You Can Move Confidently And Feel Your Best!

San Francisco Location:


Are you mystified by your persistent back pain, excess tension, ​or lack of coordination?  Do you tend to re-injure yourself?

​
Did you know that your thoughts, posture and movement quality are intricately linked?  

Good Posture is a widely unrecognized, fundamental source of health and vitality, with deep implications for mental, physical and social well-being.

Curious about what happens in Alexander lessons? Read essays from students or watch the videos (below) of students reviewing their experiences.
We asked what their lessons are like, what they are ​learning, and how the Alexander Technique ​helps them in their daily life.


​Your Work Posture

Smart Technology. Smart Posture?​

​At work, you might have upgraded to a standing desk, had an ergonomic evaluation and got an expensive chair, but you are still experiencing pain and unease.  Have you been wondering why?  Alexander lessons offer a clear understanding about what is going on with you, and teach you skills to eliminate the causes of your tension.
Picture
Sitting with rounded spines and collapsed torsos is a common sight.
Picture
Sensory overload can quickly lead to unease and physical tension.
Your unexamined habits when interacting with phones and computers are the main reason for postural strain and repetitive stress injuries (RSI) in the work place.​  The interesting fact is that those habits most definitely show up in your normal daily activities too.
With Flora's expert guidance you will develop insight and skill to change unhelpful habits into healthful, more efficient neuromuscular pathways. Lessons are fun, light-hearted and inspiring. 

"The Power and Well-Being of the Body lies in the Artistry of its Use."    
​Flora D.H. Ojanen

Picture
Flora D.H.Ojanen on one-legged stool.

More on Ergonomics


​Your Daily Posture

Alexander lessons encourage postural self-awareness on a day-to-day basis.  Learning how to feel better is one of the best gifts you can give to yourself and your family.
​

"The Alexander Technique stresses unification in an era of greater and greater medical specialization.  It is an educational system that teaches people how to best use their bodies in ordinary action  to avoid or reduce unnecessary stress and pain.  It enables clients to get better faster and stay better longer.
​
This is undoubtedly the best way to take care of the back and alleviate back pain.  97% of the people suffering from back pain could benefit by learning the Alexander Technique.” Jack Stern, MD, PhD, Brain and Spine Surgeon of New York, White Plains, NY Author of Ending Back Pain: 5 Powerful Steps to Diagnose, Understand, and Treat Your Ailing Back (2014)


​​What Makes the Alexander Technique Special?

 
The Alexander Technique is a very practical skill set.  Lessons teach you how conscious awareness and poise positively influence all general functioning of the human body.  It provides the compass by which you steer your moving body into ease and lightness of being.​ ​

Everything you learn in the Alexander Technique integrates easily and directly into your life, nothing needs to be added, no special equipment necessary, no extra time for exercises is needed.  Only the curiosity to better understand the inner workings of yourself as a cognitive, feeling and thinking person.

​The Alexander Technique helps you do every activity better, may it be computer work, running, gardening, Tai Chi, Yoga or skateboarding, etc.  It is not about learning something new, but about un-learning counterproductive behaviour in your movement and thought patterns.

You are learning an effective thinking process into an upright, easy, and light body.  This is done through a process of re-mapping mind and muscle for efficiency of movement.

Some of Alexander's Famous Students


​What have educators, actors and musicians such as John Dewey, William Hurt, Jeremy Irons, Paul McCartney, Christopher Reeve, George Bernard Shaw, Mary Steenburgen, Aldous Huxley, Paul Newman, Robin Williams, Madonna , Victoria Beckham, Sting, Ang Lee, Leonardo di Caprio, Juliette Binoche, Hillary Swank and Sir Ian McKellan in common?  All have benefited from studying the Alexander Technique. 
If you have Chronic Pain on a regular basis or suffer from acute injury, often find yourself stressed and in a general state of un-ease, if you experience too much effort in your body, or suffer from increasing
tension when using media or tools:  Learning the Alexander Technique might be the solution!

​

​The Importance of The Alexander Technique
​Then and Now


​In the book "Body Mechanics" written by medical doctors  Goldthwait, Brown, Swain and Kuhns, (1952 edition!), Chapter 1 "The Problem of Chronic Illness", it states:

"An individual is in the best health only when the body is so used that there is no strain on any of its parts.  This means that, when standing, the body is held fully erect, with no strain on the joints, the bones, the ligaments, the muscles or any other structures.  There should be adequate room for all the viscera, so that their function can be performed normally unless there be some congenital defect."

This was observed in 1952!  That was already 50 years after Mr.F.M. Alexander came to the same conclusions through studying himself in front of mirrors for years!  We need to pay attention to it now more than ever.  In a very unique and effective way, the Alexander Technique provides the tools to keep an individual in best health. 

Lessons teach you the skill to observe and handle yourself with more ease and wisdom.  By studying with a teacher, you can better understand the unconscious attitudes in the way you move, think and carry yourself, and how these attitudes and believes directly influence the way you feel and act.  Your health is directly linked to the way you use yourself, and you can change it if you want to feel and be your best! We have more power over our health than we usually want to believe.