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A few days ago I was sent a video of my one-year-old nephew taking his first steps. I was struck by the pure joy that he expressed as he laughed with delight every time he picked himself up from the floor and was able to take a few steps, his postural balance developing at every new attempt.

As I was walking through Burgess Park (my local SE London much-loved green space) this morning, I thought about that delight in walking and I began actively directing my own walking through my Alexander Technique Directions. Letting my neck be free from tension to allow my head to release upwards to let my trunk lengthen and my back widen.

I immediately could feel the difference this thinking was making on my steps. Freed from compression from above, my legs were responding with renewed springiness. I felt myself walk with more ease and flexibility. My knees bending effortlessly and my ankles and feet flexing smoothly. Walking suddenly became more enjoyable.

Even after years of practicing and teaching the Alexander Technique myself, I am constantly rediscovering my joy in such everyday activities. And walking is just one of many everyday and yet essential actions that can be improved by better coordinating the use of our body.

If you want to learn how you can do what you do better, give me a call and talk with me about how the Alexander Technique can change that for you.

I have just finished running a three-session workshop on “Alexander Technique for the Prevention of Musculoskeletal Disorders and Release of Stress for/in the Sonography Profession at the brand new Chase Farm Hospital, for the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust.

Over my years of working with Alexander Technique for the radiography professions, I have learned that working as a sonographer involves a sequence of repetitive movements carried out regularly. The concentration required by these precise movements together with the focused reading of images on screen often results in forgetting about one’s own body and how it is being used—or misused. In each session of these workshops I guided the team into experiencing how much tension they were unconsciously carrying in various parts of their body and how a better, more natural use could be learned and applied in the way they worked.

We looked at and explored together:

Session 1: Head-neck-back relationship – postural balance and spine upward direction

Session 2: Sitting bones and their supportive connection to fine-tuned hand movements

Session 3: Shoulders and arms support from the trunk

At the end of each session I guided the team in the Constructive Rest Procedure which consists of verbal instructions and hands-on guidance to carry out full mind-body integration and re-alignment. We also explored the importance of breathing naturally to re-balance the nervous system with guided Breathe in with Ease and Breathe out Tension exercises.

The Technique is a great tool to help overcome poor coordination and ensuing tension. At its root is a method of neuromuscular re-education that positively affects the entire musculoskeletal system. This leads to better understanding and use of the body – the way the various parts of the body are connected and affect each other and the way it is meant to function naturally in movements.

Learning and applying the Technique leads to improvement in mobility, postural balance and muscle tone – our coordination is enhanced and we function more efficiently.

Alexander Technique and its relevance for free breath and voice production: My latest article

April 3, 2022

Alexander Technique ‘directions’ and their relevance to breath and voice: This is an article I wrote for the 2021 Review Journal of AOTOS (Association of Teachers of Singing), focusing on the important role of coordination of the neuromuscular skeletal system for breath and voice.

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THE ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE AND ME: My personal journey of self-discovery

January 6, 2020

I was in Istanbul with my partner, celebrating my birthday when my neck froze for the first time. We had visited Hagias Sofia in the morning, then went for an afternoon dip in an open-air thermal spa, followed by dinner in a tiny restaurant on the Bosporus. It had been a lovely day. I woke up […]

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SEMI-SUPINE FLOOR WORK: a practice that promotes back realignment through tension release 

February 23, 2019

An integral part of learning the Alexander Technique is to practise this resting balancing state. In semi-supine we are encouraging the back muscles to coordinate so that deeply held tensions can start to let go. The intervertebral disks in our spine are subject to pressure during the day as our body weight pushes down. Cartilage […]

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Low-level letterboxes should be banned to prevent postal workers straining their backs or being bitten by dogs, a Conservative MP has said

January 29, 2019

It’s going to take a while to change all the low level letterboxes already in existence so, in the meantime posties could adopt some of the Alexander Technique advice on how to bend correctly. There are many posturally balanced positions that we can learn in order to use ourselves in an efficient, organised way, bending […]

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“An Introduction to Alexander Technique for Mammographers”: Course I am running in London

June 24, 2018

I have been running these workshops for the Society of Radiographers since 2010. The latest took place on 7th June 2018. These interactive practical workshops are an introduction to the Alexander Technique as an educational training programme and specifically its application to working as a mammographer. The Technique is a practical method which involves the participants taking […]

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Explaining the Alexander Technique to clinicians and scientists: a very useful presentation

January 15, 2018

In late 2017, I attended an inspiring presentation (organised by HITE at UCL in London) given by Alison Loram and Ian Loram–“Mechanisms of sensorimotor control relevant to the Alexander Technique”. Particularly interesting to me was the scientific focus on the importance of the neck as a key factor in sensing and controlling motor response in […]

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Neck pain and Alexander Technique: New study

June 3, 2017

A new study in collaboration with the Society of Teachers of the Alexander Technique published in the prestigious Annals of Internal Medicine demonstrates what has been known all along by Alexander Technique teachers: that improving the way we go about our daily activities can relieve a pain in the neck.

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Alexander Technique on the BBC

June 3, 2017

The potential of the Alexander Technique played a starring role in the BBC’s latest series of ‘Doctor in the House’ recently, when the doctor sought the advice of a practitioner of the Technique to help improve the posture of a Paralympian troubled by debilitating pain that was beginning to seriously compromise his sporting performance and […]

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