Hello I’m James
I am an Alexander Technique teacher because AT continues to help me live my life with comfort and a sense of confidence.
I started having AT sessions because I needed help managing chronic pain and debilitating performance anxiety whilst studying at the Royal College of Music. My lessons were so beneficial that I decided to train to teach AT immediately after completing my undergrad.
I trained for 3 years at the London Centre for Alexander Technique Teacher Training and have been a STAT accredited AT teacher since 2019.
I now teach AT privately in Glasgow, no longer in pain or suffering from performance anxiety! I work with people of any age in any situation. Most often I see folk experiencing chronic pain or work related stress and people navigating a change in their life.
As a member of the LGBTQ+ community I am particularly interested in exploring the embodied experience of identity and how AT can help people navigate the world with greater ease and a sense of safety.
What is the Alexander Technique?
I define AT as “a framework that helps me explore how I choose to make contact with the world and contain myself”.
The idea is that, over the course of our lives we all learn how much effort different activities require. In the early years the activities we learn include walking, talking and throwing food across rooms. Then when we go to school we learn how to read and write and interact with other people and have friends. Maybe along the way our curiosity leads us to learning a specific complex skill like how to play a musical instrument or how to play a particular sport.
In other words we learn to execute complex patterns of physical gestures simply and efficiently so we can achieve our goals with the least effort possible. This is great because personally I would find popping to the shop for milk an overwhelmingly exhausting task if I had to think about organising every step I took.
AT is a framework for exploring our automatic patterns of physical gestures. Reflecting on how we have learnt to navigate the world affords us the option to choose whether we want to continue doing things the way we always have. Expanding our awareness of the amount of effort we use when making contact with the world means we can ask the question, can this be easier?
AT is often described as ‘good posture’ technique because how we learn to interact with the world can have an influence on how we carry ourselves and present ourselves in certain environments. I use the phrase ‘contain myself’ to describe the dynamic state of postural tone that keeps each of us upright and breathing naturally.
Who is Alexander Technique for?
Anyone and everyone!
AT is about discovery, it is not about getting things right or even necessarily achieving something. If you are feeling stuck AT sessions can provide you space to gain a new perspective and a space to explore options.
Research has shown AT sessions can be beneficial for people living with back pain, neck pain and there is amazing work being done by the Poise Project in America into AT for people living with Parkinson’s Disease.
AT is a safe, person centred approach. It is interactive and designed to suit the needs of each individual engaging with it.
What happens in a lesson?
I teach AT ‘hands-on’ which means a lesson will have a tactile element to it.
AT teachers train for 3 years to use their hands in a special way. Instead of manipulating or changing someone, our hands act as mirrors to help people orient themselves in space and gain an awareness of the quality of tension they are holding in their body.
Naturally the content of a lesson is led by what each individual pupil wants or needs. However ever the traditional elements of a session consist of:
calming down and feeling safe in the body. Most lessons include an ‘AT lie-down’, which is like a massage.
coordinating the body through simple movements such as sitting, standing and walking. Or using techniques such as the Dart procedures.
exploring natural breathing.
What should I wear?
It is best to wear loose fitting clothes that don’t restrict your movement for your lesson. I would also recommend socks as you will take your shoes off.