It’s Time Alexander Technique Teachers Start Breaking the Law

In our secret Facebook club – I challenge you to find us – I have 32 Alexander Technique teachers and students who have one thing in common: getting serious about creating a full-time, financially sustainable career as a teacher of Alexander Technique. Is that something you aspire to? Then perhaps you should consider joining us… This month I will introduce you to some of those teachers, so from tomorrow you will be reading about their struggles, their journey and the steps they are taking now to find their way. There will be lot of inspiration for you in your struggle to etch out a life as a teacher of this work. Currently Alexander Technique as a profession is a joke – out of the many thousands who have trained, only a few hundred manage to barely survive full-time. Many do it as a hobby, being a supported by a partner or an alternative profession, and most don’t do it at all. What kind of a profession is that? Actually, it reminds me of actors who have a similar success rate: 1% of the people who want to be actors will make it really big; 4% will manage a full-time career; another 15% will make an occasional living; and the other 80% can forget it. They won’t make a dime from acting, and basically they function as active financial supporters of acting schools. In the case of Alexander Technique, it’s the teacher training schools who most benefit from the 80% of Alexander Technique teachers who are unable to survive from full-time teaching. How An Alexander Technique Teacher Can Break The Law It’s a terrible picture, and one I have dedicated my life to transform. You see – I don’t think it has to be this way. I think an Alexander Technique teacher is a person of incredible value to society. What we have to offer, and what society needs, is a match. We can solve some of the most unsolvable problems that exist today. It’s so incredible what we can do, that we actually break the law if we truthfully claim it. Try putting out an add that states: we will cure your back pain. How long would you last? But the fact is, as we all know, we can. The study in England, showing an 86% success rate, only confirmed what all of us already know – Alexander’s discovery can consistently deliver like nothing else in the whole mindbody work field. Alexander’s work is an paradigm-busting phenomenon that requires a new mindset to comprehend it. And therein lies the rub. It’s so funny to me when I first meet marketing people, and we start the conversation about what we sell. It doesn’t talk long until we get lost in a quagmire of alternative possibilities, their eyes start rolling, and they finally come to the conclusion that I first came to: We just have to sell a solution to a problem. However, there is still a problem with this. Before going ahead, people still want to know “How are you going to solve my problem?” When you answer with specifics, they are still not content. They want you to tell them: “What do you use to solve that problem?” So inevitably we must answer “We use Alexander’s Discovery.” They ask “What’s that?” and we are back trying to explain Alexander Technique. So I, and 32 other teachers, are busy working on how to solve this. This next month, I am turning over my blog so you can read their stories. They are full of passion. They are dramatic and fascinating. These are people who have a purpose, a life worth living. They are you. Be inspired by these people to pick up the baton and join us in solving your problem of making your service available to others in a way that is financially rewarding to you. Society needs us. Look out for Angela’s story tomorrow…