Category Archives: General

Sinead O’Connor

Sinead O’Connor 8 December 1966 – 26 July 2023

Sinead O’Connor was an incredible musician, protest singer and activist who came to me for some Alexander Technique lessons at the beginning of her career. I was saddened to hear of her death at the age of just 57. It had been a privilege to teach her, albeit for only a few weeks.

Sinead O’Connor Photo: Guardian Newspaper

This photo shows Sinead much as she was when she came to me for Alexander lessons around 1989, not long after I qualified as an AT teacher and lived in Stoke Newington. Sinead’s records were produced by Chrysalis / Ensign records, that were based in the famous Wessex Sound Studios in nearby Highbury New Park. (The studios were at the back of St Augustine’s Church, where Malcom King and I had married.)

Sinead was in her early twenties at the time and elfin-like in appearance, with her shaved head – but what a powerful singer!. Her hair was quite a shock for me to touch at first, as I guided her movements in her AT lesson. It was very unusual to see a woman with a shaved head in those days and It was interesting to see the shape of her skull and neck so clearly

Sinead O’Connor record card

Sinead signed this record card when she was referred to me for Alexander lessons by Chrysalis Records. I have kept the record card all these years as it was special for me to have taught her. However, I am amazed as to how few details I asked people to give me back then but it does mean that I can share this, as it doesn’t give any personal details about her. I am more thorough these days and my record cards are far more informative!

Nothing Compares

I only taught Sinead for a few weeks, as she moved away to Ireland – or possibly the US to collect an award? Her song ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ was a favourite in our household and shot her to international fame and it was the world wide no 1 in 1990.

A very moving documentary about Sinead, called ‘Nothing Compares‘ is available on YouTube and has been shown on Sky Arts. It was fascinating to see Sinead as she was when she came to me for lessons and showing me a far more formidable side to her than I realised at the time

I would have loved to have taught her for longer and I have no idea if she continued with Alexander lessons with other teachers. If anyone reading this also gave her some lessons, do please contact me as I would love to know about it. I hope that the work we did together gave her some skills that she found useful during her international singing career and rather turbulent life.

R.I.P Sinead.

Alexander Technique Offer for Junior NHS Staff

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Alexander Technique lessons offer for NHS nurses and junior doctors.

Alexander Technique lessons offer for nurses and junior doctors: 10% reduction. Just contact me using an NHS email address. More senior Doctors and Consultants are of course welcome to have Alexander Technique lessons but are now charged the usual rates for these.

During lockdown, I offered all NHS staff six free online Alexander lessons as a thank you for their dedication and hard work during the COVID-19 pandemic. I am pleased to say that several doctors and midwives took up that offer.

I am registered with both STAT and the CNHC and have an enhanced DBS certificate

Online lessons usually take place on Zoom

The Constructive Rest Lying Down Procedure

Learning the constructive rest (or lying down) procedure, for instance, gives us a tool we can use to relax, reduce tension and pain, plus recharge our batteries. Using this procedure daily can help us avoid burnout through stress and overwork, whilst reducing problems such as back pain. Is is such a refuge!

In lessons, we also begin to recognise our habits of body use that cause us problems. When we learn to let go of unhelpful habits and reactions, we can move and act more mindfully in the world, enhancing our wellbeing.

Testimonial from a GP

You may like to read a testimonial from a student of mine, a GP and amateur musician:

“A very committed and experienced teacher

“As an amateur musician with problems of tension getting in the way of performance, I was delighted to discover that (Hilary) had experience with helping musicians, but I can thoroughly recommend her to musicians and non-musicians alike. She is a very committed and experienced teacher. I have found it fascinating to explore with Hilary the more general applications of the Alexander technique. This has led me to some important insights about the relationship between my mind and my body… An excellent listener, she is able to focus on whatever problem I bring with kindness, encouragement and gentle hands-on expertise. She always strives to find the root of issues of bad use of the body, with suggestions on how to work on them… When it is time to leave, I always feel revitalised both in mind and body. Dec 2018. “

Martha ~ Doctor and Musician

Contact me If you are an NHS staff member, please use your NHS email address

Teaching the Alexander Technique Online

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Adapting to the Challenges of Covid-19.

