What is the Alexander Technique?
Feeling Harmony in mind and body. Releasing tension and finding ease.
After more than 20 years of lessons in which she experienced the transformative nature of AT, Miriam decided to train as a teacher. AT has impacted every area of her life, from coaching to parenting and performing, and she has seen the life-changing benefits for her students. Every cello lesson, coaching, and performance is infused with AT principles.
The Alexander Technique is a tool for self-awareness. It is a means of observation, of looking at our thoughts, movements, feelings, and actions to better understand ourselves. Using the Technique, students gain a new perspective on what is most important to them:
relationships with coworkers and family members
job satisfaction
athletic performance
musical performance
pain management
injury rehabilitation and recovery
health and well-being
Our habits guide everything we do. The Alexander Technique leads to increased awareness and insight into those habits, giving us agency over what to keep and what to change.
AT can help reduce pain, stress, anxiety, discomfort, and tension. It is a means for re-educating our bodies and our thinking. Ease of movement and thought create new possibilities, allowing students to discover greater connection between intention and action.
During lessons, students experience AT through activity, conversation, and through subtle physical touch. Touch is a means of exploration and can enhance the lesson experience, but hands-on work is not manipulative, nor is it required. Hands-free lessons can be incredibly powerful, and many students enjoy the availability of online lessons.
Like many mind/body therapies, the experience of an Alexander Technique lesson is unique to each individual. “Improved Posture” is a phrase often heard in combination with the Technique, and while students may notice a postural shift, “fixing” is never the goal. Students often experience increased ease in movement. The benefits of this freedom extend far beyond the lesson. As one student put it, “I’m starting to think AT is about more than the pain in my back.”
Information on F.M. Alexander and the evolution of the Technique can be found here: alexander-technique
“My coachings with Miriam have been truly transformational! Her gentle approach has allowed me to find a renewed comfort in my daily body use, and her musical understanding has helped clarify how to integrate the principles of AT in my musical performance. Every coaching has a tangible effect that improves my life - whether it’s a new piece of information about how my body works, or even just a simple question she asks that rings in my head for weeks after the coaching. I highly recommend!”
“The craziest thing about it is that it looks like she was doing so little, but what she was doing helped me to do so much more and feel so much more.”
“It’s not an understatement to say Miriam saved my career. I was seriously considering switching majors before I started AT. Without Miriam and her teaching, I probably would not be playing music anymore.”