What Does an IAT Lesson Involve?

Initial Alexander Technique (IAT) is modeled after the method of visuo-spatial self observation and experimentation Francois Delsarte and F.M. Alexander used to recover healthy vocalization. An IAT lesson takes place with a student being filmed over an online video platform, such as Skype or Zoom. Students of IAT learn how to prevent the behavioral causes of chronic pain, fatigue, laryngitis, clumsiness and other problems. The IAT lesson also provides a training ground for students to use speech as a tool for planning their own behavior, carrying out the plan, and then checking the result for accuracy.

The student will experiment with ways to improve his/her functioning by prescribing mechanically advantageous inter-segmental movements to adjust his/her anatomical structure, and will describe observable cause/effect relationships between useful adjustments and improved functioning, and between maladjustments and malfunctioning. These cause/effect relationships become evident as the student creates the movements. The student will also employ speech in the description of inter-segmental movements necessary to create certain movements of the anatomical structure as a whole (such as going from sitting to standing). To the extent that his/her problems are caused by misuse of the anatomical structure or misdirected inner-speech, the student is enabled to solve them and prevent their recurrence.

In this spirit of experimentation, the student is expected not to take the teacher’s word for what is or is not mechanically advantageous. The student instead uses procedures to test whether or not a certain adjustment has produced a mechanically advantageous organization of the anatomical structure, and is encouraged to express doubts and inquire as to why one organization of the anatomical structure is preferable to another. These questions may be answered during the lesson, or via email. This process may include acquiring very basic knowledge of physics, anatomy, bio-mechanics, and psycholinguistics. In each lesson the student gains tools he/she can work with by him/herself to reduce the severity of problems related to mis-use of the anatomical structure and misdirected inner-speech.

After the lesson, the student watches the video of the lesson, filmed from the teacher's perspective. The mechanically advantageous way of using the anatomical structure, although visibly better supported, initially feels uncomfortable. The student will have to choose between movements they have reason to believe will help them with their problems, but go against their habit, and movements that feel familiar, but cause their problems. As the muscles and fascias involved in creating a mechanically advantageous organization of the anatomical structure adjust and strengthen over time, and the student perceives linkages between this organization and improved coordination, creating these movements becomes less uncomfortable. The video shows the student that his/her spoken plan for a movement, which he/she reasoned out with a teacher, and what he/she felt when carrying out that plan, sometimes contradict what they are seen to be doing on camera.

The student gradually advances from creating a mechanically advantageous organization of the anatomical structure in static gestures (e.g. sitting and standing), to using this organization in dynamic gestures, such as the movement from sit to stand and vice versa, walking, squatting, working with one’s hands, respiration, and vocalization.These dynamic gestures encompass most movements a person performs in daily life, and the acquisition of enhanced clarity of speech presupposed by successfully improving them can be used to solve problems in other areas of life.