Alexander Technique

In her private practice, Joan has worked with clients of every age, from children to the elderly. Her students have included musicians, homemakers, architects, teachers, mental health professionals, dancers, visual artists and professionals of all kinds, including publishing, fitness, medicine and law. She has utilized her Alexander expertise as well as her background as a performer and teacher of exercise and yoga to help them overcome repetitive strain, chronic back, shoulder and neck pain, knee and foot problems and overall tension.

Through the process of individual sessions, Joan helps clients recover from injury and surgery and guides them to achieve a more graceful gait, comfortable sitting posture and fuller breathing pattern. Whenever possible, she helps people return to the activities and sports they love through a deeper understanding of their own habitual patterns and the body’s natural organization.

A back problem . . . shoulder tension . . . repeated injuries . . . TMJ . . . chronic, mysterious aches and pains . . . low energy . . . performance anxiety . . . posture or breathing problems . . . These are some reasons to study the Alexander Technique.

All of life is comprised of movement. Whether or not you get as much exercise as you’d like, you walk, climb stairs, stand as you wait for a train. You lift a child, reach into the trunk of a car. Your movement style affects how you project your voice. Even if you sit at a desk all day, you move in a way that is unique to you.

With each movement, you recreate your body’s shape and tone. You reinforce tight shoulders by pulling them forward. By sitting incorrectly, you round your back. By slumping, you press on the internal organs, constricting circulation and digestion. By neglecting to breathe fully, you restrict the flow of oxygen to the cells, depleting your vitality. Therefore, how you move is directly linked to your health, to how you look and feel.

The Alexander Technique enables you to reduce tension and compression. As you study the Technique, you begin to recognize inefficient postural habits and learn how to change them. You learn to capitalize on the body’s natural internal support system, and discover your capacity for effortless movement. By going through the day with more ease, you spare yourself undue stress and realize your body’s untapped potential. You feel taller, lighter, more graceful.

The Alexander Technique is an intelligent way to solve body problems. It is not a series of procedures or exercises, but simple principles that you learn to apply to whatever you do. The Technique’s basic premise is that, when the neck muscles do not overwork, the head balances lightly at the top of the spine and the body expands in movement.

In an Alexander lesson, the teacher analyzes your movement and helps you solve problems with visual and verbal cues and a light, encouraging touch. During one part of the lesson, you lie on a bodywork table while the teacher gently moves your limbs and guides you to release tight muscles and joints. In another segment, you learn to apply Alexander’s principles to daily activities — sitting, standing, speaking, walking and reaching — or a specialized activity that you choose — swinging a racket, playing an instrument, swimming, doing yoga, typing, driving, singing or playing an instrument.

The Alexander Technique is an elegant set of body/mind principles you can apply to whatever you do. My students use it to . . .

• Resolve longstanding back problems
• Improve posture
• Solve knee problems
• Relieve or eliminate tension and pain in the neck and shoulders
• Recuperate from hip or knee replacement and restore healthy gait
• Relieve or resolve Repetitive Strain Injury
• Learn more efficient breathing
• Learn skills and strategies to improve sleep patterns
• Learn pacing skills to avoid burnout and enhance productivity
• Explore unconscious habits of mind to free the psyche
• Calm the nervous system

Musicians, dancers, singers and actors use the Technique to . . .

• Improve partnering skills in social or stage dance
• Enliven their stage presence and improve vocal production in speaking or singing
• Play their instrument pain-free
• Improve efficiency and endurance for practice, rehearsal and performance
• Release their full capacity for artistic expression