Let's Get Rid Of The Alexander Technique

It's been a long time since my last blog, and that is mainly because I have been devoting my time to helping individuals who are already in ATSuccess. I am really excited about what is happening, and boldly predict that this new generation of teachers can reshape the way our profession thinks about itself.

The day I look forward to, is the day when one AT teacher says to another: "What's your niche?" and that is the most natural question in the world. It is already starting to happen, with the "niche" conversation appearing more and more in Facebook groups, articles and the general thinking of our community.

Why is this so important?

It's a question the reaches deep into the foundations of the work itself. There's a reason that since 1894 till today, we remain on the margins of mainstream thinking.

Our work is like a wind.

Question: how do you sell wind?
Answer: You don't.

You sell the leaf that is blowing in the wind.

That leaf is your niche.

Most teachers today continue to trying to sell the wind, and get very frustrated when people go glassy eyed, ignore them and go study Pilates instead. Pilates is a leaf. You can see a leaf - you can chase it, grasp it, touch it: it is logical, clear and doable.

What you have to offer is unfathomably empty.

Even after years of lessons, students still struggle to explain it to their friends and family. At a dinner party, most AT teachers dread the question "Oh, what is the Alexander Technique?" Don't you marvel how your answer can keep changing? We even discuss how to answer to that simple question. People do not get so excited over the question: "What accountancy? What's a doctor do? What happens in a Yoga lesson?" In comparision, easy to answer.

It has been my obsession of the last decade to figure out this problem - if we don't we will continue to "just stumble along on the margins" as a friend put it to me in an email yesterday. He is a famous AT teacher who successfully niched his work years ago, way ahead of the pack. Busy as as can be. So...

I say: let's get rid of the Alexander Technique.

Let's replace it with something people can understand, something that people know and care about, something they are already curious and interested in.

That would be the niche. The leaf.

What's your niche going to be?

It's time.

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