Who Learns the Alexander Technique? |
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Individuals study the Alexander Technique for a variety of reasons. Students of all ages come from a wide range of backgrounds and occupations. Listed below are comments from some students who have studied the Technique with teacher Marian Goldberg.
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Marian and the Alexander Technique have done for me what a slew of physicians and other health care professionals could not. They have liberated my neck from a cage of stiffness and pain that compromised my daily activities and sucked the joy out of living. In the process of learning the technique I have gained greater poise, balance and--most important to me--freedom to move. Life is good again.
Ellen Carl, MPH
writer
I first came to the Alexander Technique Center of Washington looking for help in improving my posture. Years of yoga and Pilates increased my strength and flexibility, but did nothing for my posture. After only a few months of working with Marian, I have relearned more natural and efficient ways to sit, stand, and walk and have come a long way towards regaining the balance and alignment of my early childhood. Ailments resulting from a lifetime of misuse—headaches, painful neck, sciatica—have all but disappeared. I look and feel better than I have in years.
Pam Cieplak
Pharmacist
I love to ice skate but problems with my left knee made the more difficult moves virtually impossible. I suspected it was an alignment problem but didn't have much hope (or know how) to solve it. Within several weeks of Alexander lessons with Marian, I could do a range of movements never before possible for me. My experience with Marian and the Technique has opened up a whole new range of motion and significantly improved my ice dancing.
Elaine Evans
An ignorant body can be a painful body. Marian Goldberg's Alexander lessons solved my problems with an extremely painful back and neck, and numbness in my arm and leg. The increased strength and flexibility allow me to pursue my interests in comfort.
Recently, several women about my age, 90 or so, said, "Your back is so straight! How do you keep it so erect?" I said, "I don't try to do it. I was taught by my teacher of the Alexander Technique to leave my body alone so that it could function the way it was made to do."
A few weeks ago, when my doctor stopped listening to my heart, he said, "Your back is so straight. How have you managed to keep your back so straight?" I replied, "I was taught to let my back keep doing what it was meant to do and to stop interfering." I like to go to an Alexander Technique lesson every week, just to remind myself to stop interfering.
Sylvia K. Shugrue
Science Teacher
The repetitive-motion strain I suffered as a professional pianist had put my career in jeopardy. Through Marian's expertise in the Alexander Technique, I've learned more efficient and natural ways to use myself. Not only can I maintain a full playing schedule, my entire technique has been transformed.
Laurie Vivona Bunn
Pianist
Sometimes, fortunately, instinct doesn’t serve us well. That was the case for years as I encountered recurring pain and stiffness in the left side of my neck. I used to knead and stretch my neck, take NSAIDs and hot showers, apply hot or cold packs--all in an attempt to reduce the discomfort. I rationalized it as job stress, believing it was just something I simply had to live with. Thinking back, I am really surprised that I didn’t permanently damage my neck. Then my life partner (we’re so hip) discovered the Alexander Technique and told me about this “new approach,” suggesting that I should try it too. I must admit that I was a bit skeptical when she first described the Technique. My first lesson with Marian was mostly an experiment, but to my delight that evening I was pain free. A few days later the pain returned, but the promise of those few days of relief returned me to another lesson. After several lessons I was still a bit bewildered as to why my neck felt so good for days afterward, each time seeming to feel better longer. I asked myself how something seemingly so subtle, almost indescribable, could be making such a difference. Slowly, week-by-week, I began to recognize and sense what I was doing with my body, mostly my neck and spine. Then one day… the epiphany. I was just driving. Suddenly it struck me how distorted I was and how my neck was beginning to feel the dreaded knot. A little shift to my neck, turn, lift… it was unbelievable. One of those moments you never forget. My neck has not hurt for many months, I’m told that my posture is better although it’s always been pretty good, and even though I no longer take a lesson every week I will continue to train in Alexander Technique always.
Jim Wilson
Business Executive
Working with Marian in the Alexander Technique helped me to alleviate vocal technique problems that had not been solved by years of working with master voice teachers. I experienced a significant increase in natural support, ease in breathing, and ease of production.
Susan Dash
Voice Teacher/Singer
My wife had gotten benefit from Marian's lessons and she suggested I try them out. As a registered nurse working for many years in an intensive care unit, my work involves a lot of bending, stooping, and lifting. I lift patients up in bed or transfer them from bed to chair and back. Marian has made a real difference in how I carry myself and how I do the physical aspect of my work. My posture is also a lot better and I am not as fatigued after a 12-hour shift as I used to be.
John L. Howell, RN
I have been playing the violin for nearly thirty years. After only two months of lessons with Marian, I am finding an ease and comfort with my instrument I never though possible. I wish I had come twenty years ago!
Elizabeth Field
Violinist
As a rider, I struggled for years with a curved lower back, trying to understand what my trainer meant by ‘carrying myself’ to achieve the feeling of ‘independence’.
My lessons in the Alexander Technique worked through my body, not just my mind. My body started to reach for the point of balance and miraculously, my horses started moving like I never thought was possible. Suddenly I could sit the trot with ease; small circles and pirouettes are easy as my horse is soft and never against my hand. My legs are now loose, not gripping the horse to compensate for my unbalance….I finally understand now the feeling of true independence.
My lessons in the Alexander technique with Marian have totally brought my dressage riding to a completely new level. My horses thank me every day with their alertness and love for the work.
Anne P. Ramires
Owner, VP Stables
Virginia
Marian Goldberg maintains a private teaching practice in the Washington area and is the Director of the Alexander Technique Center's Teacher-Training Program in Northern Virginia. Marian began studying the Alexander Technique in 1978. After a working with a variety of interpretations of the Alexander Technique from 1978 to 1980, she went on to study with Joan and Alexander Murray at the Urbana Center for the Alexander Technique in 1981. Marian is a fully-qualified teacher of the Alexander Technique, having completed a full-time (daily), three-year teacher training and two years of advanced training with the Murrays. She has been teaching the Technique since 1983 and is certified by both the Society of Teachers of the Alexander Technique (STAT), UK, and the American Society for the Alexander Technique (AmSAT). Marian has also studied with teachers trained by F. Matthias Alexander. She has taught classes and workshops in the Technique for colleges and universities and for a number of organizations, including the United States Marine Band, the Green Festival and the Why Me? Foundation. Her articles have appeared in several publications, including The Alternative Health Sourcebook and Natural Awakenings magazine. Marian has developed several web sites: "The Insider's Guide to the Alexander Technique," "John Dewey and the Alexander Technique" and "The Alexander Technique for Musicians." She is the editor of Beginning from the Beginning: A Conversation with Joan and Alexander Murray. Marian has also been certified as a Feldenkrais® Practitioner and has trained in Cranio-Sacral Therapy.
© 2000, 2006 Marian Goldberg
The Insider's Guide to the Alexander Technique
Web site maintained by Marian Goldberg
Alexander Technique Center of Washington
McLean, Virginia
e-mail: info@alexandercenter.com