The Alexander Technique is a unique method for improving body-mind coordination in all activities of life.

The Alexander Technique is well-established as a performance-enhancing tool, and is taught in music and acting colleges throughout Europe and North America.

The Technique teaches people how to accomplish that freedom and mobility of the head, neck and back which makes for ease and fluidity of all movements. Learning the Technique is centered upon optimizing the freedom of the head-neck-back relationship. Scientific research concerning head orientation and posture in vertebrates indicates that there is a preferred head orientation which animals maintain through a variety of behaviours. This head orientation is associated with an alert posture and an extensive acrobatic capability. In living vertebrates it involves maintaining the semi-circular canals, or the lateral semicircular canal (a part of the organ of balance or the vestibular apparatus), in an attitude approximately level with the horizon. This is exactly what the Technique accomplishes.

The Technique was originated by F. Matthias Alexander (1869-1955) in the early 1890s. He discovered the universal principles regarding the use of the postural mechanisms while solving the difificulties he had with his voice as an actor and performer of dramatic recitations. His detailed description of the Technique is set out in his four books. See ‘literature’ for details.

Alexander had no scientific training in anatomy and physiology, but many eminent scientists have subsequently asserted that his technique satisfied all the criteria of scientific method. Recently the British Medical Journal published a major randomised controlled trial of lessons in the Alexander Technique. Its main conclusion was that individual lessons in the Technique have long term benefits for patients with chronic back pain. The original research article is published online (see links).

Alexander taught his method in London from 1904 until his death in 1955. In 1931 he started the first teachers' training course in the Technique. Today, there are approximately 4,000 teachers of the Technique.