I’ve been teaching face to face Alexander Technique classes for 33 years and I’m now including online work. Adapting to the new Covid-19 way of life, I’m on a course that aims to improve my online teaching. Primal Alexander, the brainchild of Mio Morales, makes the AT more accessible online, where we cannot use traditional hands-on procedures.

Hilary King experimenting with movements on Mio Morales’ Course

The 12 week CPD course also extended my range of teaching procedures which I use in face to face lessons. Another benefit is that I connected with international AT teachers during this time of limited contact with others, which is great.

An Expanded Alexander Technique Vocabulary

Mio has developed a new vocabulary for online work, to explain the concepts of the Alexander Technique. For instance Mio talks of allowing ‘Ease’ in ourselves, as an alternative to the traditional wording of allowing movements to be ‘Free‘. This extended vocabulary expands our ability to communicate the Alexander Technique to students, particularly online.

Mio’s also created a series of ‘etudes’ in which movement patterns can be explored whilst thinking about how we perform them. I look forward to creating some etudes for pupils – and for myself, with which to explore my own body Use.

Successful ‘Stress? Take it Lying Down’ event

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Stress? Take it Lying Down

We ran a very successful event for Alexander Technique Week 2018, the theme of which was ‘Stress? Take it Lying Down’. I am very grateful to The Old Church N16 as they kindly allowed me to use the premises for free, as we were fundraising for the local charity Safaplace. I also want to thank my colleague Jessamy Harvey, for all her help in setting up and running the event.

Over 40 people joined in the lying-down procedure. All Photos: Nell Greenhill

The Church looked beautiful and very atmospheric with all the candles and low lighting! We were fortunate to have two speakers from Safaplace, Sarah Finke and Rose White. They gave moving accounts about the formation of the charity and why it was set up in order to promote the positive mental health of schoolchildren.

I then described how the Alexander Technique can help us cope with stress as well as helping us be more poised. I also discussed how the AT explores the mind-body relationship and helps us unlearn habits we’ve developed, that can interfere with the way our bodies need to work.

Caroline Sears followed with a talk about Alexander in Education. This relatively new organisation has been introducing the Alexander Technique to schools and colleges in the UK plus many institutions around the world. The AT work helps students handle exam and performance stress, plus avoid developing problems such as tendonitis.

Lie-down time

After this, it was lie-down time. The Old Church was full of quiet bodies as Natasha Broke talked people through the Active Rest procedure. All the teachers then gave people an experience of AT hands-on work whilst lying down. All the teachers assisting on this event are registered with STAT and are alumni of LCATT, an AT teacher training course where I am a visiting teacher.

Six AT teachers gave mini taster sessions

Finally, we gave some mini taster hands-on turns whilst sitting and standing, to those that wished to explore the AT a little more.

Many thanks to Janet Foster who looked after the door, the friends who ran the bar and helped out and Nell Greenhill for taking the photos – all of whom, like the AT teachers, offered their time and services for free.

Donations to Safaplace

I am pleased to say that we raised over £423 for Safaplace – thanks to the generosity of all the participants!

If you would like to read more about Safaplace and / or would like to donate to them, you can do so here: https://safaplace.org/

Why I Trained as an Alexander Teacher

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The Ballet Years

I had lessons in classical ballet from the age of 5 and serious training began from the age of 11 when I became a boarder at the Royal Ballet School. It was sometimes wildly exciting and it was great to visit the Royal Opera House, sitting in the Royal Box during rehearsals! But life was very pressurised and quite lonely and stressful. I was put on diets to slim down and I acquired strains to my Achilles tendon and lower back. I’d tried too hard to increase my flexibility. My body was always under examination and deemed to be ‘lacking’. Looking back, I can understand why it didn’t seem to belong to me.

