The Alexander Technique was founded at the turn of the century by an Australian actor called F. Matthias Alexander who believed that many common illnesses are caused by our failure to use our bodies properly.

Alexander started his researches when he repeatedly lost his voice on stage. Doctors were unable to help him and more and more often he found himself losing his voice in mid-performance.

Eventually, he realized that whenever he was talking he had developed a habit of stiffening his neck and pulling his head backwards and downwards. This meant that his vocal cords got squashed and when he tried to correct the problem by deliberately putting his head forwards he again found himself pressing on his vocal cords. After months off work Alexander decided that the only solution was to make an effort to change his posture and to hold his body in such a way that his voice could be saved.

The technique worked. Alexander found that once he had learned how to stand and how to hold his head his voice no longer kept on disappearing.

Alexander was so delighted by this discovery that he never returned to the stage. Instead he decided that since he had successfully managed to conquer his own problem by changing his posture, then there was a good chance that other people would also benefit by alerting their posture. He created an educational programme aimed at eradicating bad posture and increasing self-awareness. The therapy was designed to prevent illness developing, and to treat problems which had already developed simply by training individuals to use their bodies gracefully, sensibly and according to their natural, mechanical strengths and weaknesses. Teachers of the Alexander Principle are more interested in prevention than cure, and more adept at eradicating bad habits than in attacking existing symptoms directly.

Further information can be found at:

www.alexandertechnique.com