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Pitfalls: The Disadvantages of Alexander Technique

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AT Teachers Use Special Meanings Without Defining Them

"It was disconcerting for me when I was first a student to puzzle about what the AT teacher said I was "doing." In my first lessons, these special Alexander meanings of certain common words, (such as "doing,") spun my brain. The teacher was using all these special terms that I had to wade into with questions before I could translate them. Most of the AT teachers gave answers as mysterious as the questions. What did the teacher mean about the way I collapsed in the chair after being "arranged" by the lesson? What did they mean when they said I was to perceive what I was "doing" and their tone implied that this "collapsing" was somehow not desirable? The meaning turned out to be there existed ways that I could use to undo and reverse my collapsing and slumping that didn't include my idea of "Stand Up Straight." ...But it was a long time before I figured these ways out."

Yes, it can be a rude awakening as the pupil retorts they are "Not Doing" what the teacher says they must now "Stop Doing." sense. As habits were originally created, the point of installing a habit was to make their operation disappear and become innate, so this is where the unpleasant awakening can come from.
AT teachers are trained to percieve what most students can't yet perceive themselves. These differences in perceptual ability between teacher and student can turn into possible confrontation. AT teachers will use various means of avoiding possible ego battles of "opinion" about defining what is useful and what is unnecessary by pointing at the mirror or demonstrating other living anatomy facts or using other verifiable evidence.

Why Believe an Alexander Zealot?

However tricky it is, AT teachers are in the business of making students face their limitations as well as giving students a real tool to change themselves. What teachers do not always remember is that they have already become convinced of how valuable their work is. For their students, undoing habits may still represent a loss of whatever was invested in cultivating or building those particular habits. Because of this, an AT teacher may seem like a zealot to the student in light of the teacher's certainty.

An AT teacher states:
"As soon as I started, AT represented many clear social advantages. I first applied it to my speaking mannerisms; suddenly people did not misunderstand me as often. Surprising to me was an increase in my physical stamina at my highly repetitive manufacturing work, but there it was; because of taking my hourly five minute breaks semi-supine I could work two more hours a day. Giving up certain habits might represent a loss for other people, but for me it was very clearly, "Good Riddance!""

Twisted people Are Everywhere Once You Can See Them

"Once I began to discern and observe the special state of what Alexander teachers call "use," suddenly everywhere I went, I saw people who were contorting themselves so needlessly. A similar thing was happened to me; as I opened the door to my growing ability to perceive the subtle differences in relative effort, there was no going back to my old blissful comfortableness of senseless habit. Those habits suddenly felt pressured and stupidly indulgent when before they were comforting and familiar."

Unfortunately, you can't know what you have been doing until you make a change - and by then it's too late to go back. Everyone does what they want to do with themselves until they're ready to change, and you can't help them if they don't want to be helped. Besides, talking about AT is so tricky all you can do is hand the person off to your teacher who knows what to say.

AT Takes FOREVER To Learn

As the old habit is more often given up, the new skill is often not yet completely reliable. There's often a gap between when the learner is left temporarily without resources and must rely on the teacher. Hopefully, this dependence is temporary. This gap in learning Alexander Technique can become rather lengthy - depending on how much and how fast the student is willing to change and the continuing possible benefit involved for the student. In some situations, a willingness to change can invite a sort of continual dependence if the student won't do for themselves what they know teacher can do for them.

My AT Teacher Is A Little Too Sensitive

For an Alexander teacher, what the student is thinking about is revealed quite obviously in their manner of moving that they characteristically choose. It also seems Alexander teachers can notice much more about a pupil than the pupil knows about themselves. Of course, Alexander teachers know that they are using observational ability that has been trained and that can be trained in anyone who wishes to spend the time. But a student may assign questionable emotional motivations to a teacher's ability to observe their habits; a student may feel threatened or vulnerably naked.

The ramifications of Alexander's simple little improvements on mannerisms also seem to gradually sneak up on a person, later acquiring surprising meanings. A teacher making such comments as "You had the time to move there, use it or lose it!" can later become a philosophical edict on the demoralizing way that someone has lived their life up until now.

But There's A Monster Under The Bed!

Also, AT can indirectly evoke out-dated psychological coping mechanisms. Some habits and reactions may have been designed to cope with unsavory circumstances of childhood or a phobia, avoidance pattern or coping mechanism that had been forgotten. It seems the memory of a feeling that motivated habits are sometimes lodged or held inside the memory musculature of the body. The habit is kept in place by continuing to assume a postural holding pattern, patterns that are usually retained long after the original circumstance has past. If the holding patterns are stopped, feelings and memories are released.
Alexander doesn't force change; a learner can always assume their old habits of self-protection back again. But once the avoidance has been thankfully gone, commonly, coping protection strategies probably don't work as well as before. Now that the student knows that they are holding some forgotten tragedy or trauma of the past inside, it can gnaw at them until they have all the answers to resolve it for themselves. These issues could use help from professionals in other fields.

Now I Need A New Car, Clothes and House

The strangest thing that often happens to people when they begin to study Alexander Technique is they grow in more ways than figuratively. People have complained that, because of another inch or so, they now must buy new pants. They realize that their car seat is making them uncomfortable. In one case, from living in a very ancient house with low doorframes and ceilings, a person decided they needed a new house! The old home encouraged them to stay slumped because they had to duck so often to walk around their house.

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