Articles about the Alexander Technique

Note about this page: The latest issue of Positive Health magazine is published on the 4th Thursday of each month. The articles from that issue (or summaries thereof) are placed on this web site on or about the same date.

Alexander Self-Help by Nicholas Brockbank Although the Alexander Technique has traditionally been passed on through the medium of touch, with the hands of the teacher guiding the student, the originator of the technique, FM Alexander, was entirely self-taught.

Morphology and the Alexander Technique by Joel Carbonnel As a keen reader and interpreter of the human form, Alexander was constantly making use of morphology (the study of form). At a glance he could detect various morphological signs, such as “a marked lumbar curve of the spine, fallen arches of the feet, a pouter-pigeon style chest, an undue depression of the larynx, an undue rigidity of the thorax, hips held too far forward, knee joints pressed too far back, an upper chest unduly raised…”. He knew that all these outer signs reflected inner defects and that they are all the result of misuse.

Links to other Alexander
web sites

Alexander Technique Center of Washington D.C. Articles and information

Alexander Technique, The   Good site with high quality information and links

Alexander Technique International Articles and general information on the Alexander Technique. Contact names and addresses.

Alexanderworks – A guide to the usefulness of the Alexander Technique for diverse medical conditions, including back pain and arthritis.

American Society for the Alexander Technique  A useful site with informative articles, links and lists of practitioners, training and workshops

Cardiff Consultancy for the Alexander Technique. A number of interesting articles on the Technique

Complete Guide to the Alexander Technique  General information on the Alexander Technique with articles and extensive links. A good starting point.

The International Equine Resource Center   An interesting article on Alexander Technique for farriers who are particularly prone to back problems

The Society of Teachers of The Alexander Technique. Useful site of a major Alexander Technique organization at the UK

Westminster Alexander Centre in London. General information, articles and details about the Centre

The Alexander Technique Confessions of a Non-conformist Alexandroid by Lucy Grant In this article I would like to go over the main themes that form the foundation of the Alexander Technique, and explain them to you in a way that I hope will make them clear, and demonstrate their pertinence for all of us today.

Alexander Technique Teacher Training by Jonathan Dean “How long does it take to become an Alexander teacher?” is a question people often ask, and when I reply that it’s a three-year, full-time training, it usually meets with some degree of surprise. Perhaps because people tend to associate the Technique with posture, and assume that this is something that can be ‘corrected’ fairly quickly, there is an expectation that one should be able to train to teach the Technique in a comparatively short space of time. So: why does it take so long? What goes on in a training? What exactly is the Alexander Technique about?

Alexander Technique and Swimming by Steven Shaw From my lessons in the Alexander Technique I learned that the biggest obstacle to change is that habitual patterns of behaviour normally feel right to us and changing them often feels wrong. For me, swimming with tension felt comfortable and swimming with less effort felt uncomfortable and wrong.