Hope Mell

Alexander Technique & Yoga

Alexander has found a method for detecting precisely the correlations between physical and mental…and for creating a new sensory consciousness.
John Dewey

Healing is making whole – restoring a state of balance. Stress is a primary or aggravating cause of most illness, and frequently obstructs the body’s efforts to return to a state of health. I have long been aware of the body’s ability to heal, through observing myself and others. The game is to get your mind out of the way and let your body do what it knows how to do. Our physical instrument, the human body, performs best at a level of highly refined neuromuscular balance.

The Alexander Technique and Hatha Yoga are wonderful complements to each other.

The Alexander Technique is a means of creating and maintaining balance, of rediscovering strength by reducing effort and increasing awareness. It is not a system of exercise, as exercises may reinforce habits at the root of the disorder. Rather, the Technique works indirectly: eliminating the psycho-physical interferences, releasing chronically held tension, re-establishing tone in the musculature, and allowing the body’s own coordination and intelligence to operate.

The Alexander Technique helps us to use the appropriate amount of effort for a particular activity, giving you more energy for all your activities. The Alexander Technique can change the way we perceive ourselves. It can improve the quality of our actions and interactions, change our relationship to the environment, alter our sense of time, give us the freedom to change and live in balance, where all systems operate efficiently and effectively. The Alexander Technique is education … for life.

Schedule and Appointment

What the Alexander Technique can do for you:

  • Increase energy and self-awareness
  • Help relieve chronic pain
  • Reduce tension and stress in everyday activities
  • Produce more efficient movement
  • Improve posture, coordination, and self-image
  • Enhance skills in performing arts (dancing, singing, playing a musical instrument, and acting)
  • Improve skills in athletics and sports
  • Prevent injuries and fatigue
  • Speed healing and shorten rehabilitation time
u

Who developed the Alexander Technique?

u

Who should study the Technique?

u

What do others think about the Alexander Technique?

An Alexander class, with both movement and tablework, is usually 90 minutes. During this time, we focus on moving with balance and freedom. While on the table for 50 to 60 minutes, your body will be able to completely relax, regaining its natural balance. You will be able to sense your Primary Control, and play with inhibiting your habitual responses. In one session, thinking becomes clearer, feelings more accessible and movement more pleasurable. After the tablework, there is additional movement guidance. You will gain greater awareness of how to move efficiently while learning to free unnecessary tensions.
Working with Hope is a life changing experience.
Shankara Lowndes

Training and Experience

  • 2004 completed first year Structural Yoga Therapy® Training, with Mukunda Stiles.
  • 1988 Certified to teach Alexander Technique, Alexander Alliance, Philadelphia, Pa
  • 1974 Certified to teach Integral Yoga® Hatha
  • Summer intensives with Master Teacher Marjorie Barstow, in Lincoln, Nebraska, as well as workshops in New York.
  • 1987 Anatomy with Donald Weed, DC, at the American University Washington D.C.
  • I have offered Alexander Technique workshops at Satchidananda Ashram and other teaching centers, for: Retreats, Teachers’ Training Programs, Back Care Programs and Teachers’ Reunions.

Former member of Buckingham Volunteer Rescue Squad. EMT-B, CPR, EVOC

Founding member MAYER:
Manteo-Yogaville-Emergency Rescue.

Schedule an Appointment

If you would like to schedule an appointment, contact me by email or phone. Ninety-minute classes are recommended. Our time will be designed to address your specific needs.


Contact

Phone: 434-969-1721

Email: hm@alexandertechnique-yoga.com

w

Read what others have said

View Testimonials
Who developed the Alexander Technique?

Over ninety years ago F.M. Alexander discovered that his poor coordination threatened his success as an actor as well as his health. Unable to meet the demands of performance and unable to find any real help, he was forced to conclude that the source of his problem was something he was doing to himself in the way he performed his activities. He solved his problem by developing a process which retrained his thinking, improved his coordination, enriched the quality of his performance, strengthened and personalized his style. Today, this process is called the Alexander Technique.

Who studies the Alexander Technique?

Anyone who is physically uncomfortable due to stress, postural habits, movement problems, old injuries, or poor self-image. Performing artists and teachers of the performing arts. Athletes, equestrians, and martial artists. Movement educators, dance therapists, physical therapists, occupational therapists, counselors and psychologists. Anyone who wishes to regain more of their ease, flexibility, tone, breath, fluidity, strength, expressiveness and grace.

What do others think about the Alexander Technique?

The Alexander Technique is endorsed by and is included in the curriculum of many major institutions including The American Conservatory Theatre, American Dance Festival, Brandeis University, The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, The Julliard School-Music and Theater Divisions, Manhattan School of Music, The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London Royal College of Music, London San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Distinguished students and supporters of the Alexander Technique:

John Dewey, American Educational Philosopher. George Bernard Shaw, Playwright. John Houseman, Producer, Director, Actor. Aldous Huxley, Writer. Robertson Davies, Author. Fredericck Perls, Originator of Gestalt Therapy. Moshe Feldenkrais, Originator of The Feldenkrais Method. Professor Niko Tinbergen, Nobel Prize for Physiology/Medicine. And Many others, among them: Paul McCartney, Sting, Paul Neuman, Mary Steenburgen, Irene Worth John Cleese, Jeremy Irons, Joel Gray…