A Short History of Me

I came to the Alexander Technique as an actor in 1991 and was hoping it would help me on stage with the more physical demands an actor has to cope with. At the time I was also working with a friend helping him to make clocks, mirrors, candle holders and general giftware. Bending metal around jigs, lifting huge sheets of metal and basically struggling to keep up with this incredibly physically challenging work.

When I started my lessons I really started cold, I knew nothing about the technique and I have to be honest  I really did not have a clue what it was all about! One day, after my sixth  lesson, I went to work and was given the heinous task of  cutting through some 8mm steel rods using a pair of bolt cutters. I can tell you I hated the job as it was really difficult to get through the metal. I would feel this huge grating through my whole body and the whole effort was terribly uncomfortable, something akin to chalk being scraped across a blackboard.  However, on this occasion it was suddenly like cutting through marshmallow! My body had been realigned in some way that made any physical work seem effortless. My mind and my body had changed, I was more relaxed. I realised there was something quite magical about the technique and decided to continue with the lessons and learn some more.

I found that after a pretty difficult life, full of  adversity, that had left me stressed, anxious and generally out of sorts, I was more confident, poised, balanced and far far happier, so I trained as a teacher. I trained at Lansdowne road in Holland Park with Dylis and Walter Carrington . He studied with Alexander and  was one of the most prolific teachers ever in the country. He is now a legend. I am forever grateful to have known him, let alone to have been fully trained by him. His wife Dylis was also my teacher and she was just as influential.

After graduation I started teaching full time. Running a busy practise in the Camden Town area, I have met many different people and situations. The technique has helped with a variety of people from different backgrounds and currently I am working with The Odyssey Trust  helping drug users. Glenside Manor Nursing  home have found great benefits for their nurses using the technique for stress and  the management of various physical problems from manoeuvring and handling high risk patients. I also work in various companies helping with  stress and other pains associated with modern working life. I hold monthly introductory  workshops  at  The North London Buddhist centre in Holloway Road and also at Sequin Park women’s Gym  and at www.lauderdalehouse.co.uk.