In my late teens I was accepted into the Sadler’s Wells Opera Ballet (now ENO) where I happily performed for a number of years. I met my opera-singer husband and first heard about the Alexander Technique then – but sadly did not have AT lessons until some years later.

Hilary King performing with Sadlers Wells Opera, Welsh National Opera and BBC TV

Build-up of Stress Studying for a Degree

Later, I gave up dancing so that I could be where my husband worked (as women still tended to do back then). We had children, got divorced and then my ex moved abroad. I needed to re-train so I could earn some money. I studied for a degree majoring in Psychology and was in one of the last groups of people that were fortunate to have grants and were able to study for free.

Studying for a degree was hard as a mature student and single parent with 2 small children. Then my mother died suddenly of a heart attack. Life had become extremely stressful and I was concerned that if I went on my health would deteriorate and I would end up like my mother.

One of my Psychology lecturers, Peter Ribeaux, also taught the Alexander Technique at college, so I dived in and took AT lessons. I began to gain tools that I could use to calm myself down and clear my head. I studied better, my marks improved and was less cranky with my long-suffering children. Using the lying down procedure in particular helped transform me, as it gave me an immediate tool to help myself with. The AT also helped me with my old back injury. I learned to listen to my body and began discovering what it needed, rather than just making it perform for me, as I had done through the ballet years.

Semi-Supine Emergency Kit!

I gained my degree – just missing a first – which was sad but also wonderful. I’d not had any A levels, because ballet dancers were not deemed to need brains in those days (!) I then explored the idea of training in dance therapy and did some psychotherapy training but finally decided to train as an Alexander teacher. I was so impressed by the beneficial changes that had come about in me through having AT lessons.

Alexander Technique Teacher Training

I commenced my Alexander Technique teacher training at the Ribeaux school and completed it at the North London Teacher Training Course run by Misha Magidov, qualifying in 1987. I have had many happy years of teaching and am very grateful that I’ve been able to work in such a wonderful discipline that helps me look after myself in both my my mind and body, as I teach others how to do the same.

Over-use of Mobile Phones

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Kids Ask Parents to Turn Off Their Phones!

The BBC reports a survey of secondary school children that shows the social impact of mobile phones, with many families having a home life that is being harmed by their overuse. Parents frequently use their phones during mealtimes, for instance, so that children have asked them to turn their phones off. Not surprisingly, the research also stated that many children were frequently sleep deprived because of using their phones late into the night. Some teens even managed to be on their phones for 20 hours a day during weekends and holidays! Add into the mix the epidemic in both adults and children having painful ‘text neck‘ and RSI problems, it is easy to see how damaging phone use can be.

This five year old is poised and alert as she has breakfast and, hopefully, she will be able to maintain this easy body-use as she gets older. She does not use any phones, tablets or other screens and her parents aim not to use their phones in front of her. No doubt she will begin to use some technology at school soon but as yet she is being encouraged to find entertainment elsewhere so that she can develop her creativity, reading and active play in many other ways. This little girl does not know about the AT but her mother does some yoga, which she sometimes copies and this helps her to be more aware of her body-use.

It’s Not Good to Frequently Feel Ignored

The above photo is in stark contrast to the one used in the BBC article, with father and daughter both slumped on a sofa, both heading towards having neck problems from the ways they are using their bodies. The father’s head is dragging forwards and down over his phone – a typical iPosture, with a text neck scenario developing in him as he ignores his daughter. She is twisting her neck and her whole body expresses how fed up she feels, in true psychophysical unity, as she stares out in front of her.

