Richard Forrest
The Alexander Technique aims for the improvement of general health and functioning by stripping away unwanted tension patterns – those habitual patterns which dictate the way we do our everyday activities without our really being aware of them. Many complaints - such as back pain, headache, muscle pain, RSI, asthma, postural defects – are aggravated or caused by poor functioning. Equally commonly, many of us have a sense of impaired vitality day-to-day, without being able to identify where things may have gone wrong.
It comes as a surprise to most of us that the way we do everyday activities can cause harm. The realisation that we ourselves are often the source of our problems can however be empowering: for if we can cause harm through habitual behaviour, then equally we can avoid harm by changing our habits. Avoidance, not doing, is important: Alexander said - If we stop doing the wrong thing, the right thing will do itself.
The technique can help us to make this change – to stop doing the wrong thing. A teacher will guide you in natural, stress-free, movement and posture. The experience underlines the contrast with normal behaviour, and from this the process of change can start.Once the basics are absorbed, it is for the individual to put the principles of the technique into practice.
A few sessions can be sufficient as a grounding: participants in a trial survey publicised recently in The British Medical Journal reported continuing benefits one year after having a course of 6 sessions. Many people experience continuing benefit from additional sessions.
I first tried the Alexander technique in 1995, having been troubled for many years with persistent shoulder pain which seemed resistant to treatment. It brought me the realisation that the pain was linked with tension patterns, part of my habitual reaction to the stresses of work in a competitive City environment over many years. Subsequently I changed career, and began my training as a teacher of the technique in 2002. I graduated from the Alexander Teacher Training School in London in 2005. Thereafter I was based at the Alexander Studio in London W1, where I worked with clients individually and in small groups, before moving to York in late 2009.
To find out more, please visit http://rfatyork.co.uk
