Everyday Life

This ebook, An Alexander Technique Approach to Massage Therapists and Rolfers Taking Care of Themselves, is published on this website in a PDF format. It is especially written for the massage therapist and Rolfer.
This ebook is also for sale on all AMAZON websites in a KINDLE format.
Located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S.A. (MOVEMENT THERAPY)

When I was training in New York to become an Alexander Technique teacher, a graduate said that working with some students in the “real world” was hard work. That was why he loved to assist in the training program – the technique was easy to teach to trainees. Looking back on what this graduate said, and in light of my experiences with students, I only sacrifice myself when I don’t take care of myself as much as my students.

Taking care of myself as well as my students is absolutely core to the Alexander Technique teacher training. From my perspective as an Alexander Technique teacher, I’ve come up with the following considerations in this ebook for bodyworkers that will help you take care of yourselves and your clients.

Being kind to yourself as a boadyworker can be difficult sometimes. You are a helping profession, which usually means you help others but not yourself. You may exhaust yourself if you are trying to prove you are a loving, caring individual. I even see this with Alexander Technique teachers, who have been taught to take care of themselves in a lesson. They may remember to take care of themselves physically, but be so concerned with helping the student they still end up exhausted.

Being kind to yourself in a sesson is a thought with a feeling. If I think of being gentle to myself as I work on somebody, then my work feels whole. I truly want to be kind to a student, when I am feeling loving toward myself. This makes an Alexander Technique lesson a place of teaching and learning and not a place to exhaust yourself. A bodywork sesson offered where the kindness moves in both directions means you get twice as much as the client. You get paid, and you get the reward of seeing a client experience the joy of a released not hurting body.

I’m also writing from my background as a concert guitarist. When I went to an Alexander Technique teacher with carpal tunnel syndrome on the guitar, I wanted to get out of physical trouble as soon as I could. And I did! It is this experience as a hurting guitarist that I never forgot. After I finished my Alexander Technique training, it is this remembered pain and fear of having to stop playing and performing that I bring to my writing and teaching. It makes it possible for me to write clearly about the physical problems that so many bodyworkers create in their bodies.

The Alexander Technique makes it possible for bodyworkers to work without pain and wear and tear to their bodies. An Alexander Technique teacher shows the bodyworker how to do his/her work with a sense of power, poise, and ease. What is it exactly that an Alexander Technique teacher does for the bodyworker that makes it unique compared to other postural techniques? We teach the bodyworker to find the most effortless way to work on a client.
We teach the bodyworker that his or her whole body gives the massage or Rolfing session. If the whole body is balanced, and the technique makes personal sense, the bodyworker will work without sacrificing her body.

In the Alexander Technique the bodyworker’s well-being is paramount, and if he or she takes care of him or herself, the bodyworker will give an amazing massage or Rolfing session.