Category Archives: General

Suffragette Line

We’re on The Suffragette line

All London Overground lines have been renamed this autumn and our local one has become the Suffragette Line. Our station is Harringay Green Lanes. This useful transport connection runs for 13 miles between Gospel Oak by Hampstead Heath (where it links with the Mildmay Line) and the new Barking Riverside Station, by the River Thames, which was opened in July 2022. Our station, Harringay Green Lanes, was opened back in 1880 and the original ticket office still exists but is used for other purposes.

Harringay Green Lanes Station has step free access and is less than five minutes walk from my Alexander teaching practise. Trains usually run approximately every 15 minutes during the daytime. The newly named Suffragette Line will be shown with double green lines on the TFL train maps.

Suffragette line: Gospel Oak to Barking Riverside

The Suffragette Line

The Overground Suffragette Line, was so called in order to celebrate the women of the working-class community in the East End of London, who fought tirelessly for women’s rights during the early 20th Century. In particular, the longest-lived suffragette Annie Huggett lived, worked and died at in Barking, at the great age of 103.

It is thanks to women like Annie Huggett that women are now able to vote and to enjoy almost equal status with men in this country (a bit of a way to go there…) So I am delighted that our local train line’s name will be celebrating those pioneering women. The renaming will also make the line more visible on the train maps and make it easier for people to find our corner of Harringay.

Harringay Green Lanes Station – and nearby Harringay Station

Harringay Green Lanes Station is not to be confused with nearby Harringay Station, which is on the Great Northern Line route and was opened in 1885. This station lies between Hornsey and Finsbury Park, and serves trains on the East Coast Main Line, linking Harringay to places like Alexandra Palace, Highbury and Islington and Moorgate.

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 since 1987 and I now also include online work. During the Covid-19 epidemic, there were many months when we were not allowed to give in person lessons, so we had to adapt and began teaching the Alexander Technique online. I attended an online Primal Alexander course, the brainchild of Mio Morales, to develop my online teaching skills

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 was that I connected with international AT teachers during that long period of time when we had minimal contact with others, which was great.

An Expanded Alexander Technique Vocabulary

Mio’s 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 also created a series of ‘etudes’, in which movement patterns can be explored whilst thinking about our body use. whilst we perform them.

Online Alexander Lessons

Online lessons are now regularly available. I have taught clients when they have been unable to come to their in person sessions and also people from many parts of the world where they do not have access to an Alexander teacher.

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.

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 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.

Alexander in Education

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Alexander Technique in Schools

There’s a great new video available on YouTube called ‘Alexander in Education’ and it is designed to promote the AT as a subject to be taught throughout general education

The AT is already being taught in a good number of primary and secondary schools, plus colleges and universities and it is really proving to be a wonderful tool for those who learn it. Not only does it help with problems such as back pain but is also reported as giving children, as well as adults, greater confidence and learning it helps to increase their attention span. But there are many many schools that do not use the AT yet and they could very much benefit from doing so.

Studying and Homework can be Stressful

Teaching children to sit, write, draw, play music and sports with awareness and ease reduces stress and discomfort, whilst helping prevent problems such as back pain from developing. This work also gives children a tool they can use throughout the rest of their lives.

The child in the photo is doing some drawing for her homework with an easy poise as she holds her pen in a comfortable manner. Unfortunately many of us lose this natural balance and way of using our bodies as we grow up, through stress, overwork, illness and accidents. Sadly, I have had several teenagers come to me for AT lessons who have already developed back pain and RSI. If the Alexander Technique was part of the school curriculum as F M Alexander wished, many children would be spared the pain of developing such problems.

F M Alexander’s Little School

Alexander opened a school in London in 1924, with the help of Ethel Webb and Irene Tasker who was a Montessori trained teacher. The children had ordinary lessons at the Little School and the Alexander Technique was embedded into the teaching, so the way the children performed their work and lived their day was a very important part of their learning experience. Unfortunately the second world war started and the children were evacuated to America and the school was never re-established after the war ended.

Today, there is just one primary school in the UK called Educare that runs along very similar lines to FM’s Little School, with the AT embedded into the way the school works and how the children learn. At the other end of learning, the AT is also embedded into the degree course at the Royal College of Music and many other institutions offer the AT alongside other lessons. It would be so good if all schools used the Alexander Technique to form the foundations, upon which all other subjects could build.

