I wrote recently (about emergence) that the river will flow if we dismantle the dam. So how do we dismantle? Especially since the patterns (dams) that interfere with our innate freedom (river) can feel insurmountable? In my experience the process of dismantling a dam, no matter the size, is really quite simple: 1. Notice it (we can't change anything we don't know is there). This is where teachers (of all kinds) are helpful, sometimes it takes outside input to reveal our dams as dams vs "just who we are", but the noticing must also involve our own awareness (our teachers can't do the noticing f ..read more

I'm thinking about Alexander technique as the art of allowing emergence. Allowing is the action and the emergence of that which is already true is the result. But in Alexander Technique we are not unbiased in what we allow (not just any allowing will result in emergence), we are directional, directing the allowing towards what is innate. And we know that what is innate to our organism is ease, efficiency, adaptability, brilliance, and whole health. What is so lovely about this is it means we don't have to manufacture whole health or create a solution, we simply practice strategies for allowing ..read more

After a month off, I'm looking forward to restarting the online group class. This class is specifically oriented towards the way we are responding to this current reality in our minds, hearts, and especially our bodies. These classes will help you identify your personal patterns, the way your body is responding to your world, and give you experience and tools to hold grief, confusion, fear, boredom, loss, and stress while also finding access to your innate ease, spaciousness, balance, and comfort. Each class is designed in real time to respond to the needs, desires, and curiosities o ..read more

I'm thrilled to be offering in person lessons again, I have deeply missed touching bodies and connecting with you all. To keep you, myself, and our communities safe we will be taking the following COVID precautions: - You'll arrive at your appointment time (not early) and wait outside, I'll come let you in. - We'll both wear masks at all times. - We'll both wash or sanitize our hands. - We'll chat before we begin about each of our comfort levels and boundaries. - Please bring clean socks to use inside the studio.  - Bring your own water bottle, we are no longer able to provide water ..read more

As the weeks of isolation go on and we continue to confront our place and participation in Black oppression and liberation, it feels more and more critical to find embodiment. To that end, I am beginning to offer in person private lessons on a limited basis and am restarting the online group class (note the new time). I believe Alexander Technique is the study of freedom: freedom in our bodies, freedom from limiting patterns, freedom from oppressive belief systems, and that because we are fundamentally whole integrated beings, on some level there is no difference between fr ..read more

    I read this Mary Oliver poem (photo above) eight weeks into COVID isolation and it struck me. I'm noticing that I suddenly and unexpectedly feel depression, and frustration, and every once in a while suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy. I love the idea that not hesitating when one is experiencing joy is a way of fighting back. Not of fighting back in a way that's against the depression or frustration, trying to make them go away, but a way of fighting back that says joy is also available, that adds joy to our current palette of experiences. I'd like to remember Mary Oliver's ..read more

I recently co-facilitated a workshop for folks working in racial justice with my colleague Sonali Sangeeta Balajee. It was a day of the intersections of somatics and social justice, a day of exploring the truths shared between the individual body and the social body. We focused on restoring and rehydrating our purpose and presence and used this powem by Galway Kinnell to guide us: The bud stands for all things, even for those things that don’t flower, for everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing; though sometimes it is necessary to reteach a thing its loveliness, to put a hand on the ..read more

I recently returned from a trip to Oaxaca Mexico. Oaxaca is full of art: galleries, print shops, museums, studios, street art. I'm thrilled to have brought back these wonderful prints to add to my studio wall. This wall serves an important purpose in my lessons. Alexander Technique is designed to be something you practice inside your life, out in the world, in the activities you spend you time doing. My studio doesn't have a window, doesn't have easy access to the world. When I teach in rooms with windows I tell my student's "look out there, find something to see while you feel the changes hap ..read more