On The Alexander Technique

On the Alexander Technique

 ‘The Alexander Technique is the study of how I use myself, my body.  It is not a form of exercise or healing. … I am both the instrument and the one who uses it.  I am an instrument that can develop and rehabilitate itself but can also harm and destroy itself.  If so, I am responsible for myself.… Alexander discovered that within the totality that is myself there are things that come first and things that come later and that everything begins with the head.’

So wrote Shmuel Nelkin, my teacher, among the first of the teachers of the Alexander Technique in Israel. (1996, 9)

Frederick Matthias Alexander (1955-1869), discoverer of the Alexander Technique, was born in Australia where he became a Shakespearian actor.  In the course of time he developed hoarseness while speaking and could no longer appear on the stage. He used a variety of techniques to cure himself but to no effect: the hoarseness returned as soon as he started to speak before an audience.  Alexander felt that his own behavior was the source of the problem so he began to do research into the special way he spoke while acting.  The central question he asked himself was, ‘What do I do that causes me to be hoarse?’  After years of research, of experiments, of mistakes and of new beginnings Alexander discovered several ‘laws of action’ governing the body and proved that that if he activated his body according to these laws, his situation improved: the hoarseness disappeared, his body functioned more efficiently, even his spirits became pleasanter, and a new quality animated his life.

        The Alexander Technique is an educational method whose principal aim is to improve the way a person uses himself.  It teaches one to make more correct use of his body and himself and, thereby, to improve his daily functioning.  All of us are exposed in the course of a day to pressures and requirements.  Great tensions accumulate within us; the body is worn down and functional problems appear, such as, back and joint pains, headaches, and breathing difficulties and more.  The Alexander Technique teaches us how to consciously manage ourselves in order to prevent the harm we do to ourselves.

For children the technique helps them learn correct movement and better habits for a healthy life.  The technique includes also an aspect of rehabilitation and reeducation – children as well as adults suffer from bad coordination, orthopedic problems, attention deficit, hyperactivity, breathing problems, stuttering and more.  The Technique also aids pregnant women and women after birth.  Because the Technique provides the foundation for a healthy life of improved quality, there may be an overlap between Alexander education and medication or medical treatments.  This overlap causes the treatment aspect of the Alexander technique.  

On the basis of experience which has accumulated during more than 100 years, it has been proven without doubt that the Alexander Technique improves health, posture and the workings of our internal systems.  It helps to dissolve unnecessary tensions, to lessen aggression, increase learning ability and attention, and to improve the quality of life.  All of these help to increase self-confidence as well as the readiness and ability to set challenges for oneself and to stand up to them.