Alexander Technique, West Dorset & London
NEXT LESSONS WITH NOËL KINGSLEY IN LONDON
November 25th, 26th, 27th (click here)
Noël Kingsley and Miranda French are a husband and wife team providing Alexander Technique lessons in their home town of Beaminster, Dorset, DT8 3BB. Both trained at the teacher training course established by Walter Carrington, himself a protégé of the founder FM Alexander. Their location in West Dorset DT8 3BB is also convenient for Bridport, Dorchester, Crewkerne, Yeovil, Chard, Somerset and East Devon.
Noël and Miranda have a passion for continuing the highest quality of traditional and authentic, one-to-one, hands-on work established by FM Alexander, the originator of the technique.
They do not give tutorials online as there is no clinical evidence to support their efficacy.
ABOUT THE ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE
The Alexander Technique is a practical method to enable you to gain conscious control of your poise, your movements and improve your performance in activities. It enhances your sense of well-being and helps eliminate postural habits that are the cause of pain and discomfort such as backache, neck pain, headaches, stiffness.
A short course of lessons enables you to use the Alexander Technique for yourself, improving posture, muscular co-ordination, balance and fluidity in all movements. It is a skill for life that helps you maintain good poise into old age and avoid postural problems. Easy to learn with expert hands-on guidance.
Alexander Technique - Dorset
By learning to use the Alexander Technique, you may help:
- Improve your stature
- Balance and co-ordination
- Restores natural poise we had as young children
- Easy fluid movement without strain
- Greater agility and stamina
- Spinal alignment
- Breathing
- Good posture
- Clearer thinking
- Natural Confidence
- During Pregnancy
- Ability to communicate effectively
- Calmness and centredness
- Sports performance
- Professional performance
- Voice
By learning to use the Alexander Technique you may help relieve :
- Stress
- Back pain
- Sciatica
- Neck ache
- Joint stiffness
- Jaw and neck stiffness
- Breathing difficulties
- Headaches
- Poor postural habits
- Pregnancy related discomfort
- Shyness and timidity
- Personal insecurity
By improving your use and poise you may also indirectly help:
- Digestion
- Bowel functions
- Circulation
- High blood pressure
- Fertility and conception
Research
ATEAM -Back Pain Clinical Trial on Alexander Technique
Alexander Technique in Education
ATLAS Neck Pain Clinical Trial - Alexander Technique and Acupuncture - ATLAS (Alexander Technique Lessons and Acupuncture Sessions).
PARKINSON'S DISEASE - Randomized controlled trial of the Alexander Technique for idiopathic Parkinson's disease
CHRONIC PAIN - Evaluation of the effect of Alexander lessons in a pain clinic setting
OSTEOARTHRITIS - Reductions in co-contraction following neuromuscular re-education in people with knee osteoarthritis
BALANCE IN OLDER PEOPLE - Balance and mobility in older adults with visual impairments
MOVEMENT CO-ORDINATION - Effects of Alexander Technique training experience on gait behaviour in older adults
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE - The Alexander Technique and musicians: a systematic review of controlled trials
PERFORMANCE STRESS - The Effect of Lessons in the Alexander Technique on Music Performance in High and Low Stress Situations
POSTURAL TONE - Increased dynamic regulation of postural tone through Alexander Technique training
How the Alexander Technique may help with health conditions....
The Alexander Technique addresses the root cause of many conditions such as back pain, neck tension, stress and the others listed above. The majority of health treatments deal with alleviating symptoms, however the Alexander Technique deals with the whole 'use of ourself' and what we are doing to ourselves habitually that causes the condition. It helps to eliminate harmful habits that are responsible for our condition, so we may cease needing treatment. But the Alexander Technique goes way beyond dealing with painful symptoms as we deal with our whole use and functioning.
The founder of the Alexander Technique, FM Alexander discovered that it is our habits that are the impeding factor in our progress towards better health and functioning, and that general mal-coordination is often mistaken for a specific defect. So for instance, poor breathing, backache etc are only a symptom (the tip of the iceberg) and not the main issue. Treatment for any condition is unlikely to have lasting benefit unless the underlying overall cause of mal-coordination is addressed. This is where the Alexander Technique comes in.
