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ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE: CASE HISTORIES
The following are the most clear-cut cases from my records. There are many others who were also helped greatly, often with more complex problems which can't be described in a few lines. All names have been changed.
A scoliosis cannot be straightened, but can be helped. With Alexander work tense muscles relax, while under functioning muscles wake up, and the body learns to align & support itself through the vertical axis despite the scoliosis twisting it off to either side. Over a course of lessons the twists and distortions are reduced to their minimum, and the pains diminish.
JOAN: 40s, scoliosis since adulthood. Her back was bearable in day to day tasks, but prevented her from sitting at the sewing machine doing textile art.
After a course of lessons her back was much stronger & more comfortable. She realised her priority was her art. She could now sit at her sewing machine for 30 minute stints, in between she lay on the floor for 10 minutes to rest & realign the back. She has now had several big exhibitions; and years later continues to use the technique to keep her back under control.
MELISSA: 25. A severe scoliosis that prevented her from doing much physical activity. A creative & practical person, She & her husband were doing up an old house, but she could hardly help. After a course of lessons she became fully active in the house renewals, including sanding and painting skirting boards!
This is an irreversible operation to support a very weak back. In all three cases seen the technique "woke up" the muscles of the back which was then able to support itself. All three were then very angry they had had an irreversible & intrusive procedure. Could using the technique earlier have avoided this?
KIM, 25 . A car accident age 4 left her partially disabled, imbalanced & with a lurching walk. At 18 a full rod was inserted to support her. At 23 she fell & broke the rod; nothing could be done to help. She wore a surgical corset, & had not worked for 18 months. Within 2 lessons she did not need the corset. In three months her back was strong to return to work, though no longer to work with old people. She became a tea lady, carrying heavy trays of tea & cups into board meetings; the Alexander technique helped her control her balance to achieve this.
THERESA, 24 . Partial rod inserted after car accident. A course of lessons got her functioning normally, no longer fearing falling, & her back was strong enough to park her heavy old car which had no power steering.
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These respond very well to Alexander technique. In many cases the pain goes completely, in others, the person learns to control it & keep it to minimum. The aim is that by the end of the course, the person is able to sort relapses themselves.
HOLLY, 34. PhD student, severe bad back preventing her sitting at the computer to write up. She was also crippled with lack of confidence. She learnt to look after her back, alternating working & lying down, to finish the PhD. We did lots of work on awareness of her body to improve her confidence around others, partly through teaching her to juggle three balls the Alexander way. Vastly improved physically & in confidence, she went on to launch her own genetic engineering company.
HENRY, mid 50's. Very bad back for 11 years, all pain gone after one lesson! We worked extensively to strengthen his back which was very weak, & sort knee problems, also stress at work. Even his flat feet improved.
PETER, 43. Had very painful back for ten years, had had op to fuse 2 sacral vertebrae & remove a disc. Now stiff neck & some pain, had to be very careful. The lessons taught him better use of his back, & sorted the remaining pain. He now does football training for kids at weekends.
Three cases of severe RSI were helped. In each case, over the course of lessons, the symptoms switched from wrists, to elbows, to shoulders, & finally to the arched lower back present in each case. Once the back opened out the problem was gone or manageable. In two cases some emotional clearance work was used too.
DAVE, 28. a drummer playing African drums. Became able to play full performances.
FRANCES, 27 , a sign language interpreter for the deaf. She made an immediate improvement on discovering how much she was over emphasising the sign movements, & with time her wrists fully recovered. For a while she was left with back pain, which we sorted through emotional clearance work.
MARY, 5. Had a painful line up the right side of her neck, into the shoulder, & down her right side into her toes. She felt very rigid & held in herself, both physically & emotionally. She did 40 lessons, covering physical & emotional issues, by the end of which the pain was gone & she was fully involved with her husband in building their own house, previously impossible. She also felt, & looked, hugely freer & lighter in herself.
Painful shoulders are very common in string players, & can threaten their career. We work first to improve their body use in everyday life, till they can maintain it well, then work with the instrument, relearning how to hold it, especially to keep the neck free, then to use the arms & shoulders freely while playing. Not only does playing become pain free, but often their tone & technique improve too.
