bags on that side of your body, in order to avoid feeding into the curve that already exists. Explore the option of using a backpack, which distributes the weight more evenly over the torso. Notice which ear you tend hold the telephone up to. Try using both ears or getting a headset.

How The Alexander Technique has been effective with scoliosis:

In her book, Back Trouble (Triad Publishing), Debby Caplan, P.T. and Certified Teacher of the Alexander Technique, includes anecdotes from her work with some of her student’s who had scoliosis. One student, Anne, had measurements taken by her dressmaker a year apart while studying the Alexander Technique. She gained 2 inches in length from her shoulder to waist, both on the front and back of her torso; 1 inch width across her shoulders; lost 2 inches around her waist; gained 1 1/2 inches from waist to floor, and gained 1/2 inch in length in her left arm, making it equal in length with her left right arm. Another student, Judy, began lessons at age 48. At that time, she was experiencing disabling back spasms, at increasing frequency. With lessons, she found relief from her muscle spasms and over ten years of study, she was able to keep her back pain free, and began studying tennis at 55 and golf at 57 with no recurrence of back pain. Ms. Caplan’s book includes photos of two adolescent students she worked with. In both sets of photos, improved symmetry and balance are visible after a course of lessons.

During the Winter and Spring of 2005, I worked with a student who had a curve which had progressed from 51 degrees to 58 degrees. His Orthodpedic Surgeon referred him for lessons. While we do not know if there is any change in his degree of curvature after 18 lessons, his curve appears less pronounced. He has greater range of motion in his ribs, there is less muscle build up on his back, and he has reported neck his neck tension has disappeared. His wife, an Occupational Therapist, is delighted with the cosmetic change in his appearance, as is he.

Learning the Alexander Technique

Most traditionally, when you study the Alexander Technique, you will work individually with an Alexander Teacher. Group classes are also offered. Most Certified Teachers of the Alexander Technique have completed an extensive 3-year, 1600-hour Nationally Certified Training Program, and are familiar with the writings of F. M. Alexander. When teachers work with you, they will explore activities, such as sitting down and standing up from a chair, walking, speaking and bending, to help you recognize your habits of movement. With gentle verbal and hands-on guidance, your teacher will help you achieve a more efficient balance between your head, neck and back. This change can release excess muscle effort, strain and compression on joints and help your body1s innate reflexes for balance work better. Teachers also work with you lying on a table, where you can practice releasing muscle patterns without the added challenge of maintaining upright posture and balance. Part of your lessons may include developing strategies to avoid feeding into your curves and rotations. Your teacher may have you observe the effect of sitting with one leg crossed, then the other. Often our habits have felt familiar and balanced, and even though we achieve greater balance in a lesson, it may feel odd or even askew. You may use the mirror in this case to help you compare the sensations of balance or imbalance as your teacher helps you move into greater alignment and symmetry.

N. Brooke Lieb is a Nationally Certified Teacher of the Alexander Technique. She received her certification in 1989 from the American Center for the Alexander Technique and is a Senior Faculty Member at their Teacher Certification Program. She teaches in New York City and Doylestown, PA and can be reached at (212) 866-0679; or by e-mail at brookelieb@mindspring.com, or through her website at www.brookelieb.com.

To order a copy of "Back Trouble" by Debby Caplan, or to locate a teacher in your area, contact American Society for the Alexander Technique (AmSAT), at (800) 473-0620; or visit their website at www.alexandertech.org.

F. M. Alexander’s work is most widely known among performing artists, and is currently included in the curriculum of many Performing Arts programs, including Juilliard, New York University, Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute, The Mannes College of Music and the Royal College of Music in London.

BASICS:

To work with a musician, I begin where I would with any other student: exploring habits. The Alexander Technique is a unique tool to learn to bring greater and greater efficiency and ease to the task of living by knowing how to identify overuse of muscles, mental and physical energy, and lessen that overuse.

With any new student, I am going to begin with the simple activity of moving in and out of a chair (chairwork). This is a rich "laboratory" in which to bring habits of thought and movement to light for a student and teach them how to interrupt those habits, allowing for new and more effective patterns to become available.

