The Alexander Technique teaches you the skills to help you move well and live better, in all that you do.

AAW 2024

What is the Alexander Technique?

The Alexander Technique is a skill for self-development teaching you to change long-standing habits that cause unnecessary tension in everything you do.

Whatever your age or ability, the Technique can help boost your performance in any activity and relieve the pain and stress caused by postural habits, like slouching or rounded shoulders.

Working with your teacher, you will learn to recognise your usual reactions to the stresses of life. You will find out how you have been contributing to your problems, how to prevent them and regain control.

Find a STAT qualified teacher

Alexander Technique can help you with the following problems:

  • Back, neck and joint pain
  • Muscle tension and stiffness
  • Poor posture
  • Breathing and vocal problems
  • Stress and stress-related conditions

Read more about the benefits of Alexander Technique

The advice and coaching from my Alexander teacher during training for a London to Paris bike ride transformed my experience immeasurably and I am pleased to say that I was really able to enjoy the event without suffering as many of my co-participants did. I would urge anyone who is considering any physical challenge and is interested in, or, practising AT to seek some specific AT tips and advice.

Sally Buckle

I started the Alexander Technique due to slight scoliosis and a stretched nerve in my left lower back and I thought it would improve my posture which could only help my injury! I've got far more out of the technique than just improved posture! The first thing that I've learned is how to work with my Alexander Technique teacher and my body to control the pain! When the horrible muscle spasms start, I can now use breathing to help instead of lying on the floor helpless.

Lyndsey Hayes - Social Sciences teacher

At about the age of 45, I began to experience severe pain in both of my knees. I was told I had damaged the cartilage, initially caused by the use of a kicking strap on a sailing dinghy, and made worse by many years of beagling, and to stop beagling or risk ending up in a wheelchair. A few years later a friend suggested the Alexander Technique. At first I was very sceptical, but had also reached the stage where I was ready to try virtually any means to solve the problem. A few weeks after my first lesson, I had gone out beagling, but only walking.

Chris Walsh

During a recent traumatic period I was able to maintain physical wellness, and through that, mental wellness at a time when I could have gone downhill rapidly. The Alexander Technique gives you the control and 'power' to deal with anything physical that life throws at you.

Carol Hedges - Author

It is a challenge to try to summarize the experience [of the Alexander Technique], as I find it (and it finds me) being the constant change, not there to be grasped. The most measureable is the sharpening of all the senses. My violinist ears react to the most subtle nuances in the sound and the experience is that of all the senses 'working' on the sound (and the means that are producing it), when I play. This has made possible the greater awareness in the moment present.

Agnieszka Opiola, Independent Violinist, Glasgow

What are the core principles of the Alexander Technique?

  • How you move, sit and stand affect how well you function.
  • The mind and body work together intimately as one, each constantly influencing the other.
  • Becoming more mindful of the way you go about your daily activities is necessary to make changes and gain benefit.
  • The relationship of the head, neck and spine is fundamental to your ability to function optimally.

Conditions such as backache, neck and shoulder pain, as well as other sorts of long-term musculoskeletal pain are often the result of misusing our body over a long period of time, such as moving inefficiently and standing or sitting with our weight unevenly distributed. The aim of the Alexander Technique is to help you "unlearn" these old habits and achieve a balanced, more naturally aligned body, and we have the evidence to support it.

Go to Alexander Technique research

Who we are

The Society of Teachers of the Alexander Technique (STAT) is the largest professional association of Alexander Technique Teachers worldwide, established in 1958 by teachers trained by FM Alexander.

We are responsible for maintaining professional standards of our members and for the promotion of the Alexander Technique. Only teaching members of STAT are eligible to use our stamp of approval, identifying them as fully trained Alexander Technique teachers who abide by the Society's Rules and Regulations.

When looking for a teacher, look out for this seal of approval:

STAT Collective Mark

 

Diversity, inclusion and anti-discrimination

STAT supports the fundamental human rights and dignity of all people.

We do not discriminate nor condone any expression of discrimination against any person on the basis of age, colour, disability, gender expression, race, nationality, ethnic or national origin, religion or belief, creed, sex or sexual orientation and economic status. more...

 

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