Mark Josefsberg- Nationally Certified Alexander Technique Teacher offering Alexander Technique lessons in New York City. Fix your posture, reduce your back pain, neck pain, stress and more with the Alexander Technique.
For locations and fees please see the ‘FAQ’s’ page (on top.)
“With good humor, specificity, and charm, Mark makes a challenging technique accessible and fun!” -Kyra Sedgwick
“I really enjoyed our Alexander Technique sessions, learned a lot, felt lighter, more balanced and my neck pain is better. You have a true healing presence and great knowledge and skill.”
-Martin Ehrlich M.D., M.P.H. Medical Director, Beth Israel Continuum Center for Health and Healing.
To schedule a session call Mark: (917) 709-4648 or email: Mark@MarkJosefsberg.com
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“How can I incorporate the Alexander Technique into my life?” I hear this question, and versions of it, frequently at Alexander Technique lessons. It’s really a great question and gets to the heart of the matter of the benefits of the Alexander Technique.
The Alexander Technique is done as you think about it. If you’re thinking about the principles of the Alexander Technique, you’re doing the technique, or you’re practicing the technique, or you’re performing the technique, or you’re applying the technique, or you’re incorporating the Alexander Technique into your life.
As an Alexander Technique teacher I emphasize awareness of initiating movement; how you start actions like moving your hands, initiating walking, or how you start to pivot in a chair by using your hip joints. So, one way of incorporating the Alexander Technique is to give attention how you begin something. If your good use starts to deteriorate after a few hours, or a few minutes, or a few seconds, that’s alright. It’s a beginning. It’s improvement. If you’re sitting at your desk ready to begin computer work, take an extra few seconds to think about and apply some Alexander Technique principles, for instance: free your neck, let your head rotate forward and up, allow your sit bones to release down into the chair etc. Think of lifting your fingertips (using your neck, shoulders and upper arms minimally) and lightly place them on the keyboard. Don’t concern yourself with trying to do it right, because the Alexander Technique doesn’t work that way; and trying to be perfect might tighten your jaw and tense your neck.
Also, during the course of the day, there’s always time to take small breaks, even 15 seconds or less. This is a time to regroup, and incorporate the Alexander Technique again.
Another way to incorporate the Alexander Technique into your life is by applying it to simple activities you do every day, such as brushing your teeth, like the cat in the picture. My guess is that you brush you teeth while standing. Think of your feet flat on the floor, 50-50 left and right, 50-50 front and back. Let your knees be unlocked and soft. Again, neck free, head forward and up, using only as much muscular effort as needed to raise the tooth brush, which weighs approximately… nothing. How little of your shoulder muscles need to be involved? How little arm can you use? Notice your breathing. Is it restricted or full? Notice how you brush your hair, if you’ve got some…
Reading about the technique can be very useful in utilizing the technique more frequently. I list some of my favorite Alexander Technique books here. You could also receive short posts via email when you join my enewsletter.
Additionally, there is a thin line, or no line, between when you’re doing the Alexander Technique and when you’re not. Just the simple act of being aware of your breathing, for instance, can change things for the better. Being aware of breathing usually allows it to be slower and fuller. At that moment of change, you’re employing some aspects of the technique.
There will be times when you put the Alexander Technique in the front of your consciousness; during your Alexander Technique lesson for instance. As you get more used to applying the principles when you’re giving them your full attention, they will start to be applied, to some degree, when you’re giving them less than your full attention. The Alexander Technique starts seeping into your life, possibly at moments you least expect it.
Mark Josefsberg-Alexander Technique NYC
Call Mark@ 269-POSTURE
or 917.709.4648
In teaching the Alexander Technique here in NYC, I often use the words ‘let’ and ‘allow’, as in ‘allow’ your neck to be free or ‘let’ your head lead your spine into length. During Alexander Technique lessons I might say ‘allow’ your entire ribcage to contract and expand as you breathe and ‘allow’ your sit bones to release down into the chair. ‘Let’ your torso gently spiral as you walk, ‘allow’ your jaw to release, and countless other examples of allowing… letting…
If we need to allow things to happen, it stands to reason that we unconsciously disallow them from happening…
The Alexander Technique can have a huge, positive impact on pain, and I know this from personal experience. The Alexander Technique got me out of the severe neck pain I was in, and now I see the same results over and over as I teach Alexander Technique lessons in NYC to people suffering from back pain, neck and shoulder pain, hand pain. We don’t realize that we’re causing our own pain by the way we use our bodies (poor posture, added stress). The good news is that the Alexander Technique shows us a way out from this pain. It puts us back in control…
Alexander Technique Directions
I wish to free my neck … so that
My head can move forward and up…so that
My torso can lengthen and widen and…
My legs can move away from my torso and…
My shoulders can release out the sides.
