I have been teaching the Alexander Technique in Sydney since 2000. I am also a professional pianist, and I used the Alexander Technique to return to playing after developing RSI in the 1990s.

The technique helped me learn to do things differently, more efficiently. This was not just at the piano but through the whole day in all my activities. This helped me return to good health and now I can (and occasionally do) play eight hours a day if needed, confident the old pain can’t return.

After a few years slumped over a desk studying science at university, and then a few more years working full time as a pianist, I found myself in pain – I had pins and needles in both arms, and muscle ache and fatigue in my arms and shoulders. Some treatments helped for a while, but the pain always returned – I still played piano in a similar way, a way that tensed and damaged my body.

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Slumping and tensing

The Alexander Technique showed me how to hold and move my body efficiently. I learned to be comfortable not just at the piano, but throughout the day – I learned how to not tense and damage myself, while still achieving the things I desired.

Twenty years on, I teach my students the lessons I have learnt – that we can damage ourselves if we mis-use ourselves; that we may not be aware we are doing this; that we continue to harm ourselves simply by doing things they way we always have.

I teach people how to use their bodies efficiently, reliably, confidently. And better health follows.

I trained as an Alexander Technique teacher from 1998 to 2000 in Sydney with Christine Ackers, and continued working as an assistant on her training course for another ten years. Since 2018 I have taught on the Sydney City Alexander Training course.

I am a founding member of Alexander Technique Education, a professional society of teachers founded to promote the educational aspects of the technique.