Whilst mobiles are very useful bits of equipment, it is worrying that they seem to become so addictive and dominate people’s lives. I find it sad to see so many young Mums (and some Dads) pushing a toddler in a buggy but with no interaction between them because Mum ignores the child – the mobile phone gets all the attention. What sort of habits of relating to other people and of phone-use will those children develop? Copying parents is a big part of the way we learn as they are important role models for us, so the pattern is likely to be copied and repeated as the child grows older. Many tiny children already use screens for hours on end, which is leading to some developing problems when really young. In a previous blog ‘Evidence of Text Neck in Seven-year old Children’ I discussed this alarming situation which has been created through the over-use and mis-use of mobiles and tablets.

There Can Be Another Way

Fortunately, Alexander lessons can help people unlearn habits that have been causing problems and, ideally, help them to learn how to avoid developing habit patterns of mis-use to start with. This was very important to F M Alexander, who ran a school for children which incorporated his theories and teaching into the daily life of the school. One school, Educare Small School is run along the same lines and the AT underpins every activity there.

Today, both adults and children are able to access individual lessons in many parts of the world and a group called Alexander in Education is promoting the Technique in UK schools and colleges. The educational institutions that include the Alexander Technique in their curriculum range from specialist music schools and colleges, to a children’s nursery.

All of that is great and quite exciting but it’s important for parents to realise just what sort of body-use and way of life they are modelling for their children and the impact it can have on their future lives, even before they are old enough to go to school. I’m sure many parents believe they are doing just that already but perhaps they can refine their awareness to include the little things in life too, such as how they use a mobile or tablet, how long they use it, how much they exclude others when using a screen and how they look after their own body-use as they text, chat and game away on their phones. Children are watching – and waiting for you.

There’s an interesting podcast from Body Learning you might like to listen to:

Posture and Children – Its Cause, Its Effects and What Parents Can Do About It.

Could Using a Scooter Make Children Lopsided?

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Children’s scooters have just been included in the UK Consumer Prices Index, CPI, as they are so popular they are having a financial impact in the UK. There must be a lot of people

using them!

This photo show that many children love them – here in Stoke Newington, scooters are a favourite mode of transport for going to school and numbers of scooters get parked in playgrounds. They are brilliant for helping to keep children active and fit in a fun way and it is lovely to see kids zooming along the road, poised and lively, with their heads leading them into movement.

Pushing With One Dominant Leg?

But how could scooters possibly make children lopsided? Well, I wonder how many parents and teachers notice if children always use the same foot to propel themselves forwards? I imagine quite a number of people have never given it a thought.

But do please think about it – what impact might that have? Even tiny children use scooters and may do so for several years. If one leg is always pushing, then one set of leg muscles in that leg is being developed, whilst the other leg is always supporting, so a different set of muscles will be developed in that leg – so the muscles could grow visibly bigger in the stronger leg.

What would the implications be for the body’s general balance and poise, if legs develop differently from each other in this way? Unhelpful at the least and possibly harmful, if the imbalance became exaggerated through frequent over-use of one leg in preference to the other. This problem can affect adult scooter users too but would have a greater impact on children’s bodies whilst growing and developing and could be one way that children’s bodies could gradually become a bit lopsided. If it’s just habits causing the distortion, that can be avoided!

Twisting and Torsion

Another problem that could arise, is a habitual twist in the torso (and probably the knees) if the child scoots in an uneven way. Muscular torsion in the neck and back is also a potential problem with using skateboards, if the same foot leads all the time. Muscles in the neck and torso could work unevenly, the back and pelvis could become lopsided, which could eventually cause pain and discomfort. Given how many children and adults are using scooters and skateboards these days, we could end up with a large number of people seeking help for problems such as neck and back pain at a later date.

Thumbnail image for Skateboarding Clissold Park A 08-11-2015.jpg

This skateboarder has pretty good body use, leading with the head and using his hip joints freely. However, if he always leads with the same foot and he has to look in the same direction all the time, torsion problems in his neck and back could develop.

Mindfulness and Body Use

However, with awareness and by establishing habits of good body-use right from the start, including alternating their feet regularly, these problems could be avoided, so children and adults can have fun without interfering with their natural poise and balance.

