Alexander Technique

The Alexander Technique teaches how to recognize and overcome habituated limitations within a person’s manner of movement. The Alexander Technique is usually learned from an Alexander teacher in one-to-one sessions by an Alexander student, using specialized hand contact and verbal instructions. The name denotes both the educational methods taught by Alexander teachers and the individual method practiced by teachers and students of the technique. It takes its name from F. Matthias Alexander (1869–1955), a former Shakespearean recitalist, who first observed and formulated its principles during 1890 – 1900. Alexander regarded the empirical scientific method to be the foundation of his work. He used self-observation and reasoning to make effortless the physical acts of every-day movement: sitting, standing, breathing, working with the hands and speaking. He designed his methods to make experimentation and training deliberately repeatable, and to learn in a way that would allow continuing improvement from any starting point.