Embodied Cognition: Principles and Practices to Support the Whole Person
Embodied cognition is the well-founded theory that explains how bodily sensations and experiences are essential to forming our understanding of the world, the construction of conceptual knowledge, and meaning-formation. It accounts for the role of sensation and movement in perception, social and emotional judgements, language comprehension, emotions, abstraction and metaphor. It asserts that even our higher-level […]
Pause, Observe, Intend: A Qualitative Analysis of How Mindfulness and Alexander Technique Work Synergistically to Address Stress
In line with the theme of the congress, Embodied Mind in Action, this workshop invites participants to experience the synergistic ways in which mindfulness meditation and Alexander Technique approach stress. We will share insights from our recent research project that explored how dual-discipline experts self-regulate when under stress. Seventeen practitioners who were trained and deeply […]
Embodied Action with The Poise Project
For decades, and in countless professional meetings and conferences, AT teachers have discussed amongst themselves: “How can the Alexander principles be better known? What is the ‘Future of AT’?” The Poise Project was launched in 2016 to move these discussions forward into action. For nine years, with single-minded determination, a nonprofit infrastructure, and a strategic […]
Kinaesthetic Energy Patterns and the Alexander Technique: How Energy Patterns Can Enhance and Expand Our Perceptual and Pedagogical Skills
Researchers have proposed that four primary energy patterns flow through the human nervous system. These patterns are hypothesized to comprise the primary neuromuscular connection between body and mind. Discovered in the 1930s by kinaesiologist, Josephine Rathbone, who was researching the ways people move and hold residual tension in their bodies, these energy patterns manifest in […]
Kinaesthetic Energy Patterns and the Alexander Technique: How Energy Patterns Can Enhance and Expand Our Perceptual and Pedagogical Skills
Researchers have proposed that four primary energy patterns flow through the human nervous system. These patterns are hypothesized to comprise the primary neuromuscular connection between body and mind. Discovered in the 1930s by kinaesiologist, Josephine Rathbone, who was researching the ways people move and hold residual tension in their bodies, these energy patterns manifest in […]
Alexander Technique in a Clinical Setting
The workshop will present the use of the Alexander Technique and Art of Breathing principles and practice as an intervention for those managing certain disorders, diseases, or behavioural symptoms in a clinical setting. A discussion will follow. This workshop is intended for AT teachers curious about building relationships with clinical health professionals and learning about […]
Plenary – Chronic Back Pain Research Update
Science Day We will finish the day with a presentation from Paul Little, the principal investigator on the ATEAM clinical trial that showed long term reductions in chronic back pain following lessons in the AT. He will provide an update on their latest research efforts focused on the effects of individual and group AT lessons […]
Keynote – The role of the brain and mind in chronic pain
Overview of Science Day for Dublin Alexander Technique Congress Introduction Since the turn of the new Millennium, we have witnessed a revolution in how the scientific and clinical communities view pain. A defining feature of this revolution is a shift from a biomedical model, which viewed pain as a simple response to tissue damage, to […]
Panel Discussion: The Science of Pain from an AT Perspective
Science Day Between the morning and afternoon presentations, we will host an interactive symposium from three AT teachers/scientists who have made major contributions to our understanding of how the AT might modulate pain: Tim Cacciatore, Rajal Cohen, and Mari Hodges. A panel discussion and Q&A session, led by individuals who have a foot in the […]
Unity and Use: the conceptual anatomy of the Technique
Tim’s talk is based on his recent PhD thesis. He argues that Alexander’s theoretical achievement is every bit as great and important as his practical one, but that it is not properly appreciated. Even when it is foregrounded, it typically appears as at best a shopping list of principles, sometimes arranged in order of importance, […]