This symposium addresses a need for specific, up-to-date, science-based models to help AT practitioners to
- better understand what we are learning and teaching physiologically.
- better communicate with scientists, medical professionals, and AT colleagues.
- broaden the base of respect and understanding for our profession.
This symposium was presented as a live webinar on May 18th to 600 teachers and students of AT. We’ve formatted this presentation below.
The symposium features four speakers:
- Dr. Patrick Johnson (PhD Physics, STAT/NeVLAT certified teacher of AT)
- Dr. Tim Cacciatore (PhD Neuroscience, STAT certified teacher of AT)
- Assoc. Prof. Rajal Cohen (PhD, Associate Professor of Psychology University of Idaho, AmSAT certified teacher of AT)
- Prof. Ian Loram (PhD, Professor of Neuromuscular Control of Human Movement, Manchester Metropolitan University, PAAT certified teacher of AT)
Note: Scroll down for .pdf versions of all talks.
Video 1: Dr. Patrick Johnson. “The Challenges of AT Science and Introduction to the Speakers” (10 min.)
Video 1a: Q&A with Dr. Johnson (4 min.)
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Video 2: Dr. Tim Cacciatore. “A Central Role for Postural State in the AT” (23 min.)
Video 2a: Q&A with Dr. Cacciatore (10 min.)
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Video 3: Assoc. Prof. Rajal Cohen. “Inhibition and Posture, Deep Muscle Activation, Parkinson’s and AT.” (22 min.)
Video 3a: Q&A with Dr. Cohen (10 min.)
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Video 4: Prof. Ian Loram. “Proactive Selective Inhibition Targeted at the Neck Muscles & Model for AT Learning.” (26 min.)
Video 4a: Q&A with Prof. Loram (8 min.)
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Hello,
I am French, a teacher of the Alexander technique for 12 years. I did a training at the university which articulated the concepts of somatic techniques with the health sector. It was not specific to the Alexander technique but already very interesting. The work was nourished by the academic Hubert Godard who has worked extensively on “corporeity”, the link of somatic practices with phenomenology and concepts belonging to physchology.
The scientific aspect of the Alexander technique interests me a lot. Do you rely on experiences you have conducted? Do you go beyond the teaching that we receive in training?
I could be interested in your training but I have a big handicap, I speak English very badly. I wanted to know if the videos you present are accompanied by texts that trace the speech of the video in order to have a translation. On the other hand my fluent English is very difficult, question and answer exchanges would be quite complicated for me. What do you think ?
Thank you Anne Zimmer
Hi Anne
We are currently working on adding subtitles to our workshop videos. For the next webinar, all videos will be subtitled in English. We are also working on adding Japanese, German, and French subtitling. If you know French speakers who would be interested in volunteering their time for these efforts we would be grateful!
At the moment we don’t have plans to subtitle this video, but if there were help we could do it – first in English and then translated to other languages. It is a big project partly due to the the scientific content.
We are also working on documenting the experiential side of Alexander technique. This we do in our webinars, and I am currently involved in a more formal research project in this direction.
Feel free to contact me directly if you want to exchange more information – patrick at smartbody dot nl.
Hi there these are all interesting discussions. I am not sure what the poise project is but i would be interested to know more about
it. I am working with many alexander approaches to helping clients with smoking cessation and i think there is study to be done here.
I am interested in your online course on science and AT but wondering if its something that gets repeated?
Thanks Kate
Hi Kate,
Thanks for your comment. Rajal talks about the Poise Project beginning at 16:40 in Video 3 of the Symposium. For more information, you can visit the Poise Project website: https://www.thepoiseproject.org. Monika Gross is the founder and executive director and you can get into contact with her through the Poise Project website.
Tim and Patrick do plan on offering the webinar again in the future, though the next session has not been scheduled. It may not be scheduled until next spring (2021), unless there is additional interest from a group of AT teachers.
best,
Andrew