What people say
ABOUT LESSONS WITH ANNA
I went to Anna for training in the Alexander Technique simply because I did not want to end up with a stoop in my old age like so many of my relatives. I got far more than just better posture from the programme. I walk, stand and move better and have none of the discomfort I thought was “normal”; the crick in my neck especially when driving, tight shoulders, aching and stiff back when gardening, reading and generally standing around. Slowly but surely, under Anna’s expert guidance I relearned how to move, sit and be aware of, and in tune with, my body.
I highly recommend the Alexander Technique to anyone who has specific or general aches and pains or who has forgotten how to be relaxed and at ease in their body. I cannot recommend Anna highly enough for her gentle expertise in teaching me to move gracefully once more.Jane Martin Anna's student
The Alexander Technique teaches you to be more aware of how to hold and move your body. I realised the bad habits I’d got into and the impact of these on every movement I made. I learned to be better attuned to how I am sitting, standing, walking, bending and lifting. I can’t claim to have let go of all my bad habits or to get it right all the time but I am more aware of how I move and of what I should have done. I still practise ‘semi supine’ most days – 15 minutes of space to be calm and aware of how my body is working. Anna is a good teacher – practices what she teaches, is patient, calm, a good listener and very knowledgeable about the Alexander Technique and how it can help to address specific issues.
Jenny Anna's student
Anna is an excellent teacher and also patient and kind. She has shown me ways of releasing tension in my body so that discomforts/pain can disappear over time. By paying attention to the way I move my body great improvements in my walking and posture have occurred. I thoroughly recommend her.
Mary H. Anna's student
I found the Alexander Technique extremely helpful. I still use the skills I learned in my everyday life (housework, gardening, lifting) and am much more aware now of how to reduce the risk of injury. I found that the sessions helped my ability to relax and improved my asthma. Anna is a calm and patient teacher and I enjoyed our sessions.
J. G. Anna's student
As someone who has practiced yoga, dance, chi kung and all sort of other body work, I thought I knew it all. I was willing to try AT but I didn’t expect to learn much. I was wrong. Not only do I feel generally better (and back pain is a thing of the past), but to my real surprise it’s made a difference in very unexpected ways; to the way I project my voice, and even to how I relax at the doctors and dentists. I’ve been practising for a year now, and it’s become very important to me; a way of life.
Pat G. Anna's student
As a busy mum/carer I found the Alexander Technique sessions very beneficial for learning new ways of moving, sitting, walking and driving. It also made me aware of bad habits that I had accumulated over the years which led to regular back problems. Anna treats you holistically and offers a wide range of ideas and strategies to help re-educate yourself in body awareness for which I am very grateful. It has helped me to manage stress and to relieve muscle tightness which contributed to my back discomfort. The Alexander Technique sessions have made a great difference to my life. I only wish that it was available on the NHS as I am sure it would benefit the majority of back pain sufferers.
Eleanor D. Anna's student
My lessons with Anna are a highlight of my week. Throughout my life I have given very little thought to my body, unless something ‘went wrong’ with it and then I experienced bewildering discomfort and pain. Anna teaches with patience, lightness and humour and through these lessons I am enjoying the many benefits of reconnecting with my body and how I use it. It is also continually helping me with my music making; both in singing and playing.
Julian Goodacre, Peebles Anna's student
What people say
ABOUT THE ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE
97% of people with back pain could benefit by learning the Alexander Technique – it is only a very small minority of back pain sufferers that require medical intervention such as surgery.
Jack Stern spinal neurosurgeon
I find the Alexander Technique very helpful in my work. Things happen without you trying. They get you to be light and relaxed. You must get an Alexander teacher to show it to you.
John Cleese actor
Mr Alexander has done a service to the subject [of the study of reflex and voluntary movement] by insistently treating each act as involving the whole integrated individual, the whole psychophysical man. To take a step is an affair, not of this or that limb solely, but of the total neuromuscular activity of the moment, not least of the head and neck.
