"I received great help from the Alexander Technique during my pregnancy and when I gave birth. It all began when I got lumbar pain in my 16th week. I spoke with my midwife who told me that back problem is a natural part of pregnancy. A few weeks later, after I had started to take Alexander lessons the pain had vanished as had also some swelling in my legs. After each lesson I felt happy, lively and could breathe deeply.

During the birth, the breathing exercises and directions I had learned were very helpful and I felt that I had useful tools that allowed me to go with my body through the birth. It meant that it all became a positive experience and that I had dared to trust in my own strength to give birth."

   - Christine Ribbing

"From late teenage and about ten years onward, I had a constant back problem. Ordinary strengthening exercises only made things worse. Sometimes a visit to a naprapath gave me temporary relief from the pain, but it always came back with renewed strength. In the hope of getting to the bottom of the problem and not just treating the symptoms I contacted Steven.

With him I have learned a new attitude to my posture – a natural way that I could see was good both for my back and for the rest of my body. In the beginning it felt very unusual and that became an “aha experience” that clarified the bad habits I had acquired over the years, and which gave me the reason as to why my back did not get better.

After a number of lessons with Steven, my back pain went away completely. The lessons have also had many other positive effects, for example freer breathing and better sense of myself. The fascination of learning to use my body in a better and more effective way, has meant that I go back for more in-depth learning now and again”

   - Mattias Ribbing

“I first came into contact with the Alexander Technique in the year 1993 and immediately experienced that this method was something for me. The Alexander Technique is gentle, careful and powerful at the same time. The Alexander Technique has helped me acquire increased body-awareness, presence and concentration. Together with some other important factors, the Alexander Technique has transformed my life."

   - Måns Cederberg, 41, lawyer and father of four children

“This is the best treatment one can get! I don’t understand why physiotherapists don’t know about this!”

   - David Ericsson, 89 years old.

This letter was written to the Swedish Education Department –Skolverket – on behalf of the Stockholm Alexander Teacher Training Course.

"I have had great satisfaction and benefit from having lessons in the Alexander Technique. I have several times got help with health problems that have dragged on for some time, for which I have not received any other help.

For a long time (about 9 years) I had pain in my knee. I consulted several Doctors and tried strength training, yoga, resting, swimming, physiotherapy and pain tablets. Since I did not get better and it was too painful to train, it was thought by the Doctors that the only way out was an operation. I had, however, besides this difficulty, a problem with my hip on the same side and suspected therefore that there was an underlying cause that would not be addressed by the knee operation.

Instead of agreeing to an operation I began to take lessons in the Alexander Technique and eventually became completely better in both my knee and my hip. This took time, however, because it involves completely re-learning behaviour. I noticed after a while how the whole of my balance changed and I began to use entirely different muscles for all of my daily activities such as walking, standing and sitting. Previously I had had great difficulty in climbing stairs because of my knee, but I noticed that there were muscles that earlier I had not known I had but which were much better suited for climbing stairs. These muscles could not be found or influenced by sheer will through, for example, exercise training, but they began to work quite automatically as the balance in my body changed. Gradually the knee got better and better and I now have no trouble at all with it. I am very happy about this.

Unfortunately, 2 and 1/2 years ago I had a car accident and since then have had trouble with back pain and pain which radiates down the leg. I could not do anything for the whole of the first year, but afterwards was treated by an osteopath and tried physiotherapy. It is only now that I have gone back to Alexander lessons for a period that I have begun to believe that I will be well again. The Technique is relatively demanding on ones patience because one must change ones way of thinking and teach the body that there are better ways to go to work. But the reward is that the results are lasting, in contrast to a manipulation from a physiotherapist or chiropractor, which then goes back, so that one feels worse than before.

I consider that the Alexander Technique is unsurpassed for all types of problems connected to the mechanisms for movement and I feel that it also influences other functions in the body, for example breathing. I am very glad this option exists, and wish that more might have the chance to try out this fantastic Technique."

With best wishes
Loe Nyman