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Alexander Technique
The Alexander Technique is a mind body process that helps you change habits either postural or mental. It is taught with verbal guidance and hands on contact and is like nothing else you have learnt! You are really unlearning and most people find it very therapeutic! You could compare it to learning how to ride a bike or play an instrument, but the instrument is yourself! Not something that you can read about really, best thing is to get a direct experience.
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It is often taught on a one to one basis but introductory workshops are also available. I teach in the Cumbria and Lancashire area and also online.
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I have taught at primary and secondary schools to both teachers and children and feel this is a key area for preventing health issues in the future. Here is a comment from a 6th former who spent a weeks work experience at an Alexander Training School in London:
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"As a student myself I think that teaching the Alexander Technique at schools would, not only solve the problem of students developing chronic back pain, but how it could help to decrease the anxiety in students ,which is increasing in children at a young age. Acting on these issues now could prevent future health issues."
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Click here for information about Alison Marsden
Click here for Alexander Technique and Back Pain
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The Alexander Technique is taught world wide. A full listing of UK teachers can bee seen at www.alexandertechnique.co.uk
Alexander Technique and Slow Flow Yoga
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- Guiding you to the instinct of your body and the doorway to meditation.
Applying the practice of Alison's style of yoga can help you:
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1. Mobilise your fascia (connective tissue) to help rejuvenate your mind and body
2. Improves body awareness, connecting you to your alignment and enhancing your experience of yoga
3. Deepen your breathing enabling you to receive the prana energy
4. Improve the functioning of your primal brain with the rhythmical movements.
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A sense of rhythm and connecting movements is the key to this deep release.
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The Alexander Technique is more about how you think which then changes how you use your body. This is why these classes are more of a 'mind experience'. This type of practice naturally requires slower movement enabling you to have more time to think 'behind' the movement and come back into the rhythm of your breathing. Here is one comment from a client:
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"Alison's classes are more complete and whole, it's not just yoga it's a mind experience"
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More comments from clients
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Muscles are like spindles that glide into each other to shorten and so we never have to 'tighten' a muscle.
Alexander Technique and Food
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- Changing Your Eating Habits with Alison Marsden
What we eat and when we eat makes a big difference to our mind and body. In fact when clients come to me we often end up discussing how food can help improve their health - even if it is muscular or joint related. The saying "we are what we eat" really comes to its full here. If you have a night mixing your drinks and eating late you often feel rough the next day! But what if we swing the other way - what if we ate food that is really easy to digest and re-hydrate our body then we might feel really great the next day with lots of energy and a real up lift in your spirit!
This is what people often report back after experiencing the food that I offer. I have developed this with my own experience of food intolerances and applying the Alexander Technique to changing my eating habits. Over the last 15 years I have worked with clients and developed a system to support them in changing their habits.
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The courses that I offer now are: now also available on-line. The recipes are designed to help you kick start your own body’s wisdom and eating more healthy foods with ease and inspiration.
Click here to read about past clients success stories
Here are a few quotes:
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"This course really highlights how dehydrated I am"
​"Definitely have more energy & sleeping better after my first 24 hour"
Alexander Technique and Pregnancy
Supporting you through this stage is good foundation for the birth and beyond. The Alexander Technique can help you regain your effortless posture and restore your energy. Applying Yoga with the Alexander Technique during pregnancy can enhance your alignment and take you to a deep rhythmic connection to your body, preparing you for a happy birth.
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Alison has trained as a Doula and can offer home support before and after the birth. She has her own family commitments so if you require a Doula during the birth then please contact the Doulas in the North West at www.doula.org.uk/
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Alison has experienced home birth and hospital birth with her own children and a recovery of her pelvic flour and knee injury caused by intervention at child birth. Through this experience she has helped many mothers during their own child birth and beyond. Here is a quote from one mother:-
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"'The Alexander Technique has helped me a great deal through three pregnancies now; making a huge improvement to PGP (Pelvic Girdle Pain) and helping to prepare for labour".
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Alison can offer individual sessions to tailor to your exact needs.
Please email alison.marsden22@gmail.com or use this contact form to arrange a booking or discuss any questions.
Alexander Technique and back pain
This is increasingly becoming the most common reason why people come for Alexander lessons. I myself suffered from back pain in my early 20s and it was then that I started to learn the Technique.
How it Works
One of the main principles of the technique is that your back has an anti gravity system. If we use our body with this system then we find movement becomes a buoyant, flowing and effortless experience. As you learn the technique you begin to create an internal environment that feeds health promoting movement and your old habits of collapsed, effortful movement start to reduce. Applying this process to your daily habits is the key.
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After I cured my back pain from applying the Alexander Technique I started to apply it to other aspects of my life and improved my performance at work. Over time you
discover that the Alexander Technique is much more than just a solution to back pain, it is life changing process.
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What happens in an Alexander lesson?
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Your back has an anti gravity system
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Here's an example of the anti gravity effect with a hoola hoop. It does not fall as we are spinning the hoop.
Other examples of anti gravity:
tennis balls bouncing up, water spray from a waterfall, washing machines can you think of some more?
