This description of an experience of learning the Alexander Technique comes from one of the participants in a large randomised controlled clinical trial for people with chronic neck pain. It is from a series of in-depth interviews that were carried out with some of the trial participants and which form the basis of a new publication by myself and other members of the ATLAS study team [1]. Our analysis explores the participants’ experiences of learning the Alexander Technique (or of having acupuncture, the second intervention evaluated in the trial) and contrasts these experiences with their previous medical care. The participants’ accounts of their experiences help to explain the basis for the observed clinical benefits in the trial of long-term reduction in neck pain and associated disability following Alexander lessons or acupuncture [2]. They also complement the trial findings of participants developing greater self-efficacy [3].
Here I look at the experiences of the participants who attended Alexander lessons. They reported that learning the Alexander Technique led to greater self-awareness, and they explained how applying the Alexander thinking skills led to a sense of more control over managing and overcoming their neck pain. Participants’ reflections include:
“Really uplifted by it, really empowered by it and really surprised at, at what I had experienced.” (Female)
“…you don’t really have to physically do anything, you’ve just got to think it… So you can be walking down the street and you can put it into practice, I can be at work…I had made my muscles go soft that for ten years hadn’t been, and that was just from my teacher just explaining what to do and just very lightly touching my shoulders and just…talking me through it.” (Female)
“You’re in control, you know.” (Male)
For many participants the increased self-awareness and a sense of interconnectedness and embodiment were integral to the transformative process they experienced. The perception of ‘neck pain’ could no longer be reducible to a ‘body part’.
“She looked at me as [a] whole rather than as a shoulder and a neck … And I’m not just learning to relax certain muscles that were the problem, it was everything, which, I suppose in some respects, just balanced, balanced me a lot better.” (Female, Interview 2)
“I’m a much calmer person, it’s taught me how to take a step back and assess a situation rather than jump straight in … because I’ve learnt how to do it, I’ve learnt how to take a step back, I’ve learnt how to relax my body.” (Female, Interview 1)
Participants described how they continued to use the understanding and skills they had gained, after the Alexander lessons had finished, to sustain and in some cases further improve their reduction in neck pain. For example, one participant said:
”The positive thing about [the Alexander Technique] is you can carry on doing the things that the teacher’s taught yah to help yah, and I do. And gradually it’s just got better and better, you know. And as for life changing, probably the Alexander’s changed me because I never used to realise it, but with being in pain you used to tend to be a bit short tempered and…. grumpy.” (Male, Interview 2)
Find out more
Our article is published in Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice, read it here.
More on the ATLAS trial
ATLAS was a randomised, controlled trial that recruited 517 patients with chronic neck pain and evaluated one-to-one Alexander Technique lessons with a STAT-registered teacher, or acupuncture, each plus usual care, compared with usual care alone. The main clinical findings of this trial are published in the prestigious Annals of Internal Medicine [2]. The trial demonstrated statistically significant and clinically meaningful reductions in neck pain and associated disability for both interventions compared with usual care alone. Read more about the study here.
- Aniela Wenham, Karl Atkin, Julia Woodman, Kathleen Ballard and Hugh MacPherson. Self-efficacy and embodiment associated with Alexander Technique lessons or with acupuncture sessions: A longitudinal qualitative sub-study within the ATLAS trial. Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice 2018;31:308–14.
- Hugh MacPherson, Helen Tilbrook, Stewart Richmond, Julia Woodman, Kathleen Ballard, et al. Alexander Technique lessons or acupuncture sessions for persons with chronic neck pain: A randomized trial. Annals of Internal Medicine 2015;163:653−62.
- Julia Woodman, Kathleen Ballard, Catherine Hewitt, Hugh MacPherson. Self-efficacy and self-care-related outcomes following Alexander Technique lessons for people with chronic neck pain in the ATLAS randomised, controlled trial. European Journal of Integrative Medicine 2018;17:64–71.