Desk/computer work, sitting and standing and everyday life:

• Sitting or standing for long periods of time puts a great demand on your body.

• Habits of slouching are frequently corrected by over-straightening which narrows the lower back particularly causing fatigue of the back muscles…. so, then we slouch again!​

• Together we will explore more efficient and balanced ways to sit, stand, walk and bend.

 

Acting:

• In being able to free yourself of your own habits you are better able to find the breathing patterns, alignment, and physicality of your character.

• Greater physical ease and freedom helps in finding the inner impulse that truthfully distinguishes gentle from delicate and strength from force rather than fabricating your character's response to the moment.

• When a character’s physicality and movement patterns require anything from mild tension (tightened pursed lips) to extreme muscular tension (a severe deformity), AT serves you to find  inner space allowing for the breath to still easily flow, circumventing skeletal compression and potential injury to yourself.

• AT Allows the actor to leave the character and the physical choices they have made once the performance is over. The actor then does not carry the character’s tension and stress with them causing themselves harm.

 

Musicians:

• How you use yourself while playing your instrument effects not only the sound of your instrument but your own physicality and fatigue.

• Practicing for long periods of time can lead to muscle soreness and even repetitive stress injuries which can be better avoided.  AT helps miinimize joint compression and muscular holding while working with your instrument.

• Once you move away from your instrument, AT servers to undo any discomfort that does occur due to the demands of playing particular instruments.

 

Public speakers, singers:

• How you use your body directly affects voice and the use of your breath and in turn how you are being heard by your ‘audience’.

• Habits that cause compression and tightness in the torso restrict the free movement of your ribcage preventing the diaphragm from taking its full excursion. This prevents you from letting your breath drop in and flow freely.  

• Reducing facial, neck, jaw, and eye tension all positively affect the use of your vocal mechanism and allows for increased resonance and presence.

 

Dance, yoga, fitness, and sports:

• AT opens your body encouraging you to move with greater ease and fluidity.

• The more physical freedom you have, the more movement choices you have available.       

• AT counters the habit of stiffening and holding patterns that result from the attempt to be “correct”.

• Often in stretching one area, it is easy to create tension in another area without realizing you are overworking and causing stress on opposite muscles and joints. AT guides you toward releasing this unnecessary tension and to accomplish the given movement with increased efficiency.

 

Seniors:

• AT helps you increase your mobility through which you gain greater stability and sense of balance.

• With fear of falling, we often tighten our muscles contributing to a rigidity that is counterproductive to balance and coordination. In bringing your awareness to your compensatory movement patterns AT helps you to free yourself of these and find those that are more efficient.

• Greater ease and fluidity in both movement and stillness is discovered.

 

Neurological disorders:

• Working directly with cognition, AT teaches new ways of thinking about organizing movement and helps the individual apply this to exercises and daily activities.

• Through self-management strategies, AT serves to improve functional movement patterns.

• Instead of focusing on only the area of immediate concern, AT serves to bring your awareness to how you are using your whole-body allowing movement to be experienced with increased coordination and ease.

• Compensatory maladaptive patterns that develop can contribute to a movement narrative resulting in less reliable balance and conditions such as spasticity.  With the conscious awareness that AT brings to the moment, these patterns can be replaced with those that contribute to executing movement with increased fluidity.

 

NOTE: Of course, pain, balance, coordination and breathing issues can be due to medical           concerns that need to be directly addressed. You should always consult a doctor to explore if your condition is being caused by an underlying medical condition.