My Japanese Dreamworld Wakes Up

In a place of despair and confusion, I wondered what to do with my school.

One way I escape reality is to dream about the future. Over my life, I have discovered that the clearer the dream, the more likely it will come true. I was discussing this with a friend who had recently decided to pack up his home in Australia and move to Japan. While doing that, he found an old list he had written decades before of the things he wanted to accomplish. To his astonishment, every one of them had become a reality.

Have you got a list like that?

I strongly recommend you write one. I have many of these lists, and over the years, I have noticed the same thing - eventually, they happen. One essential item on my list was simplifying BodyChance’s training structure. Staff and trainees often told me:

“It’s so complicated - I don’t understand the system!”.

We have three stages of training - but this is not based on years but upon accomplishments. There are 32 active things that you must accomplish throughout the training, as well as many more passive things, such as attendance, registrations and feedback.

But wait, there’s more…

As well as the three Stages, there are three different courses in BodyChance. Two of them are independent courses which offer a form of certification that is not an Alexander teacher qualification. However, it is still a requirement if you want to become an Alexscovery teacher.

The first of these three courses - BodyThinking - was inspired by Barbara Conable’s creation of the bodymapping Andover Educators.

Back in 2003, at an Alexander Technique International (ATI) Conference in America, I heard teachers worry that ‘Andover Educators’ would take over positions from ‘Alexander Technique’ teachers in Music institutions. Because the Andover Educators had concrete, useful information that could be effectively delivered in groups - whereas for administrators, the Alexander teachers were hard to understand and often insisted on more expensive individual lessons.

That story concerned me, so I decided to figure out how to integrate bodymapping more formally into my training - then my Graduates could easily overcome this obstacle if it happened in Japan. The BodyThinking Coach was born! Over the years, quite a few people came to BodyChance, did the 2-year / 250-hour BodyThinking course, got their coaching certificate and left. 

They were happy with that. And why not?

Also, teachers of various sorts (Voice, Yoga, Dance etc.) who continued training with us now had something to boast about on their websites. Some trainees even started to earn money by offering Andover Educator-type “BodyThinking” courses to musicians. I even made trainees sign a contract that promised they would not claim to be an Alexander Technique teacher or use their hands in an Alexander way. BodyThinking continues to be our most successful course.

But wait, there’s more.
Think of trying to get a rabbit to go across a huge field. Where do you put the lettuce? On the other side - which equals becoming an Alexander Technique teacher - or closer, which equals being a BodyThinking Coach? It’s obvious. Once they finished BodyThinking, many of my learners would think:

“Well, I like this Alexander thing, even if I don’t really understand it. What should I do next?”

So I put out a little more lettuce - in this case, the 2-year / 250-hour ThinkingBody Certification course. (Don’t ask.) What’s most strange to me is that when I asked: “Do you want to train to be a teacher of Alexander’s discovery?” many of them would answer, “No. I am not interested in that.”

Weird, isn’t it?

But wait, there’s more. 

In Stage I, you have a third 2-year / 250-hour course - more lettuce - called Teaching Methods. But by this time, we are starting to introduce the idea of training to be an Alexscovery teacher. I have seen it so many times - slowly, people start feeling the desire to share what they are learning. They feel almost selfish knowing what they know and not sharing their joy with others…

So I dispensed with certificates - it was simply a course helping you to understand how to communicate Alexander’s Discovery to others. Many learners at BodyChance were already teachers/instructors/educators of some kind - so the Teaching Methods course was popular with them. And for those who had never taught anything before - they needed it.

But wait, there’s more.

Stage II - Teaching Apprenticeship.

What’s Stage Two?

It comes before Stage III - Teaching Diploma.

What’s Stage Three?

Stage III takes 2 years, and within that period - different for each person - you Graduate. The whole convoluted pathway can be viewed here…

https://bodychance.mykajabi.com/bodychance-teacher-training-image

Perhaps you can now identify the confusion my trainees’ experience - BodyChance’s system was born from two decades of listening to people - their needs and obstacles - and finding ways to satisfy those needs and overcome their obstacles.

However, by 2016 I had realised that my school was way too complex and hard to understand. It had become like bloatware - trying to cram too many different things into one training. But simplicity is complex - making the course easier to understand would be really hard to do.

But it wasn’t.

Because the Japanese had solved this problem centuries ago…

This is the fourth in a series of daily emails exploring my challenges in communicating Alexander’s Discovery.