Posted by & filed under Alexander Technique, Alexander Technique Teacher Training.

“We don’t receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us.”     Marcel Proust

Butterflies in the stomach are abating…still waiting for my comfort zone to really set in…however I can say that it is best that I took that fork in the road. Here I am, training again…on my journey again.  At the Training Center for the Alexander Technique. Its très chic acronym is TCAT-NYC…Thomas Vasiliades, directing. Someone on the phone at AmSAT referred to him as “my boss.” Pretty hilarious that. I’ll not tell him.

What can I tell you? It’s wild to be part of a brand new venture. After having had so many private lessons with Tom, and having had many turns and much hands on work with him in my former training program, I am now training to become a teacher of the Alexander Technique under his direction. My intuition tells me that my training will be a wonderful experience.

The word “intimate” popped out at me in the two introductions to The Use of the Self, which we are reading closely. John Dewey wrote, in his succinct 1939 Introduction, on describing Alexander’s work: “Each lesson carries the process somewhat further and confirms in the most intimate and convincing fashion the claims that are made.” And in Wilfred Barlow‘s Introduction to the 1985 edition: “Alexander’s work was and is concerned with the intimate management of our moment-to-moment perceptions of ourselves.” Mais oui!

Intimate. In-depth, profound, thorough: intimate work in an intimate, welcoming setting.

Monsieur le Gargouille keeps the evil spirits out of the training room...

Monsieur le Gargouille keeps the evil spirits out of the training room…

And rigorous. I just want to plunge in deeply. We started “at the beginning.” Position of mechanical advantage aka monkey…in several permutations. “Knees forward and away.” Etcetera. And so I am again experiencing the huge divide between merely taking AT lessons and training to be an AT teacher. I am again exploring in depth the ongoing kinesthetic conversation with myself that will lead me to have better use of self. And this ongoing process will never end.

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