Malco-ordination affects everything we do. If we have hunched shoulders, a stoop and tendency to stiffen our neck, these unnecessary tensions and malco-ordination of our musculature will influence how we move, sit, walk or stand. They also affect us socially, professionally and in sport and even our mood and self confidence. They affect how we feel and how we interact with others. Indeed they affect everything we do. It is not possible for us to bring the best of ourselves to any activity, be it sport, singing, running, nor our ability to speak in public without nerves affecting us or even do our daily activities without pain or discomfort. Co-ordinational habits affect our posture, mobility and agility so we deteriorate and age more quickly. Yet, by unlearning these habits with the Alexander Technique we can eliminate the cause of so many aspects of our lives so we feel and function quite differently; feeling more athletic and agile, pain free with relaxed confidence and a calm, happy demeanour.
The Alexander Technique is a practical method that we learn, so we can apply the principles of the Alexander Technique for ourselves during our daily lives. Sessions in the Alexander Technique are in the form of lessons rather than treatment, so we become familiar with the principles of the Alexander Technique and are able to use it for our own benefit. With the hands-on guidance we receive from a qualified teacher of the Alexander Technique, the accuracy of our sensory perception is improved, providing us with more sensitivity and accurate awareness of what we are doing with our poise and muscles, and we develop a specific ability in how to use the Alexander Technique to help ourselves and avoid problems. As FM Alexander said, "If we stop doing the wrong thing, the right thing does itself".
FM Alexander discovered that there is a Primary Control in the relationship of our head, neck and back that governs the whole of our co-ordination in movement and poise. It is learning to use this Primary Control and not disturb this delicate interrelationship by means of the Alexander Technique that enables us to influence the healthy co-ordination of our many hundreds of muscles when standing, sitting, walking or any other activity in a very simple way.
When we begin to consciously control our muscular co-ordination with the Alexander Technique we prevent postural habits from dictating how we move so we can revive the natural poise we had as young children. The instinct for healthy poise is there from birth and is with us all our lives, and it is this that is revived by using the Alexander Technique on a daily basis. The new control we gain with the Alexander Technique allows us to function better, avoiding the strain and imbalance that is the cause of so many conditions and painful symptoms and the old habits slip away as new improved and natural poise is restored.
If we are having treatment for a specific condition, the Alexander Technique is likely to work alongside the treatment very well, so that our postural habits that caused the condition are reduced. It is most likely that the Alexander Technique will provide a means of eliminating the cause of problems so they cease to exist and symptoms disappear; the Alexander Technique will also enable other treatments to be more effective.
The improved general functioning achieved by using the Alexander Technique can be surprising and new opportunities open up for us to express ourselves and even start new activities that may not have previously been possible given our condition. Rather than being restricting, the Alexander Technique actually allows new possibilities to enter our lives, on a physical level as well as professionally, socially, and emotionally. With the Alexander Technique we release the habits that have been so restrictive in the past.
Learning the Alexander Technique can literally change our lives. Having a course of lessons in the Alexander Technique may cost the price of a short holiday, but it is a skill that will be with us for the rest of our lives. This means that although we may have an initial course in the Alexander Technique and then possibly supported by occasional top-up lessons we do not need to continue seeking treatment. We will be able to bring the best from ourselves so we can be more healthy and active for the rest of our life.
Noël Kingsley MSTAT, was trained by a protégé of FM Alexander himself and Miranda French MSTAT also trained at the same training school. They both give Alexander Technique lessons in their home town of Beaminster Dorset DT8.
Noël Kingsley and Miranda French are registered members of The Society of Teachers of the Alexander Technique
Noël Kingsley MSTAT
Miranda French, MSTAT
3 St Mary Well Street,
Beaminster, Dorset DT8 3BB
Enquiries and appointments telephone:
01308 861759 and 07968 389762
email: noel@alexander-technique.com
miranda@alexander-technique.com
The Alexander Technique not only helps your body work more efficiently, but also your mind! After a lesson with Noël I think more clearly, communicate more effectively and generally feel much calmer.
Karen Wheeler
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