1:1 sessions - the Alexander Technique, Mindfulness in Action

The Alexander Technique is a century-old modality that originated to help people retrain habitual patterns of movement and posture. It has been taught in drama schools for 50 years, and empowers artists in the “use of themselves.” Use of self is the way you use your body-mind-self in action. Most of us take this baseline coordination for granted, and don’t realize or claim how much agency we have over repatterining our “Use.”

AT is a mode for basically taking yourself out of autopilot so you can form new patterns of psychophysical use. Part of that is through body mapping and a nuanced kind of touch work.

You will learn ergonometric use of self, that is aligned with your body’s structure and organic design. You may feel more centered and authentic to yourself, and express your essence, wether it be in performance or life.

Because many of our earliest life experiences happened before we had words, working with our movement patterns can also deeply shift our perception and experience of the world. Tectonic shifts can happen, “body-up.” If you’ve been trying to make changes in your life, but have encountered repeating behavioral patterns, SE-informed Alexander Technique may be helpful for you. There is a deep mental unwinding that happens when our movement patterning shifts, and space begins to be made between stimulus and response. In that space lies our creative agency, in our art and in our lives.

How does it work?

Using light touch, we’ll work together at your own speed, untangling holding patterns in your body brought on by stress, and giving you more awareness of your unique body and how you move through the world. I’ll accompany you as you learn  how to use your body in a way that cooperates with your unique structure, avoids wear-and-tear on your joints and muscles, and offers a greater sense of pleasure in motion.  Lessons combine guided bodywork, exercises, applied anatomy, somatic inquiry, and an array of resources firmly rooted in the Alexander Technique and drawing from Developmental Movement, Somatic Experiencing, and Polyvagal theory to address your unique goals.

Our bodies can also hold imprints from traumatic experiences that keep us veiled in auto-pilot survival patterns, that brilliantly protected us back then, but maladaptively separate us from connection with the present moment now. We may feel hijacked by our bodies under certain circumstances, unable to access connection & creativity in the moment. Our work together will skillfully and slowly work to free the stuck places and make way for a more flexible and responsive nervous system. By contacting the disruption in the Autonomic Nervous System, hearing its messages, and giving it space-time to unwind, through a mixture of talking, feeling, moving, sensing, and more, it is possible to shift the “autonomic foundation” upon which life is experienced, and feel like yourself again. At home in your body, you increase your resilience, and can respond creatively (rather than reactively) to life.  

Anatomy of an (in-person) Alexander Technique Lesson

Who do you work with?

I love working with anyone interested in mind-body unity in action, and have specialized training with:

• Actors

  • Technique, Self-Care, and Transformation.

• Voice, Singing, Breath-work

  • Technique and Performance Skills

• Hypermobility

  • HSD, EDS

  • Athletes

  • During Pregnancy

Learn more about my work with Performing Artists

Can you do Alexander Technique on online?

For sure, you can learn Alexander Technique online. An online session typically includes:

• Discussion / check in

• Guided embodied Meditation

• Psychophysical education, through images, exercises, and embodied practice.

• problem-solving for issues arising for you - coaching and curated mindful exercises.

• You may also choose to mine stress & overwhelm in your body using tools from Somatic Experiencing®.

• Guidance and shepherding for building momentum in your exercise and wellness routines, based on your individual Nervous System, body-type, mobility and joys.

• Curated resources to further your process. 

*Alexander Technique is not a replacement for physical therapy or Psychotherapy but is an excellent supplement to both. It can help undo blocks at the body level, that opens up space for new possibilities! 

Teacher Lineage

F.M. Alexander (1869-1955)
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Walter Carrington (1915-2005)
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Joan and Alexander Murray
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Ann Rodiger with Thomas Baird, Rebecca Brooks,
Jaye Foote, Pyeng Threadgill, Sarah White-Ayón
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Tracy

Much gratitude for deep, experiential, and important learning from my colleagues at AADA:
Sheila Bandyopadhyay, Dana Calvey, Kyra Himmelbaum, Erin O’Leary, Eleanor Taylor, Sarah White-Ayón

So much gratitude to my friends and colleagues from an Undoing White Supremacy in the Alexander Technique Project for perspective, deep willingness to question and vision new realities:
Alice MacDonald, Ariel Carson, Sarah White-Ayón
and for their support and conversation around that project,
Renee Schneider, Belinda Mellow and the Alexander Technique Liberation Project

Training in the Art of Breathing with:
Jessica Wolf (disciple of Carl Stough)
And my first teacher, one year of foundational private lessons with:
Gwen Ellison