2 VIOLINISTS & 3 CELLISTS helped in this way .
TWO FLAUTISTS , CHARLES, 40, & SARAH, 24. Playing the flute involves a double twist, the shoulders go to the right while the head goes to the left. Unless this is done with great freedom, tension & pain can set in. Both flautists were professional musicians, & arrived with such pain they could no longer play. In both cases their necks freed within a few lessons, and they went on to learn better breathing habits and more relaxed body use, in every day life & while playing, to maintain this.
MARTHA, 86.A very active old lady who liked to read in bed at night, but it made her neck very painful. Her neck jutted forwards at a steep angle, putting huge strain on the neck muscles; I suspected these were close to failing & her neck fall completely forwards. This was to be avoided! We worked to bring her whole body more upright, particularly the neck, & taught her how to sit in bed & read maintaining this. The pain reduced hugely, & her life became even more active.
Knees respond well to Alexander technique. Usually the person has poor slumped posture, so the body weight bears down the legs instead of lifting up off it, & the direction of weight transfer into the legs is oblique, causing strain across the joint. By getting the body working in a lighter & more aligned way, pressure is taken off the knees which can then recover. The person needs to continue to look after their use
ADRIAN, 75 . His knees had been increasingly painful over a year, with swelling behind each knee. We observed he had slumped & shrunk somewhat. A few lessons quickly brought him more upright and fuller height again, & the swellings went, with the knees much improved. By continuing to look after his lighter use, he can keep the pain much less, & he was able to start tango dancing. Lessons continue, more improvement may well happen yet.
BRENDA 68 . She sang in a choir, & found the long periods standing unaided difficult, & to hold the seat in front meant only one hand to hold her music. We observed her body was tilted forwards at the hip joint, which had very restricted movement. Over several months, we worked to free the hips & lower back so she could stand upright again, & choir became much more pleasurable.
PENNY, 57 , had had two falls, & was unable to get up from either, which was very distressing. Her body was slumped & heavy in use. Within a few lessons her body had lightened & use had improved, so she was able to get on & off the floor herself. A full course of lessons left her feeling much lighter & more graceful, & able to take walks up steep hills. Subsequently she has had two falls, but she has fallen much better, minimising damage, & has been able to get herself up again.
This often follows trauma to the body, as the body loses trust in its ability to balance, (probably mediated through over contraction of the psoas muscles.)
LESLEY 34., had had four serious accidents in her teens & early twenties. Although she was now very fit, running half marathons etc, her back was arched & held quite rigidly upright, & there was a fear of falling when going downhill. We worked to loosen out the whole spine, & encourage trust again. When she trusted enough let the rigidity go, the fear on hills went.
People with headaches almost invariably pull their head back on their necks on sitting & standing, & in most daily activities. Releasing the tension here & teaching people a better balance of the head on the neck often sorts headaches quite quickly.
LENA, 63. Lena had had a headache for three months, often very severe, & was very distressed & frightened when she first came to see me. She had had to stop work because of it. Gentle release of the head neck joint quickly brought relief. We combined this with looking at how she used her body when feeling stressed, frightened etc, & taught her to stay relaxed. Within a few sessions the headache was mostly gone, & she learnt to manage it better when it returned. She was soon able to return to work.
There is much tension in the hip area, with the leg pulling back into the hip area. Teaching the person to let their legs relax & lengthen away from the body, while the body lengthens upwards, usually sorts it.
JOHN, 50. John had taken time off from his building work to sort his painful sciatica & lower back. He responded quickly, in ten lessons the pains were gone, his back was much stronger, & he had returned to work. There he used greatly increased consciousness when lifting heavy items, not rushing, & listening to his body. He was able to start running & salsa dancing.
These come from tension in the lower back, but also from reacting to the pain. We work to ease & strengthen the back. Then on a day of menstrual pain, I teach them how not to react to the pain, & this has sorted all cases I have seen within two or three cycles.
JANE, 16, usually had to miss a day or two of school each month with pains. She had a very arched lower back. After three or four months, there was only some slight discomfort, which was easy to live with.
DAISY 46, had had awful periods all her adult life, despite having three children. These usually required two days in bed, often being sick, & very disruptive to her work. Her posture was very poor & her back very weak. We worked to relax & strengthen her back. Then we were able to work with not reacting to the pain itself. The pains vastly diminished, & soon she could work through periods, maybe taking one painkiller. There were emotional issues from childhood around the tension in her lower body; working through these helped her to come into her body better, & not be afraid of it, which also helped.
The technique has a good success in getting people back to work who are off because of back or joint problems. See above, the cases of John, Lena , the flautists, Kim & Joan.
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