The process of learning the Alexander Technique asks the student to suspend their interest in being right. F. M. Alexander learned through his exploration that in trying to reason out a solution to his vocal problem (chronic hoarseness) he was using his sensation to tell him whether he was right or not. He was relying on his sensation to tell him he had the correct amount of muscle energy; the proper alignment; and the appropriate volume of voice to gain his end: reciting text. However, how he used his voice habitually had always felt right to him all along, and using his voice that way was how he had created his vocal problems to begin with. F. M. soon realized he would have to "ignore" sensation to find a solution to his self-created mis-use. That meant things would very probably feel wrong. So, I repeat: The process of learning the Alexander Technique asks the student to suspend their interest in being right.

For a musician, who’s greatest desire to be right is associated with the technique involved in playing his or her instrument or producing sound with their voice, the task of giving up trying to get it right will be most challenging in the activity of playing or singing. However, the skills he or she will use when addressing those activities will be the exact same skill and process they learned in chair work. Through the seeming indirect route of addressing the more over-arching use of themselves (moving around all day in activity) they will make changes in their use during playing and singing.

WORKING WITH INSTRUMENTALISTS:

I will have a musician bring their instrument to lessons and explore after they have achieved a level of skill in chairwork. We choose the timing of this carefully. For players who are not dealing with an urgent problem in their playing, I do not recommend working with their instrument when they are in the midst of a heavy performance commitment. If someone has sought Alexander work to help in a case of overuse syndrome, I will have him or her bring the instrument to lessons sooner.

In the lesson, I will ask students what problem areas they have identified in their playing and have them show me. I also watch their warm-up and have them play some repertoire, so I can analyze what habits are most obvious. Often, those habits correlate directly to habits they have in chairwork. We work simply with the basic principles they are already familiar with and help them identify one or two habits to monitor over a period of time.

EXAMPLE:

I was working with a pianist on a particularly difficult passage. As he approached the run, two bars before I could hear him begin to tighten and lose notes. The two bars following the passage I could hear him recovering. I asked him first to imagine playing the run and hearing it without mistakes in his mind. Then, I asked him to play, making the decision to focus on playing the two bars before and after, not throwing them away. I suggested that since he was likely to fumble on the run, that he could at least salvage the before and after. Also, he could delay or even interrupt the anxiety and the technical trouble he had with the passage by not panicking before it even began. Sure enough, he not only played before and after cleanly, the run was much cleaner and his muscle memory was able to get him through. It’s similar to the idea of the batter choking on the pitch. When the pianist was able to inhibit his anticipation about failing, he was far more coordinated.

WORKING WITH SINGERS:

When working with singers, I will introduce breath work and awareness of breath management habits fairly early on in lessons. However, before looking at singing technique, we work with talking in conversation to reveal those habits, since all of us talk all day long and the sooner we can begin to change habits we have in conversation, the easier it is to make changes in singing.

One common use pattern I see among singers is over-contracting musculature too early in the course of a phrase, thus cutting down on ability to get more breath in and out. The range of motion in the muscles is greatly reduced, and an isometric type of immobility can set in. I work very physically with singers, having them increase cardiovascular output to make greater demands on the system while they sing. This helps them release postural setting and allow a greater range of motion through the ribcage and abdominal system, which amounts to less interference of the reflexive respiratory mechanism.

EXAMPLE:

I had a singer in my studio who would run out of air and experience his throat tighten at the end of a phrase with a crescendo and a rather high note. I observed that as he approached that moment, he would tighten more and more in his abdominal muscles and his throat. I asked him to do a karate-like hitch kick for the high note and he was able to support it with more strength and less tension. My reasoning was this: what felt like strength and power to him was actually an isometric, static gripping in his muscles. When a muscle is not continuing to move through range of motion, it is not doing any work. By having him add movement to singing, his muscles were dynamically supporting his singing. I had him sing the phrase again, keeping in mind the concept of not gripping and he found he had more support for the sound.

HOW MUSICIANS CAN WORK ON THEIR OWN:

I highly recommend that after learning skills through classes or lessons, the musician choose very specifically during their practice time when and how they will explore applying their Alexander skills to playing, and allow certain technical issues to "fall apart". For example, they may let go of having to keep to a particular tempo, and allow themselves to practice inhibiting habits, working with new fingering or breath management ideas, or creating a place for exploring where there is no pressure to produce the right sound.

As the student gains greater and greater skill at releasing habit patterns, they use the Alexander Technique on their own to improve technique, manage stress and productively work through challenging material.

N. Brooke Lieb Certified Teacher of the Alexander Technique Member, American Society for the Alexander Technique (AmSAT) Faculty Member, American Center for the Alexander Technique (ACAT) (212) 866-0679 / brookelieb@mindspring.com

©2000, N. Brooke Lieb