Alexander Technique Made Easy
Alexander Technique Surrey
Having taught the Alexander Technique for 20 years, I offer clients the confidence to know that they will receive the best possible experience the Alexander Technique has to offer.’
Nick Chapman
Alexander Technique
Nick Chapman has developed a unique approach to teaching the Alexander Technique Online
Thank you for visiting Alexander Technique Made Easy. I have been a practising Alexander Technique Teacher for 20 years. My teaching practice takes place in Surrey, Central London and North London. I teach in Hinchley Wood, Esher and in Cobham, Surrey. There is a Monday clinic in Moorgate at Physical Health. North London is home visits only on Thursdays.
The NHS now has a dedicated page on the Alexander method. Click here to view.
What is the Alexander Technique?
This technique can help you with back pain and most muscular problems. Through a process of re-education, you will learn how to combat long-standing habits of bad posture, which affect health, performance, and well-being. The technique teaches us to identify harmful habits that affect us physically, intellectually, and emotionally. The method alters our understanding of the world.
Nick Chapman has created a blog to explore some of these articles. Here is the latest…
Good posture is not just an aesthetic but a fundamental expression of well being at the deepest levels.
Nick Chapman
“Nick Chapman is an amazing teacher and has transformed my back in a way I did not think possible. He has really helped my kids too.”
Dennis
Quote of the Moment
Get a home visit. Would you like a home visit?
Call 07813 298257 or email npchapman@gmail.com
and find a teacher who will visit you in the Surrey or North London area.
Why use the Alexander Technique?
How To Fix Posture
Nick Chapman has taught over 20,000 lessons.
Millions of people have learnt this Technique worldwide since the 1890s.
There are many benefits to the Alexander Technique, some more obvious than others. Above all else, it is a technique of the utmost personal development. By improving our awareness of the body in everyday functioning, we become more and more at peace with ourselves. We enable ourselves to become happy and fully functioning individuals. It is, therefore, very beneficial for many anxiety conditions. Using inhibition and direction and becoming aware of the psycho-physical in everyday life is probably the best way towards genuine self-improvement and takes a lifetime to master.
Clinical Evidence: Alexander Technique Really Does Help With Back pain
A fully Proven method.In 2008 the BMJ published a report on the Alexander technique, and the results were highly conclusive. The technique worked to solve back pain better than any other method.
(original research)
Further Research (November 2015)
Video about the randomised controlled trial of Alexander technique lessons;
Read an article about back pain: Alexander Technique and back pain
Resources
I practice the Alexander Technique in Surrey; however, this website has many different resources to help you; if you would like to understand some of the thinking behind the technique, please read on…
The first lesson is described in detail. Perhaps you suffer from insomnia. I did for many years before I discovered this work. You can find a brief history of F M Alexander. If you would like to hear about other people’s experiences working with me, please watch the testimonial videos and read the exciting testimonial from a former Alexander Technique student. You can find out about my extensive teaching experience on the about Nick page.
Golf
It was always my dream to work with and improve sportspeople, making them more competitive. It was very difficult to settle on a sport that was suitable. One day a friend asked if I wanted to play some golf with him. It’s true to say I was hooked from the start. It wasn’t long before I started Alexander Technique golf. A different approach, but one that has a 100% success rate so far. Because the two subjects are so closely linked. We want to learn how we use ourselves in both activities. Alexander Technique golf was born out of obsession, but it is also totally inevitable!
I am now a keen golfer and currently work with PGA pro James Taverner, who is finding it very useful for improving his golf. If you’d like to improve your golf, the Alexander Technique can really do this in ways you could never have imagined. Just ask James.
I’m also working with the Hendon Golf Club: I play here regularly and teach the technique to General Manager Pete Dickson, who was feeling a bit down about his golf… He said that after just one lesson, his golf improved! Matt Deal – the PGA pro at Henden, is currently having lessons and also his assistant Ian.
Alexander Technique History
The Alexander Technique was invented by F M Alexander, who wrote four books about his technique. The Alexander method is a far more effective way to deal with back pain than most systems. This is because it helps you to understand that most problems stem from our own behaviour, both mentally and physically. Rather than depending on a practitioner to fix you, the Alexander Technique is a method of re-education. It teaches you to change harmful habits that interfere with the natural balance of the head, neck and back.
The Alexander Technique Really Works
Most people start using the technique and find that after three or four lessons, the pain is easing off. However, in more severe cases where other treatments have failed, it may take longer to relieve the pain and stress. Over the years, many people have realised that much of their muscular pain is also related to their emotional and psychological attitudes. The Alexander teacher subtly addresses these. If a person has tension running deep over many years, it may take 30 sessions to start to shift the pain.
As a practitioner, I have never found a single person to continue these many lessons and still experience pain. Sadly many people stop their lessons before they have given them a chance to penetrate their own malfunctions. It is practically impossible to use the technique as described in F M Alexanders’ books and still experience pain. If this does happen, I would recommend a course in therapy: it is bound to be psychological issues that prevent a person from moving on. Of course, the exception is when a person has a debilitating medical condition. The simple fact remains that the majority of people need to address their own very personal issues. This is the Alexander Technique in Surrey. If you are too far away, try having an online Alexander Technique lesson. Make sure you visit a certified teacher who is working full-time as an Alexander Technique teacher.
So what is the Alexander Technique
There are a wide variety of techniques that you will learn, the first of which is the single most important and, therefore, most difficult to grasp. It is called inhibition and literally means to stop. To inhibit an action that would have been performed unconsciously or habitually. This brings you to a level of awareness of your body and also your general condition.
You will then study in some depth the following process, which can be divided into three headings; The Psycho-physical, the Primary Control and Direction.
The psycho-physical is merely the connection between mind and body-perhaps thinking in action. The Primary Control then teaches you how to ignite or begin to engage in the
Once you get going with all of this, you will then learn the position of mechanical advantage-namely the Monkey. The ultimate postural alignment generates a new condition for the musculoskeletal. This must also be taught alongside the cross patternation – the walking. We all walk badly unless we relearn the process. This is inevitable due to the very nature of walking and our evolutionary experience of it.
We will learn how to perform actions and tasks as directed procedures, and we will break with unconscious habit and become wholly aware of the how-to, the means whereby we fulfil an action and move away from our old habitual trap of end-gaining.
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