If problems have started developing, Alexander lessons can help people to let go of their habits of imbalance and twisting, so that their head neck back relationship can be regained and a more evenly balanced way of using equipment such as scooters and skateboards can be learned.

Leonardo do Vinci draws Monkey Position!

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I love these drawings by Leonardo da Vinci

The toddler is captured just moving through what we Alexander teachers call ‘monkey position’ and he is balanced and grounded with a lengthened spine, even though he is bending forwards and looking over his right shoulder.

Leonardo Da Vinci Drawing of an Infant.jpg

This is such a basic and useful movement and most children use it regularly but unfortunately we often lose this as we grow into adulthood and we often gather habits of mis-use and curl over instead, which puts pressure on our spines – and squishes our lungs and internal organs – fortunately we can re-learn how to use our bodies in the way we used to do when we were children.

F M Alexander used to call this ‘the position of mechanical advantage’ and it is possible to see why he did so at it is such a good way of using body when we want to bend forwards, utilising the large hip joints in order to allow the body to fold forwards and protecting the spine as we do so.

However, FM’s students soon found a more user-friendly name for this way of using the body and ‘monkey position‘ it became from then on!

How Aware Are You When Driving and Cycling?

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Safety First – Maintain Awareness

There have been so many accidents, injuries and deaths of cyclists in London recently and I believe that a lack of awareness, in both drivers and in cyclists, is part of the problem – and we can all do something about this. There are too many stories that cite drivers using their mobile phones and not paying attention to the road, for instance, so they drive into cyclists and often kill them – we all know that this behaviour and lack of awareness is dangerous. One pupil was referred to me by her Doctor for Alexander Technique lessons, because she had painful shoulder and rib injuries, plus a high level of anxiety, after being knocked off her bike by a thoughtless driver. In one sense she was lucky though, as the driver’s insurance paid for her AT lessons.

Many cyclists appear to be unaware of their surroundings too!

Photo: motortransport.co.uk

Look Where you are Going

I have seen people texting on their mobiles and wearing earphones whilst cycling, so they cannot see or hear any signals from the traffic around them! This cyclist above is riding fast but ‘sensibly’, leading with her head into movement and her back is lengthening – so far so good. But where is she looking? She appears to be looking at the road below her, so I wonder, just how much of the traffic around her can she see and be aware of? Surely this way of cycling has to be dangerous! The only way she could see in front and around her from this position, is to lift her face and pull her head right back, thereby crunching her neck and cervical vertebrae and probably giving herself neck problems. If her handlebars were a little higher and her body more upright, she could see ahead quite easily.

This cyclist is not alone unfortunately and many people cycle with their bodies much lower and pulled down, particularly the more end-gaining cyclists who are focussed on going as fast as possible to their destination. This may be good for their hearts but it’s dangerous in other ways.

London Cyclists

Photo: greatwen.com

The group norm here seems to be to look down onto the road in front!

If you look at the photo above carefully, you can see that only a couple of cyclists in this London group appear to be looking out and about! The rest look down rather tensely, with eyes glazed-over, which is risky to say the least. It is so easy to get caught up in riding as quickly as possible from A to B, that it is easy to lose awareness of the actual process of riding and what’s going on around you. This photo is in stark contrast to the photo of some Danish cyclists below, who are alert and poised as they ride in the city. They are able to look where they are going because they are using a much more upright position with higher handlebars, so they are comfortably looking ahead as they ride. They also look less stressed which must have a lot to do with the fact they have proper cycle lanes to use but I believe that the way they are riding helps them too.

Photo: The Times

The Way We Ride Matters

I have worked with many AT pupils on what to think about when riding a bike or driving a car. I sometimes sit people on the exercise bike for part of their AT lesson, not to see how fast they can cycle but to explore how they sit and what happens in their body when they start cycling. All sorts of unhelpful habits are revealed and then I can help people to let go of them so they cycle with improved use. A pupil’s comments a couple of days ago made me think about these issues again:

“When I think about Alexander Technique whilst driving and cycling, I am more alert and more able to respond to traffic – and I don’t get back pain any more”

The Alexander Technique Can Enable Us to Cycle More Safely.

