Welcome! On this page you will find a variety of material of special interest to Alexander Technique students who wish to deepen their knowledge and understanding of the Technique, and to Alexander teachers and trainees. Click on the links below or scroll down the page to explore the material on this page.
Promoting Your Teaching Practice
Get a Website:
Many Alexander Technique teachers who have their own websites find that the majority of their new referrals come from their website. Unless you have all the students you want, it makes no sense whatsoever to be without one. Because of the way the web is presently structured, you cannot rely on the online or printed teachers’ listings of your professional society to bring you a significant number of new students. For almost any kind of business today, not having a website is at least the equivalent to not having a phone. It’s a clear signal to potential students that you are not a really a professional.
Ways to Use the Web Effectively:
- Click here to listen to several interviews with Alexander Technique teachers who have done this in different ways to promote their practice.
Other Tips for Promoting Your Practice:
- Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, by Chip and Dan Heath contains some of the most useful information available anywhere for Alexander Teachers who wish to effectively communicate the essential ideas of the Technique to prospective students. Click here to listen to a very short interview with one of the authors. Click here to read a blog about the authors’ ideas. Click on the following links to read more about this book or order: from USA, Canada or the UK
- Defining the Alexander Technique: Once More Into the Breach (Word download) by Alan Bowers, a New York teacher, suggests some ways we can describe the Technique in a more effective manner.
Information about Master Teachers
- Conversations about several Master Teachers of the Alexander Technique
- Marjorie Barstow – Information about this master teacher of the Technique.
- Marjorie Barstow’s Teaching – Conversation with Robert Rickover and Michael Frederick, both long-time students of Marjorie. Listen
- Marjory Barlow Workshop (1995) – Transcription by Bob Britton
- A Conversation with Marjory Barlow – Marjory talks about the Technique and it’s history
- Walter Carrington – Information about this master teacher of the Technique.
- Margaret Goldie (Miss Goldie) – Information about this master teacher of the Technique.
- Deborah Caplan – Information about this master teacher of the Technique
- Classical Alexander Technique – A site devoted to Patrick Macdonald’s approach to the Technique.
- Video Interview with the late Patrick Macdonald: Part I Part 2 Part 3 Part 4
- Placelore – Blog with material about Patrick Macdonald, Margaret Goldie and more
- Back to Simplicity – Senior Teacher Frank Ottiwell tells about his experiences with Judy Leibowitz, Patrick Macdonald, Marjorie Barstow and Walter Carrington.
He got a little ahead of himself while moving up!
Teacher Training Information
If you are thinking about training to become an Alexander Technique teacher, this link will provide you with information and advice: Alexander Technique Teacher Training.
Information Sources
General Information Sources:
- Alexander Technique Podcast – interviews on a huge array to topics related to the Alexander Technique
- Podcasts for Alexander Technique students and teachers
- Facebook has many pages and groups devoted to the Alexander Technique
- Alexander Technique teacher Anthony Kingsley talks about one reason why the Alexander Technique is so little known and appreciated
- Alexander Technique Directions, Inhibition and a new way of thinking about Body Wisdom
- Alexander Technique and Choice – A Simple and Powerful Demonstration
- Alexander Technique – How Can We Learn to Inhibit?
