The Alexander Technique is a transformative approach to improving daily movements and balance by helping individuals become more aware of their habits of tension.
In an interview with MysticMag, Jennifer Davy explains how this technique focuses on undoing harmful patterns, reducing physical pressure, and teaching better body control. She shares a remarkable success story of a man with a functional neurological disorder (FND), whose debilitating symptoms vanished after retraining his brain.
By addressing a variety of physical issues, the Technique offers lasting benefits, fundamentally altering how a person moves and interacts with their body in everyday life.
How does the Alexander Technique help people improve their daily movements and balance?
The automatic way that people move and balance involves many residual habits of tension which create measurable pressure on the body. The AT seeks to bring these habits into people’s conscious awareness; and learn to eliminate them, thus reducing the pressure, and it teaches them to balance with this new reorganization which they can then apply to whatever they do in life.
It’s a form of neuromuscular reeducation.
Can you share a memorable success story from your work with clients, particularly someone with a significant challenge?
Recently I worked with a man suffering from FND (functional neurological disorder). He experienced pain, twitching, fits, and stammering, all of which stopped when I worked with him. I taught him to create new neural pathways. I basically re-trained his brain.
What are some common misconceptions people have about the Alexander Technique before they start lessons?
It is like yoga or pilates – something where you have to be shown what to DO, as opposed to feeling how to UNDO or NON-DO. Getting people to understand how to feel a reduction in muscular tone and the resulting decrease in pressure is difficult for most at first.
How does the Technique address a range of physical issues, from sciatica to Parkinson’s?
The technique addresses all issues in the same way to begin with, whether the client is an England rugby player, a pianist, or a person with sciatica. Everyone needs to reduce pressure and get a feel for how to better control the level of effort being used in their postural muscles.
Then gradually their unique needs can be addressed eg, a violin player might bring along their instrument and look at vibrato production.
What makes the Alexander Technique a long-term investment rather than a quick fix?
Lessons in the AT lead to a thorough, permanent improvement in a person’s ‘use of themselves’. Something they can attend to ALL of the time rather than in class, with the teacher, or when they make time for it.
Lessons fundamentally alter a person’s habits whereas other things, though often nice and beneficial, will not last, especially if the person just goes back to misusing themselves in the exact same way.
Find out more at: www.jenniferdavy.co.uk