Sir Charles Sherrington neurophysiologist
The Alexander Technique is based on exceptionally sophisticated observation, not only by means of vision, but to a surprising extent by using the sense of touch. I noticed with growing amazement, very striking improvements in such diverse things as high blood pressure, breathing, depth of sleep, overall cheerfulness and mental alertness, resilience against outside pressures, and also in such a refined skill as playing a musical instrument.
Professor Nicholas Tinbergen Nobel Prize winner for medicine and physiology
Balance is a vital aspect of good hammer throwing and getting the head, neck, spine and pelvis in the correct relationship enables the balance of the throw to come so much more easily. Once the balance is settled there is an enormous improvement in turning speed.
Howard Payne Commonwealth record hammer thrower
The Alexander Technique will benefit anyone whether they are an elite athlete or whether they just wish to live life without the aches and pains that many people suffer and accept as part of life. It is a pity that these techniques are not shown to us all at an early age for I have no doubt that this would alleviate many of the causes of ill health in our communities.
Greg Chappell Australian test cricketer
Alexander’s work is of first class importance and investigation by the medical profession is imperative.
British Medical Journal
The Alexander Technique really works.
Roald Dahl writer
Alexander established not only the beginnings of a far reaching science of the apparently involuntary movements that we call reflexes, but a technique of correction and self control which forms a substantial addition to our very slender resources in personal education.
George Bernard Shaw writer, Nobel Prize winner for literature
The Alexander Technique gives us all the things we have been looking for in a system of physical education: relief from strain due to maladjustment, and constant improvement in physical and mental health, increased consciousness of the physical means employed to gain the ends proposed by the will and, along with this, a general heightening of consciousness on all levels… We cannot ask for more from any system of physical education; nor, if we seriously desire to alter human beings in a desirable direction, can we ask any less.
Aldous Huxley writer
The Alexander Technique helped a long standing back problem and to get a good night’s sleep after many years of tossing and turning.
Paul Newman actor
Mr Alexander’s method lays hold of the individual as a whole, as a self-vitalising agent. He reconditions and re-educates the reflex mechanisms and brings their habits into normal relation with the functioning of the organism as a whole. I regard this method as thoroughly scientific and educationally sound.
Professor George E. Coghill Nobel Prize winning anatomist and physiologist
I love the Alexander Technique. It has corrected my posture, improved my health and changed my life.
Alec McCowen CBE actor
The Alexander Technique has played an important and beneficial part in my life.
John Houseman actor, producer and director
Alexander students rid themselves of bad postural habits and are helped to reach with their bodies and minds, an enviable degree of freedom of expression.
Michael Langham director, The Juilliard School, New York USA
It is one thing to teach the need of a return to the individual man as the ultimate agency in whatever mankind and society collectively can accomplish. It is another thing to discover the concrete procedure by which this greatest of all tasks can be executed. And this indispensable thing is exactly what Mr Alexander has accomplished.
Professor John Dewey educationalist and philosopher
The Alexander Technique has helped me to undo knots, unblock energy and deal with almost paralysing stage fright.
William Hurt actor
The Alexander Technique can be sustaining; it is something that if learned well, can be carried along with you for the rest of your life. It gives you confidence to be who you are when you are up in front of an audience.
Patrick Maddams managing director, The Royal Academy of Music
The Technique’s many benefits for actors include minimized tension, centeredness, vocal relaxation, and responsiveness, mind/body connection and about an inch and a half of additional height.
Kevin Kline actor
Of all the disciplines that form the actor training program, none is more vital, enriching and transformative than the Alexander Technique.
Harold Stone associate director, Theatre Department, The Juilliard School, New York USA
I can definitely say without hesitation that I wouldn’t have had the rowing success that I have had the luxury of experiencing in my short time on the water, without finding the AT and the great teachers that I have had the privilege to work with.
Valerie Thompson-Williams rowing masters gold medallist
The Alexander Technique makes a real difference to my often tense and busy life. Its thoughtful approach has made me calmer, improved my concentration and given me a clearer sense of my own well being. I am grateful for it.
Joan Bakewell TV presenter and journalist
The Alexander Technique changed my life. It enabled me to devote more time to creating beauty. This inner strength is essential for all.
Andrew Logan sculptor
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