more on betteratbeing / alexander technique

$ 0  - Virtual introduction, 30 minutes

$65 - One one-hour lesson per week

Discounts are negotiable based on advance commitment to multiple lessons.

Meeting at least once weekly and practicing in the interim will help you retain what you are learning, and give you more value for your time and money.

Meeting twice or more per week, if scheduling permits, will greatly increase your proficiency.

Call 646-208-0187 to schedule lessons with Elizabeth Hurwitt, for AT instruction certified by the American Society for Alexander Technique (AmSAT).

betterATbeing is a relatively new practice welcoming new students. Fees are the lowest you will find anywhere among AmSAT-certified instructors.

Actors, singers, dancers, athletes and people seeking recovery from injury or chronic pain are those most likely to study Alexander Technique (AT). 

But  AT can have benefits for anyone.

Learning AT helps us overcome harmful habits of excessive tension, breaking life-long patterns of doing things the hard way.

Alexander Technique teaches us a skill set that facilitates the way we go about all the tasks involved in leading our daily lives and doing our jobs.

As we hone our AT skills, the more able we become; chronic pain and discomfort can be minimized or subdued entirely.

Many people studying AT also experience a lift in their mood as well as their posture.

The teaching approach at betterATbeing comes from Elizabeth's training in a teaching lineage leading from AT founder F.M. Alexander through Walter Carrington, to whom Alexander entrusted the continuation of his training practice.

Carrington's uniquely effective method of teaching emphasizes the engagement of the postural muscles via the body's elastic, opposing pulls.  The teacher's  inquiring, guiding touch speaks to the entire individual with each placement of the hands, encouraging a widening as well as lengthening back, and freeing the rib cage for deep and natural breathing. 

The Carrington approach grounds the student in fundamental AT principles that are universally applicable in everything you do. Teachers trained in and dedicated to Carrington's teaching legacy are not easy to find in the U.S. and are worth seeking out.

No special equipment or attire is required for Alexander learning — just teacher and student in comfortable clothing; a table, a chair, and a mirror.

With verbal instructions and gentle touch, your teacher will lead you through new kinesthetic experiences.

You will learn to pay special attention to the relationship between your head, neck, back and limbs,  stop them; and start thinking about and doing things in new and better ways as you exercise your powers of observation and intention.

Over the course of your lessons, you will become aware of your own counter-productive habits; learn how to stop them; and start thinking about and doing things in new and better ways.

No. Student and teacher collaborate closely in Alexander work. Your participation is necessary for its success.

Your teacher's verbal and hands-on guidance and above all your own direction (self-guided thinking) set the process in motion.

With your teacher's help, you will learn to reorganize your use (your management of the whole pyscho-physical system that is your self) to function optimally. 

With Alexander Technique, time and practice will help you integrate improved use into your daily life, for greater ease in all you do.

Not at betterATbeing.

As an AT student with betterATbeing, the most important understanding you will gain, in each lesson, is directly conveyed by the guiding hands of the teacher.

As your teacher, I depend on my hands to carefully monitor how you are using your body, in ways not possible with a purely visual assessment.

The two-way communication of touch is a powerful exchange that cannot be replicated if teacher and student are not together, in real space and time.

For these reasons, a shared spacial environment is by far the best one for AT learning, and the only one offered by betterATbeing.