ACAT Alumni Mark Josefsberg and Brooke Lieb discuss how the personal benefits they’ve gained as teachers of The Alexander Technique.
Read moreWhat was it like to train at ACAT? Graduates share their experience and then-trainees on the course give us a glimpse into the classroom.
Graduates share their experience and then-trainees on the course give us a glimpse into the classroom.
Read moreFrom the Archive: Want to Change Your Body? Use Your Mind…
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by Jeffrey Glazer (originally published Feb. 37, 2015)
Good posture, less pain, better breathing, fluid movement, even confidence; all are side effects of effective application of the Alexander Technique. You may be surprised to learn that a major key to achieving those goals lies in your thinking. The technique teaches you to utilize thought as a way of solving problems that stem from poor posture and movement habits. Since posture and movement are ultimately controlled by the brain, we can improve them by using the brain, albeit in a different way.
The key is to trust that thinking can create a positive change in the body. For example, the primary tension pattern that the Alexander Technique seeks to prevent is tightening the neck. This is because a neck that isn’t tight is essential to preventing tension in the rest of the body. To prevent tightening the neck, instead of doing something that feels like not tightening the neck, we simply think “I’m not tightening my neck.” Or, to frame it in the positive, think “neck free”.
Read moreNo more "auto pilot": Using Alexander Technique for Mindful Movement
No more "auto pilot": Using Alexander Technique for Mindful Movement
I recently began working with a student who has been living with Parkinson’s for 20+ years.
I remembered reading about John Pepper, who consciously retrained his movements to overcome foot drag and tremor, and became curious about how his conscious attending to his walking, typically an unconscious and habitual motor task, allowed him to perhaps create neural pathways that could compensate for or bypass the areas of his brain impacted by Parkinson’s.
Alexander Technique asks us to perform automatic tasks in a conscious and novel way.
Read moreFrom the Archives: Embracing Change (Originally published March 14, 2018)
From the Archives: Embracing Change (Originally published March 14, 2018)
Alexander Teachers could be considered “change agents” for the individual. We help our students expand ways of being in thinking, movement and behavior.
That can seem vague and hard to articulate, and many Alexander Teachers find ourselves momentarily tongue-ied when someone asks: “What is the Alexander Technique?”
Read moreFrom the Archives: Giving Up Good Posture (Originally published March 13, 2014)
Photo ©2011 Anne Wu, CreativeCommons License
From the Archives: Giving Up Good Posture (Originally published March 13, 2014)
by Dan Cayer
I started meditating long before I ever heard of the Alexander Technique. Now, my experience as an Alexander teacher has profoundly affected how I sit on the cushion and even how I approach meditation altogether. A week ago, I taught a workshop at the Interdependence Project called Posture, Pain, and Meditation Practice. My experience there inspired me to write about "good posture."
Read moreTraining Journal: Classes with Judith Leibowitz #31
Training Journal: Classes with Judith Leibowitz #31
October 6, 1978
It is always imperative to come back to the head. Other areas may be of great interest to work on spine curvature but not at the expense of the head.
Read moreTraining Journal: Classes with Judith Leibowitz #30
Training Journal: Classes with Judith Leibowitz #30
Judy tells people it takes from 10 to 15 lessons to start to understand, and 30 to become facile and familiar.
Walking:
Your spine is the axis around which you rotate.
As the knee bends, it's coming from the small of the back.
Read moreFrom the Archives: How To Manage Anticipatory Anxiety with the Alexander Technique
From the Archives: How To Manage Anticipatory Anxiety with the Alexander Technique
by N. Brooke Lieb When I began my training as a teacher of the Alexander Technique, my biggest "symptom" was not pain, it was anxiety. I had started to have panic attacks, where I felt light headed and would begin to hyperventilate, and I was afraid I was dying. Often, the fearful thoughts centered around having an allergic reaction to something that would prove fatal. (I have had three incidents of strong allergic reactions, one to medication, one to food and one undetermined, none of which has been fatal.)