- Alexander Technique – How Can We Learn to Inhibit Part 2
- Alexander Technique – How Can We Learn to Inhibit Part 3
- Your Body and your Mind: More Tightly Knit than you could ever have Imagined – Part 1
- Your Body and your Mind: More Tightly Knit than you could ever have Imagined – Part 2
- Your Body and your Mind: More Tightly Knit than you could ever have Imagined – Part 3
- The power of the word “notice” for Alexander Technique teaching and self-directing
- Alexander Technique Inhibition – A Powerful and Practical Form of Outsourcing
- Language, Science and the Alexander Technique
- Interview with Pedro de Alcantara – Part 1
- Interview with Pedro de Alcantara – Part 2
- F. Matthias Alexander, Letters Volume I—1916-1942 & Letters Volume II—1942-1955 – Review by David Gibbens
- “Online Much? Here’s How to Avoid Zoom Burnout” with Clare Maxwell and Tami Bulmash
- The Value of Alexander Technique Quotations
- An Alexander Technique Lesson on Sitting Down and Standing Up
- An Alexander Technique Lesson on Sitting Down and Standing Up – Part 2
- Examining in detail a quote from Margaret Goldie
- Raymond Dart and the Art of Learning – Alex Murray
- The Development of the Dart Procedures – Joan Murray
- General Eisenhower, D-Day and the Alexander Technique
- Alexander Talk features lighthearted insightful conversations about the Alexander Technique
- German language resources for Alexander Technique teachers and students
- Alexander Technique teacher Tim Soar talks about his “Creative Attention” approach to teaching
- The Value of Alexander Technique Quotations
- The implications of the Alexander Technique self-direction “I’m not doing” and its variants
- Francisco Varela and The Gesture of Awareness: A new Direction in Cognitive Science and its Relevance to the Alexander Technique by Rachel Zahn relates cutting-edge developments in the field of cognitive science to the Alexander Technique in a thoughtful and interactive way
- Voice and the Alexander Technique by Jane Ruby Heirich contains a detailed description of the “whispered ah”
- Whispered Ah – a short video describing the procedure by Alexander Technique teacher Ron Murdoch
- The Use of the Chair – Alexander Technique teacher Nicholas Brockbank discusses this classic Alexander teaching procedure.
- Working with pregnant women – Alexander Technique teacher, childbirth educator, and doula, Ilana Machover, gives advice to AT teachers who have occasion to work with pregnant women in this audio interview.
- How to Use Bodymapping in your AT Teaching by Barbara Conable is taken from a lecture given to the Swiss Society of Teachers of the Alexander Technique.
- What Every Teacher needs to Know – An Interview with Barbara Conable – Body mapping, inhibition and direction, breathing, the spine and more.
- On “Postural Education” by Ron Dennis, suggests that the Alexander Technique has a unique role in posture education (Word doc. download).
- Guided Sensory Education in Group Lessons in the Alexander Technique (Word document download) by Bobby Rosenberg describing the processes he has found useful.
- Making Sense – Excellent and provocative article about proprioception, posture, movement and our understanding of the physical laws of nature.
- Alexander Technique in Fiction – Historical overview
- Richard Brennan, an Irish teacher of the Alexander Technique has written an article titled “Cultural Habits” which examines how our cultural background influences our habit patterns. Click here to read “Cultural Habits”.
Self Study
For Alexander Technique students who are studying with little or no help from an Alexander teacher, suggestions and links to several useful resources can be found at: Alexander Technique Self-Study.
Alternative and Controversial Views
- Newly available (2022) documents, including correspondence between Frank Pierce Jones, Marjorie Barstow, Professor John Dewey and F. Matthias Alexander, about Alexander Technique developments from the 1940s – 1980s – Part 1 Part 2
- Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6
- Jeando Masoero in an Alexander Technique teacher in France who teaches what he calls the “Initial Alexander Technique” process, based at least in part on the work of Francois Delsarte. You can listen to a series of podcasts with Jeando about his work, and the history of the Delsarte connection.
- Series of short, accessible, videos about Jeando Masoero’s Delsarte/Alexander ideas
- Jeroen Staring, a Dutch researcher, has written an extraordinarily detailed – and very provocative! – biography of F. Matthias Alexander, Frederick Matthias Alexander 1869-1955. The Origins and History of the Alexander Technique, A medical historical analysis of F.M. Alexander’s Life, Work, Technique, and Writings. Click here to read a summary of the book and learn how to order it.
- IJCS Vol 13 Issue 9 FMA Beechworth by Jeroen Staring
- The Use of the Feet – An overlooked aspect of F Mathias Alexander’s discoveries
- John Appleton is an Alexander Technique teacher and the developer of Posture Release Imagery. He puts forward some fascinating new self-help ideas based on imagery, which is sometimes a taboo subject in the Alexander Technique teaching world. They require some patience to understand at first, but many have found his ideas to be very helpful. Click here to learn more about his work
- Lessons and Learning by Nicholas Brockbank takes a critical look at Alexander Technique teaching methods.
