Who can benefit?
The Alexander Technique
It is also helpful where there is difficulty with balance, co-ordination or mobility. Recent research has shown it likely to provide sustained benefit for those with Parkinson's Disease. It is increasingly recognised as an effective management strategy for hypermobility conditions.
In more psychologically orientated situations such as stress, anxiety, depression and fatigue, the Technique can be successful in easing problems by enabling positive changes to the mind/body patterning involved.
It is widely used by people in the performing arts and in the world of sport to resolve performance difficulties and to refine their skills.
For those interested in personal development and self-understanding, it is a valuable discipline. Its emphasis on mindfulness highlights the distraction of constant preoccupation and the importance of returning the mind to the present moment. In teaching how to break the grip of subconscious habit, it allows freedom to truly change.
Although the Alexander Technique is primarily a method of re-education rather than a therapy, there are far reaching benefits to health from learning to put its principles into practice. The influence of poor posture is invidious. By changing the habits which shape it, there can be a sea change in how the body operates.
People usually seek out the Technique because they are suffering pain or discomfort, for example: bad backs, neck strain, headaches or joint problems, as these conditions are often being caused by or exacerbated by a habitual misuse pattern. Here it can be a remarkably effective and long-term solution. This has been borne out by a major study which was published in the British Medical Journal in 2008, and more recently by a large clinical trial funded by Arthritis Research UK.