Mark Josefsberg-Certified Alexander Technique Teacher in New York City. Alexander Technique lessons offered in Manhattan and Queens. Thanks for visiting this ever-expanding site dedicated to the Alexander Technique. The Alexander Technique improved my posture and relieved my intense neck pain and hand pain, and I’ve been pain-free for many years. I now help people improve their posture, reduce and eliminate their back pain, neck pain…
How will the The Alexander Technique help YOU?…

What kind of person studies to become an Alexander Technique teacher? At first, I believe, it’s the same type of person who decides to take a few Alexander Technique lessons, and there’s no ‘type’ of person. To become a certified Alexander Technique teacher, you enter an Alexander Technique training…

Alexander Technique teachers have to coach during Alexander Technique lessons. It is not enough to know and be able to teach Alexander Technique principles; you want to know both how to apply them yourself and show students how to apply them. In addition, encouragement is vital because the student may be changing lifetime habits. This takes energy and dedication from the student, and an empathetic…

“Stand up straight!” “Pull your shoulders back!” As children, we were told to have good posture. Yet we were seldom taught effective ways to accomplish this. Indeed, we were often not even told just what “good posture” is. The consequences of this information gap can be seen all around us: stiff necks, shoulders hunched forward or pulled tightly back, restricted breathing, and tightness in the thighs, legs and ankles. Backaches, headaches, and other painful symptoms are often the unfortunate result…

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…

This short Alexander Technique post contains two MP3’s. Both are audio interviews of myself conducted by Alexander Technique teacher Robert Rickover. The first interview concerns my Alexander Technique teaching; why I became an Alexander Technique student and subsequently an Alexander Technique teacher here in New York City. The second interview is geared more for Alexander Technique teachers, as we discuss the Alexander Technique and Alexander Technique teachers’ use of the web. This interview calls on my expertise regarding websites. I think it’s an interesting interview because I have no expertise regarding websites!…

More than any other healing modality I can think of, the word ‘and’ can follow ‘Alexander Technique.’ There are thousands of examples of this, but I’ll list 5:

1. The Alexander Technique and back pain
2. The Alexander Technique and posture
3. The Alexander Technique and neck pain
4. The Alexander Technique and stress
5. The Alexander Technique and computer use
I could go on and on. I will…

Soft focus. A wider view. The big picture. Draw back. Back off. Hold up. Alexander Technique NYC. Pause, wait, stop, relax, ease up, chill. Lengthen. Widen. Take a step back and see the whole rather than just the parts. Alexander Technique, especially in NY. Sometimes too much involvement can draw us in, and down, collapsing into ourselves. Too much involvement; too much riding on it. Even our jaw muscles tighten and shorten. Too important, as if it’s life or death. It makes us want to lean in, anyway we know how; usually by shrinking, compressing. Breathing shallows. We get tense, and then we stay tense. It happens to us someplace, then anyplace, then everyplace. Some times to almost all the time. Then it becomes “that’s the way I am”, or, “I’m a tense person”…

Sometimes in the early stages of Alexander Technique lessons, I might ask a student to ‘do nothing’ while they’re lying on the massage table, or to ‘let go’ as I move their arm…I’m asking the Alexander Technique student (we’re all Alexander Technique students) to inhibit. This isn’t inhibition as in suppressing; it more has to do with stopping your initial response giving you a chance to do something in a new, conscious, beneficial way…

The Alexander Technique and meditation can be beautifully interwoven. Since the Alexander Technique is a ‘pre-technique’, using it before meditating can enhance your meditation practice. The Alexander Technique can help shorten the time it takes to get to the state or tone you want when you meditate, and help you stay in that place longer when you’re through. It can help make the line between meditating and not meditating more blurry. Your meditation practice is augmented…