Take a look at the video Alexander in Education and do let other people know about it. Let’s get the Alexander Technique into more schools:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOMlc0f0orA

Caring for the Carers

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Caring for the Carers with the Alexander Technique

This is Carers Week in the UK and it is great to draw people’s attention to the fact that carers very often get little support for what is often a lonely, stressful, challenging and exhausting activity. The Carers Week Website cites some research that shows that, as a result of their caring responsibilities, 84% of carers felt more stressed, 78% more anxious and 55% experienced depression (State of Caring 2015). It can be tough being a carer!

Some years ago I ran ‘Stress and Relaxation‘ and ‘Caring for the Carers‘ courses in Adult Education Colleges and I was made very aware of just how difficult a life it can be for carers and how isolated they can feel. Unfortunately, carers often spend so much time caring for others that they forget to look after themselves – or even feel that they have no right to look after themselves or have time off – and this can result in their getting exhausted, unable to cope, angry, resentful, anxious, depressed or ill. Back problems are also a frequent outcome from lifting inappropriately, or from experiencing high levels of stress and tension. None of which is good for the carer, or good for the person being cared for.

There are also many people who work in caring professions and locally, there are lots of charity workers who also tend to put other people and their needs first.

“It’s Selfish to Put Myself First” – NOT NECESSARILY!

Have you ever travelled by plane and listened to the Pre-flight Safety Instructions? If so, you will have heard that it is important to put your own oxygen mask on first, before putting one on anyone else who needs assistance. People accept that idea on a plane but are often less happy to think that way at home, even though the same dynamics are true in the rest of life – you will help others far better when you look after yourself and avoid putting yourself at risk or making yourself ill from overwork.

Sometimes that means putting yourself first, for a change.

So how can the Alexander Technique help?

The AT is a wonderful tool that you can use throughout your life. Once you have learned how to use the AT during your daily activities it can, for instance, help you to cope with stressful situations, calm yourself, reduce tension and avoid injuries.

The most obvious tool you can use is the Lying Down or Constructive Rest Procedure and this can quickly help you to unwind and rejuvenate yourself, so that you can proceed with the next part of the day’s activities from a calmer and more centred place in yourself. It is also great at helping you to reduce tension and back pain.

These women were learning how to use the active rest procedure in an Intro Workshop on International Women’s Day 2015.

Calm ~ Mindful ~ Unwinding ~ Centred ~ Freeing-up ~ Alert ~ Calm

Semi-supine IWD '15 07-03-2015 12-08-30.jpg

STOP and Count to Ten

There are many other less obvious ways in which the AT can help us cope with difficult situations. For instance, the old technique of ‘stop and count to 10‘ is familiar to many as a useful anger management technique. More subtle but similar, is the Alexander Technique use of inhibition. With this we learn to stop briefly in order to avoid rushing into a habitual reaction to something, so that we can more thoughtfully choose how we want to respond. (This process is a lot quicker than counting to 10!)

Inhibition can be applied to avoiding all sorts of habits, from tightening our neck muscles as we rise out of a chair, saying ‘no’ to shouting at someone, to reacting with tension as we begin to use a computer – or even in reaction to just thinking of using one. When we are aware, we can notice all sorts of habitual reactions to both the outside world and also to our own internal thoughts. Once we have noticed them, we can learn to have more choice about whether or not we react habitually, or choose to respond differently.

Stress

Some situations are extremely stressful and we may have little chance to change things. However, we do have some choice as to how we react to stress and this can be invaluable in helping all of us, not just carers, to cope with the difficulties and challenges that are in our lives. We can use the AT as we travel on crowded transport, deal with a screaming child or try to unwind after a day’s work… you name the stress and using the AT will probably help you with it.

For instance, a pupil told me that using the Alexander Technique helped her to remain calm, still and relaxed, when cooped up in the machine to have an MRI scan, despite having thought she would feel claustrophobic in it.

Once we learn the Alexander Technique, we can use the AT during all our activities, every day. In so doing we can feel less helpless in the face of stress, because we know we have a tool we can use to help ourselves and to take care of ourselves in many, many different situations.

Next Introductory Workshop is on 4 July