The Alexander Technique

The Alexander Technique with Kim Cant

The Alexander Technique is a practical method of learning to restore your natural poise and balance that we had as young children.

During a lesson I will use light hands on contact together with verbal explanation to help you to learn to adjust your habitual movement patterns to ones which are more beneficial and less harmful.

Lessons are tailored to your individual needs but are applied to daily activities such as sitting, standing, driving a car or sitting at a computer.

During a lesson people find they can sit, stand and move with less effort and strain. Afterwards they feel taller, freer and more balanced and poised. These benefits are maintained after the lesson when individuals continue to apply what they have learned.

Learning the Alexander Technique can have a number of benefits including:

• Enhanced posture
  
• Reduced stress
  
• Reduced pain. It has been proven to reduce back pain - a clinical study published in the British Medical Journal in 2008 found that after a person had received 24 lessons they had reduced the number of days in pain over a 28 day period from 21 days to 3 days (an 86% reduction). It can also help with other painful conditions such as arthritis and RSI
  
• Increased self confidence
  
• Improved performance. Actors, musicians and sports people have found that it improved their performance.

I have always been what Alexander would have called an "end gainer". I used to rush around putting the maximum amount of effort into what I did regardless of how I went about it. This has put a tremendous strain on my body which resulted in several bouts of lower back pain and sciatica during my 30’s and early 40’s and RSI type problems when I did repetitive activities. After trying a number of different therapies for my back, I decided to try a course of Alexander Technique lessons as I was in severe pain and struggling to function in normal daily life. Within a few weeks of attending the lessons and discovering that I could help myself to improve the way I moved and I quickly came off the painkillers. The Technique then became part of my life and I enrolled on the three year training course to become an Alexander Technique Teacher.

I am a qualified member of the Society of Teachers of the Alexander Technique (STAT), a member of Back care and registered with the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council. I have an enhanced CRB disclosure.