Read moreWhat I Need Will Bring What I Want Closer: Relief
What I Need Will Bring What I Want Closer: Relief
What we want is for our pain to go away. What we need is to pay attention to what we do that creates the pain. Our wants aren’t satisfied without energy put into it, right? Our needs are a lot simpler than our wants, and are often delivered in unexpected ways. Our wants, well, we can want endlessly, about all kinds of things, but what we actually receive sometimes falls short of that list, right? And other times, what we receive is actually better and along the line of our needs instead.
Read more10 Keys to Understanding Trauma
10 Keys to Understanding Trauma
by Cate McNider (originally published here)
A very important thing to know after you have experienced something traumatic, is that the subsequent events that bring it all up again, is the body’s way of telling you, there’s leftover information in your system that needs to be emptied. It’s the triggering events that are trying to help you heal, though it feels like it just hurts and depresses you even more.
Read moreThe Hero's Journey Is Written In Your Habits
The Hero's Journey Is Written In Your Habits
by Cate McNider (originally published here)
The blindspot humans love to avoid, is that the use of themselves, how they think and move is at the root of their problems. The systems we live by are justifiably crumbling, and addressing the pains of that evidence is everywhere, in process. Routinely, I see health articles omitting the responsibility of each person looking to see what they are doing and thinking and how that is creating the dysfunction. We are the creators, is the elephant in the cosmos.
Read moreTraining Journal: Classes with Judith Leibowitz #29
Training Journal: Classes with Judith Leibowitz #29
Thursday, June 8, 1978
Working on going up on toes:
Back and up – if you feel that your weight is shifting to back of heels when you think torso back and up, you probably have a tendency to hold in the legs.
Read moreNothing outweighs experience
Training Journal: Classes with Judith Leibowitz #28
Training Journal: Classes with Judith Leibowitz #28
Wednesday, December 13, 1978
Grounding of feet is essential to the lengthening process. Otherwise the student will not risk this step for fear of falling.
Any kind of movement involving the whole body can be used to free joints for walking, particularly figure eights, in and out of the chair, and going in and out of walking etc..
Read moreTraining Journal: Classes with Judith Leibowitz #27
Training Journal: Classes with Judith Leibowitz #27
Wednesday, May 2, 1978
Working on her direction. Taking someone in and out of a chair.
We work in a spiral. Each time we learn shoulder or head direction, etc., We can grasp more. That is why we don't stick to one thing until completely learned. It is a cumulative learning experience.
Take a person into a chair.
Neck free.
Read moreTraining Journal: Classes with Judith Leibowitz #26
Training Journal: Classes with Judith Leibowitz #26
Wednesday, April 26, 1978
A. Had directions on the table
One thumb on the neck, giving “neck back” direction, and the other thumb under the jar, giving “head forward” direction.
B. when giving length to the spine from her position, it is useful to sometimes place one hand on the lower abdomen to keep pelvis from “curling up at the base”.
Working on [classmate]:
Read moreTraining Journal: Classes with Judith Leibowitz #25
Training Journal: Classes with Judith Leibowitz #25
Wednesday, April 19, 1978
Picking up a knee
First check on the freedom of the leg in the hip joint.
To free the leg:
1. Take care of yourself first, i.e., your own directions.
2. Place one hand on the pelvis, thumb on thigh. The hand is saying pelvis goes with head, thumb is directing out the knee.
Read moreTraining Journal: Classes with Judith Leibowitz #24
Wednesday, April 12, 1978
Head. Look at the angle of the back of the neck. See it and feel it. Also, neck under the chin….
Read moreTraining Journal: Classes with Judith Leibowitz #23
Training Journal: Classes with Judith Leibowitz #22
Tuesday, February 28, 1978
Turning the head on the table. Our wrists are free. Holding book between the hands. A figure eight pattern of movement allows for the expanded mobility of the wrist joint. When the other person is on the table, with their head resting on the books, we give head direction and also lateral rotation of the head on the atlas/access articulation.
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