Services - Mind Body Awareness

A Toolkit for Living Well

What if we told you that you could be in less physical pain by becoming aware of common posture habits (from sitting, driving, carrying, computing and others). What if you could learn to move a little differently throughout your day to reduce back, shoulder, knee, neck pain and headaches? What if we could teach you, based on our own personal experience with the same issues, how to feel better? Mind Body Integration (Alexander Technique) lessons are available in one on one sessions and small group classes.

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Mind-Body Integration (Alexander Technique)

Life is filled with stressors that throw us off balance. Work-related imbalances such as using a computer, playing an instrument, even driving and yard work can fatigue and contort us. Our efforts at good posture can produce more tension than poise and may interfere with any natural, fluid quality of movement. The good news is that you have the ability to rebalance yourself toward a more comfortable you.

In our journey toward Mind-Body Integration, we will call upon concepts from dance and movement along with Pilates, and the Alexander Technique. A typical session will direct one toward the natural balance within oneself, that has been masked by habits coming from life’s stresses, self-driven pressure, or injury. We can build awareness of the dis-ease these habits impose – an awareness accessed by quieting the mind and finding a better way to use our bodies. The end result is the freeing of one’s self to live with ease and confidence. Research has shown this work to help manage back pain, assist the elderly with balance, to ease asthma symptoms and to help Parkinson’s patients manage tasks more easily.

Mind Body Integration (Alexander Technique) Sessions

Mind Body Integration (Alexander Technique) sessions direct one toward the natural balance within oneself that has been masked by habits coming from life’s stresses, self-driven pressure, or injury. We build awareness of the dis-ease these habits impose – an awareness accessed by quieting the mind and finding a better way to use our bodies. The end result is the freeing of one’s self to live with ease and confidence.

This treatment offered exclusively by Cathy Fallon

Your First Session

In this Mind Body Integration (Alexander Technique) session with Cathy Fallon, the student explains what they are seeking to learn or change. This is often a pain issue but is sometimes a desire to increase achievement or joy in something they love doing. We explore sitting, standing and walking, trying to notice where habits of effort and inefficiency creep in. You will be guided physically and verbally toward effortless, comfortable, easy movement. When we notice a shift toward more balanced effort, we move to the table.

The student lies on the table fully clothed and we revisit how to use the self with better alignment and less effort. Not fighting gravity gives the student an experience of just how easy movement can be when the habitual patterns are by-passed. We may then return to the chair or explore walking to “test” new discoveries and discuss applications for life outside the lesson.

Follow Up Sessions

In subsequent 30 or 60 minute Mind Body Integration sessions, we will review the concepts of slowing down, observing and directing the thoughts and the body toward ease, balance, poise and improved functioning. It takes time to unravel habits that take years to layer on. While the pace of one’s learning is very personal, up to six months of weekly sessions may be needed to truly allow the student to own the concepts and change how they move and perceive their world. Some students continue to study for the rest of their lives, switching to monthly or as needed “tune ups” as they master their self-understanding.

Group Sessions

Mind Body Integration (Alexander Technique) group sessions offer the opportunity to not only observe ourselves but to learn by observing others. A nonjudgmental environment where we can observe our balance and effort in sitting, standing, and walking provides a growth enhancing experience for all. We look for stiffness, or mal-coordination. We explore how to free our joints, always searching for where we work too hard. We may examine work-related activities that require repetitive movement. Group members may wish to apply their discoveries to activities they enjoy such as yoga, sports, singing, dancing, speaking, golfing, playing a piano and holding a baby. You may find you return to your day feeling calmer and more physically and mentally organized, feeling ease where there used to be stress.

Cathy Fallon is an extraordinarily talented Alexander teacher and movement re-educator. She has helped me on many levels including healing sports injuries to becoming more aware in both body and mind. She is warm, focused and highly skilled.

– RG, Author, Psychologist, Lecturer

“I am continually amazed as I take more lessons how this method has affected not only my physical need (adult scoliosis) but also its impact on me as a person. I find that I am much more flexible physically and I have gained a new fluidity of movement that I had never experienced before. It is wonderful, I feel more fun inside!

– KW, Alexander Technique Student

I have had the pleasure of receiving Alexander instruction from Cathy for a hip problem that was causing me lots of pain. Cathy taught me in her gentle, practical and very knowledgeable way to perform simple tasks, like walking and getting into and out of a chair without pain. Cathy is an extraordinary, hands-on teacher and understands the physical movements of the body, as well as the interaction of the mind/brain.

– CV, Professional Dancer