Alexander Technique directions act as verbal, or neuro-linguistc cues. They tell us where we want to go, which is often upward, outward, into expansion. Up, down, and out. Head up, feet or sit bones down, shoulders out, legs away…
“A correct position or posture indicates a fixed position, and a person held to a fixed position cannot grow, as we understand growth. The correct position today cannot be the correct position a week later for any person who is advancing in the work of reeducation and coordination.
F.M. Alexander- Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual
During Alexander Technique lessons, people frequently sit up straight or move their head around and ask: is this right?” I answer differently in different situations, but the real answer might be: No. I don’t say that because the…
The Alexander Technique has been described as a reeducation technique or psycho-physical reeducation. It is also a technique to be overlearned, and not only because you learn it over other things (bad habits of either movement or stillness), but when it comes to the Alexander Technique we need to be overeducated; we need to overlearn it so that we can use it under duress, much like a musician practices over and over to be able to execute music under stress…
On my subway ride to teach some Alexander Technique lessons at the American Center for the Alexander Technique in Mahattan, I noticed a man who could not have been more stooped over. As an Alexander Technique teacher I was particularly aware of how he was seated, reading the paper, his head not very far from his knees. His face was quite tense, and had a scowl I suspected was habitual. He seemed to ‘have the weight of the world on his shoulders…
…the Alexander Technique ‘inhabits’ your body through the cultivation of awareness. We realize, through Alexander Technique lessons, that we have control over this tension. I didn’t know that I had control over my overly-tensed painful neck until I started working with an Alexander Technique teacher. I just thought: my neck is tense and it hurts. I didn’t know…
Many Alexander Technique teachers are slumpers, or former slumpers. My name is Mark and I’m a slumper. Slumping was my habit before I became an Alexander Technique teacher, and it will be my habit forever. Although …
The Alexander Technique offers a different kind of posture training, a different kind of posture.You can apply the Alexander Technique to any situation. You can be more easeful, with less tension and compression. You will look like you have better posture.
One of the problems of trying to achieve ‘good posture’, or ‘perfect posture’ is that these terms imply rigidity. Some Alexander Technique teachers attempt to avoid the word posture altogether, calling it the ‘P’ word.
One could learn to have ‘good posture’ in a few minutes, especially if you think of military posture. Military posture is standing up as straight as possible, with your stomach in, chest out, chin tucked in, shoulders back…
I have a stiff neck. We say we have a stiff or sore neck, as if someone gave it to us and now it’s ours. In Alexander Technique terms it might be more accurate to say “I’m stiffening my neck.” Of course if you say it that way you sound insane…
…The Alexander Technique is the good news. I teach, show, and coach almost everyone who comes to me how to use the computer without injury. If people are in pain already I teach them how to stop injuring themselves, and the steps to take to allow the body to heal. You could try it right now. See if you can notice any neck tension. It’s there, though you may not be able to sense it at this point. You can learn to let these muscles go. If you release your neck muscles, your head will rotate forward, and move up. You could think this way: I want my neck to be free so that my head will move forward and up. This ‘forward’ business doesn’t mean forward as in your face moving towards the screen…
1. Become aware, and then let go of the muscles in the back of your neck.
2. Think of your head moving up. (The crown of your head)
3. Slightly, slowly lower your nose.
4. Continue 1,2,3, and let your sit bones release down in your chair, but your torso moves up.
5. If you’re standing, let your feet release down while the rest of you moves up.
6. Let your jaw dangle open, even when you’re lips are closed. (Give it a try)…
