Alexander Technique Articles:

'The Personal Account':

A personal account of a three year Alexander Technique teacher training course.

Part 3 - Imperfect Sensory Appreciation:

The feedback the mirror gave me did not in any way resemble the physical sensations I was experiencing. When I felt “right” and in balance, the mirror showed otherwise, and when I felt twisted, again the mirror showed a different story. I later understood that I was experiencing an essential aspect of F M Alexander’s discovery, faulty sensory perception.

But how could I begin to sort this out? The problem was, every time I tried to do anything, it just reinforced the twist I was now prepared to acknowledge in the mirror. That was concrete evidence I could not ignore. I was mortified that I had been so blind for so long.

Contrary to my expectations when I first joined the course, the teachers did not spend hours and hours teaching me how to move my right shoulder properly. I felt this was odd, considering that they all knew that it was the reason that had forced me to take up the Technique. The teachers would encourage me to pay attention to what my right shoulder was doing when I was midway through something else, but I had never really given it much thought. Now that I was occasionally prepared to watch the truth in the mirror, I saw what they meant. My right shoulder was highly excitable, overly involved in everything I was doing. Even just having a conversation with someone was enough to make it lift, tighten and clench. Putting my hands on someone else hugely exaggerated this tendency. I started to slowly build a picture of why playing the cello (and by the time I started the training, driving, carrying shopping, and even resting) had become such a painful business

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