Have you ever felt a twinge in your back, neck, or shoulder?

Maybe you have a tight hip or an unstable knee?

Perhaps you have poor posture?

These are signs that your body is out of alignment. So how do you re-establish proper, healthy alignment?

You have an innate mechanism for that: a reflex that organizes your head, neck, and back so that your whole body performs effortlessly and efficiently. You need only stay out of its way; the Alexander Technique teaches you how.

The Alexander Technique is a system of (five) principles that describes how to consciously allow your body to realign itself.

When you use the Technique, you restore your body's innate internal organization and undercut harmful habits such as slouching, hunching, and clenching. You also enjoy better balance, coordination, and overall health and well-being.

The Alexander Technique is a form of preventive health education that empowers you to take charge of your health and well-being at any age, for any stage of your life.

As with all fields of education, the Technique rewards you in proportion to your perseverance in learning and applying it, and the knowledge and understanding you develop is forever your own.

In a lesson, I'll guide you toward a better organization of your body by employing demonstration, verbal directions, visual aids, and touch. With my assistance, you'll then perform simple movements (called "procedures") in a way that respects this healthful relationship between your head, your spine, your feet, and the rest of your body.

Practicing these procedures in the course of everyday life will develop your body awareness and improve your body's functioning, thus increasing the ease and efficiency manifested in all your physical activities.

I'll carefully customize each lesson, choosing procedures that will challenge you and increase your facility with the Technique. I'll continually adapt my instruction to meet your needs and answer your questions as they arise.

Finally, I'll offer recommendations on specific things to work on until the next lesson.

The first lesson typically takes about 90 minutes; subsequent lessons are 60 minutes.

Students typically need 5–10 lessons to gain a practical understanding of the Technique. The number of lessons depends on:

• • the condition of your use (use is the manner in which you use your body to carry out any activity in life)

  • the severity of your injury or ailment (if any), and

  • how well you practice the Technique and work to incorporate it into your daily life.

With this basic understanding, you will have the tools to make progress on your own—progress in increasing your awareness of your habits, in reducing pain, in improving your game, etc.

Subsequent lessons will refine your understanding and teach how to use the Technique under a wider set of circumstances. This working knowledge may be especially useful and interesting for athletes, dancers, musicians, and others engaged in physically or technically demanding pursuits.

To truly make the changes in thinking and behavior stick, you should plan to take lessons spanning at least two months, for this is the length of time required to form a new habit.