This ebook is published on this website in a PDF format.
This ebook is also for sale on all AMAZON websites in a KINDLE format.
Located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S.A. (MOVEMENT THERAPY)
The Alexander Technique makes it possible for people who have had a stroke to move as well as they use to move or even better. I am making the assumption here that a person who has had a stroke has damaged part of his or her brain and has lost control over parts of his or her body. I am also making the assumption here that the control over the body can be relearned by another part of the brain.
I am also making the assumption here that you can learn to move better than you ever moved, if you are willing to be incredibly kind and patient with yourself as you regain control over your body, and you learn with the principles of the Alexander Technique. In other words, you learn to move with more balance and ease than you ever did before you had the stroke.
This is what the founder of the Alexander Technique, F. M. Alexander, did. He had a stroke after he created the Alexander Technique, and used it to rehab himself, and moved better than he did before he had the stroke.
I believe there is an assumption that many, if not most people who have had a stroke, can never move and/or speak as if they never had a stroke. I do believe it is possible to move better than ever, if the person who had the stroke is willing to go back to being a baby or a child and learn how to move and/or speak for the first time again. It is an amazing thing to watch a person learn to move and/or speak, and to do so with gentleness and patience and faith, and not try to force themselves to regain control over his or her body.
I was a musician, and this is the same thing as learning to play a musical instrument with patience and gentleness and not try to force yourself to play better and better. Many beginners on a musical instrument are incredibly impatient with not being able to play well at the beginning.
As an Alexander Technique teacher, I do not see someone who has had a stroke until they are finished with traditional physical therapy or speech therapy rehab, because even though the Alexander Technique predates physical therapy by about 50 years, the Alexander Technique never pursued becoming part of main stream allopathic medicine like chiropractors did. So, when someone who has had a stroke comes to me, they usually have regained some control over his or her speech and or paralyzed limb or limbs.
It then becomes my job to help them move with ease and coordination for maybe the first time sense the stroke, or maybe with ease and coordination for the first time in his or her whole life. I get to help the person who has had a stroke gain loving control of his or her body maybe for the first time. As a concert guitarist who nearly ruined his wrist with carpal tunnel syndrome, I went to an Alexander Technique teacher, and I learned how to be in control of my whole body with power and gentleness.
Hello
I had a stroke 10 days ago and will be going home on thursday. I am researching ways to become stronger in every aspect of my life after the stroke and I am a highly motivated and driven person who has tested all my boundaries.I am interested in this technique and would love to learn more
thank you
Mark cullen
As you can tell by the title of my ebook, Using the Alexander Technique to Move Better after a Stroke than You Did before the Stroke. I believe a person who has had a stroke can potentially learn to move better through the postural and movement principles of the Alexander Technique than they did before the stroke.
A lot of the rehab that a person who has had a stroke goes through is to get you functional, but there is usually not a focus on the QUALITY of the movements that you’re regaining control over, like walking, eating, talking etc.
It is the goal of an Alexander Technique teacher to help you regain control over all movement aspects of your life, and do them with possibly greater ease than you did them before the stroke. The best analogy is imagine you’re a beginning piano student, and from the very beginning in your lessons the teacher focuses only on you being kind to your body. You get to learn to play the piano by letting go of the awkwardness of straining to play the instrument.
In a sense you’re a beginner again in many of your movements. Wouldn’t it be an incredible act of kindness toward yourself to learn to do what you do again, but this time with grace and ease and poise.
Look at my ebook on moving after a stroke. It will give you a greater sense of how an Alexander Teacher will work with you, and there are practical things I write about doing in the ebook that you can do by yourself.