- What is the Primary Movement? by Halvard Heggdal examines in detail a frequently mis-understood Alexander Technique concept
- The Alexander Technique Origin Story, and how it affects Alexander Teachers and Students Today
- Chained to the Chair – The dangers of chair work
- What is the Alexander Technique “Primary Movement”? – Halvard Heggdal, an AT teacher in Norway, explains
- F. Matthias Alexander and Mabel Elsworth Todd: Proximities, practices and the psycho-physical
- A Response to “A Crucial Distinction: Manner and Conditions of Use” by Joe Armstrong and a sanitized version, What’s the Use?, by Robert Rickover, originally published in the AmSAT Newsletter, explore the distinction between conditions of use and manner of use.
- Moved to Learn – Some interesting, and perhaps controversial, observations by Penelope Easten
- Margaret Goldie’s teaching and F M Alexander’s development of the Alexander Technique: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7
- Margaret Goldie’s approach to Alexander Technique inhibition
- Margaret Goldie’s teaching – podcast versions
- A Simple and Practical way to explore and use Alexander Technique Inhibition
- And Alexander Technique teacher and teacher-trainer talks about his lessons with Margaret Goldie
- F. M. Alexander: The “Breathing Man” and perhaps also the “Torso Man”
- F. Matthias Alexander, Dr. Alfred B. Olsen, Violet Elliott, and Major Reginald F. E. Austin
- John Dewey, Randolph Silliman Bourne, Albert Coumbs Barnes, and Frederic Matthias Alexander: The 1918 Controversy
- Why are most Alexander Technique teachers insecure? – Short video by Luke Ford
- Would a drill sargent be a good Alexander Technique teacher? – Another Luke Ford video
- Is the Monkey out to Lunch? – by Nicholas Brockbank, takes aim at the sacred simian.
- Three Part series by Alexander Technique teacher Terry Fitzgerald suggesting it’s time to re-examine the ways in which Alexander Training Courses are structured: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3
- Can Self-Awareness be a Hindrance to Effective Self-Directing?
- Listen to an interview with Jen Tarr, author of the study referenced below, describing the study and it’s implications.
- Educating with the hands: working on the body ⁄ self in Alexander Technique – A critical study of the Alexander Technique teaching culture from the Sociology of Health & Illness Read her study here (PDF download)
- The Transistor and the Technique, by Robert Rickover, originally published in the AmSAT Newsletter, explores some serious problems in the transmission of the Technique from FM’s head and hands to the heads and hands of today’s teachers.
- Upon Reflection – Alexander teacher Joseph Boland suggest a rigorous review and overhaul of the Alexander Technique.
- Frederick Matthias Alexander, Memory Expert “Professor Alphonse Loisette,” and
Former Politician Charles Edwin Jones - Monitoring and Analyzing “Use” – Alexander teacher Joseph Boland challenges some conventional ideas about how to improve use.
- Use of the Hips by Nicholas Brockbank questions whether going for maximum length is always the best idea.
- Michael Protzel has written two very provocative articles, “Why do we Tense our Necks?” and “Alexander’s Error ” in which he asks some fundamental questions about the basis of the Alexander Technique. These can be found at uprighting.com.
- Alexander’s Dream by Robert Rickover, originally published in Direction, asks how we can – as FM desired – do away with the Alexander Technique teaching profession.
- Change – by Nicholas Brockbank discusses some non-Alexander ways to change.
- Who Was Alexander by Robert Rickover exposes some myths about the man.
- In 1998 a spirited debate took place on the Alexander Technique Email list concerning the validity of the Alexander Technique. It has been posted by Direction Journal on the web: “On Belief Systems and Learning”
Books
Several books related to teaching the Alexander Technique can be found at Alexander Technique Books.