Alexander, Adler and Emotional Habits

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We will explore habitual emotional reactions - our own and others. You will come away energized and: 

• Clear and confident about addressing emotions

• Inspired about teaching and ideas to get the work across

• Connected to the Alexander community

Alexander teachers and students typically find the physical aspect of habitual reactions easy to describe and talk about. The mental, emotional, and psychological aspects can be harder to discuss and can even make us uncomfortable. Aren’t those a key part of why we decided to train and live this life-changing work?

F.M. Alexander initially set out to solve a physical concern, so that he could continue to act, which he loved. Later on, as his understanding and teaching evolved, he wrote about conscious choice and of the whole self.

Re-educating our sensory appreciation, as F.M. meant it, is about our whole self not just our body and includes re-educating the emotional, psychological, spiritual sense of our self.

Recognizing and naming a pattern clearly, is a powerful step towards recovering choice about our response. Reactions have a way of taking us by surprise. Something that is a simple matter for you, triggers anxiety in someone else and the other way around. 

In this workshop we will use Lifestyle Priorities, a concept from Adlerian Psychology, as a framework to clarify and understand emotional habits more deeply.

Alfred Adler and F.M. Alexander were contemporaries. Their approaches to changing habits have much in common — re-educational, collaborative, applied, experimental, empowering.

We will get together on zoom 3 times to explore the emotional side of reaction patterns and apply our Alexander “means whereby”, to address how we respond.

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I am Antoinette Kranenburg. The Alexander Technique has been my touchstone since 1983. I also bring years of experience with Adlerian Psychology, initially as a novice parent taking parenting classes, and later as a Certified Parent Educator for the Parent Encouragement Program. 

Peter Nobes and I met at the 2002 ATI annual meeting during an exchange. I found Peter’s teaching and way with words crystal clear, spare and illuminating. We have worked together as teachers in the US, UK and Europe since then. Peter was on the STAT board for three year. Peter is the author of Mindfulness in 3D alexandertech.co.uk/mindfulness-in-3d. His upcoming book is on how to understand F.M. Alexander’s writings. I am looking forward to it!

Workshop outline

Over three workshop meetings we will bring Alexander’s work and Adlerian psychology together and explore something that tends to trigger us in daily life, as teachers, trainees and students.

We will 

• discover what motivates our reactions with the help of  Lifestyle Priorities  

• choose Alexander’s means-whereby to reconnect with our creative, constructive self

•  get practice responding to a trigger  based on our Alexander awareness and Lifestyle’s strengths

Past participants found the workshop “enormously helpful”, and appreciate the “relaxing, supportive environment’ and the “thought provoking activities and discussions.”

Learning with friends and colleagues is great. Share this opportunity with someone you enjoy spending time with and sign up together!

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