It’s not just about the position we sit in that matters but that is a good starting point. Being conscious of whether we hold the handlebars (or steering wheel) with awareness, or grab it with a strong grip, is one point. When cycling, do we just think of pushing ourselves forwards with our legs, or do we think of leading with our head to aid the forward momentum? Do we have so much weight going through our arms that our shoulders are hunched and ache with tension and our wrists are getting painful?

As drivers and cyclists, are we so caught up with end-gaining and ‘getting there in time’ that we lose awareness of how we are riding or driving right now and what is happening around us? This is the route through to trouble – but we can choose
to change ourselves and our behaviour, so that we can remain mindful not only of our body-use but also of our surroundings during these activities.

In Alexander lessons we can learn to minimise tension and help ourselves keep calm. We can sit in a manner that lets us see where we are going without hurting our necks, protects our backs and allows us to see around and make use of our peripheral vision, which will help keep ourselves and other people safe. Surely this is a much more enjoyable way to cycle and to drive, as well?

How Can We Maintain a Child’s Fluidity of Movement?

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Leading With the Head

I have been looking again at the excellent book ‘Body Awareness in Action’ by Frank Pierce Jones and have been reminded of the similarity between aspects of F M Alexander’s work and the research findings of a famous physiologist.

F M Alexander began to develop his idea of there being a ‘Primary Control‘ mechanism of the head and neck in relation to the rest of the body, as early as 1912. He then began using the instructions, or ‘directions‘, for pupils to allow ‘the neck to relax and the head to go forward and up‘ both as they sat quietly or when began to move – for instance to stand up. These directions were a means to help his pupils regain, or even find, the natural type of movement and body use that most children have initially but often lose. Learning how to give ourselves these directions forms an essential part of Alexander Technique lessons today.

Some of Alexander’s medical friends who knew his teaching theories, pointed him to the work of the German physiologist Prof. Rudolph Magnus, who was researching the head and neck reflexes of mammals in the laboratory. Magnus’s best known book was Körperstellung 1924 (‘Posture’) and the Magnus & De Kleijn reflexes have been named after him and his colleague.

As Dr Peter Macdonald stated in his paper published in the BMJ (Dec 25 1926) Alexander’s rather similar concept appeared to anticipate Magnus’s research which postulated that:

“The whole mechanism of the body acts in such a way that the head leads and the body follows”.

A pupil of mine kindly allowed me to use this photo of the little girl above. She so obviously leads her movement with her head and her body follows as she fluidly pulls her trolley behind her. She is alert and poised, yet she is also active and purposeful.

I doubt whether many adults, or even teenagers, would display such freedom of movement as they pull luggage around on their travels! Many would be tensely contracting down into themselves, twisting the whole body as they pulled the suitcase along.

It is possible to re-learn how to move more freely and I have found it helpful to spend some time with pupils, as part of an AT lesson, exploring how they move suitcases around, so they can think about this activity before they go off on holiday. When they give themselves the directions ‘I will allow my head to go forward and up’ so that it can lead them into their movement, their body plus suitcase, easily follow.

It is such a shame that so many people lose this easy balance and poise as they grow up and then have to re-learn it. FM Alexander always wanted to use his AT work to prevent problems of mis-use from developing in the first place. How much better if we can help children to feel happily confident in their bodies, so they are able to continue to move around easily, in a freely balanced and coordinated manner.

When the Alexander Technique becomes an everyday part of a child’s home life and school day, as in the lovely little school Educare, then it will be easier to avoid habits of distortion and tension creeping in, despite the various stresses the world throws at us and we can help children maintain their easy poise and fluidity of movement.