Posts Tagged ‘Chronic Pain’

My ebooks are published on this website in a PDF format are very detailed and practical.
My ebooks are also for sale on all AMAZON websites in a KINDLE format.
Located in Albuquerque, NM, U.S.A. (MOVEMENT THERAPY)

When I was in the Alexander Technique training, there was an Alexander Technique teacher who had an intense case of scoliosis. She was totally functional and pain-free, even though her scoliosis was very obvious. She had never had surgery to insert rods in her back, and she said it was because of the Alexander Technique.

She said she had gone to an Alexander Technique teacher as her very last resort before surgery. Because her work with the Alexander Technique teacher stabilized her back, and in fact reduced some of the collapse in her spine, she never had the surgery and trained to become an Alexander teacher.

What is it that the Alexander Technique did for her that allowed her to not have to place rods in her back? It gave her Conscious Control of her body. What do I mean by Conscious Control. Conscious Control in the Alexander Technique is the teaching of a client to ask/order his or body to do something or stop doing something, and the body responds with release and balance to the thought.

We all do this unconsciously all of the time. What do I mean? Whether we’re aware of it or not, our bodies demonstrate 24/7 what we believe about ourselves and our relationship to our bodies. Many of us have a belief that we can’t release all of our aches and pains and poor postures. Many do believe we have a fairly descent over our bodies, but over time as aches and pains appear and we live with them non-stop, this really reinforces our beliefs that we can’t simply ask our bodies to stop hurting.

Is this true? The Alexander Technique teaches clients it isn’t. When you ask/order your arm to bend, this is Conscious Control over your body at a large gross level. If you ask/order your neck to release and your shoulder to float on the ribcage so that your shoulder stops hurting, then this is Conscious Control at a much more subtle level.

If a person with severe scoliosis says to herself, “My neck is free and my head is leading a lengthening neck and spine upwards”, then this is the beginning of Conscious Control over her scoliosis – the reversal of her collapse.

What the Alexander Technique does so brilliantly is give the client back Conscious Control over his or her musculature, and there is something else that the Alexander Technique does for the client. We teach the client where his or her body would like to be, if it wasn’t contorted by pain and poor posture and poor use habits.

We teach the person with scoliosis that it is ideal if she organizes her body with a free neck leading a lengthening spine into a powerful released dynamic upright, and that this upright is different for everybody. What I mean is if you say to yourself, “My neck is free and my head is leading a lengthening spine fully upward as I begin to walk”, then you are leaving room for your body to find its own alignment, balance, and elegant posture, without imposing static rules of a held one size fits all posture.

So, an Alexander Technique teacher’s function is to give clients back control of their bodies in everyday and specialized activities, and that is what I’ve written about and give practical useable examples of in all of my ebooks on this website.