November 2025 – Introductory 5 week Alexander Technique class
Heather Walker will be teaching a five-week introductory Alexander Technique group course through the City of Nanaimo, Parks and Recreation department. The course happens on Thursday afternoons, November 6th – December 4th, 2025, from 3:30 – 5:00 PM at the Bowen Senior’s centre. The course is limited to 12 participants. Registration is currently full, but look for another 5 week course in February/March 2026!
Here is the course description: Use the Alexander Technique to improve posture, reduce stress, change habits and expand your awareness. This is a hands-on class where we explore the body’s naturally efficient design for movement, and understand how we interfere with it through ingrained habits. We will use practical experiments to learn how to notice tightening, release muscle tension, re-establish better balance and move with ease. Anyone can learn to recuperate from stress and prevent undue wear & tear by using less effort in daily activities. Instructors will use visual, verbal, and kinaesthetic (hands-on) cues to teach better movement. Participants should be able to do gentle movements of walking, sitting, and lying on a mat.
October 2025 – Alexander Technique workshop, Nanaimo Conservatory of Music
August 2025 – Alexander Technique: Private versus Group learning?
I have been teaching the Alexander Technique for 20 years now, and I enjoy teaching in many different formats. I primarily teach individual private sessions, small group classes, and introductory workshops that have either a general or specific focus. Each format is different and has pluses and minuses, to be discussed here.
If you are interested in learning the technique, keep in mind that it is like learning an instrument. It is much less about “understanding it” one time, than it is about practicing, exploring, and integrating it moment by moment and day by day. If I explained how my French Horn is played, and you understood the explanation….how good would you be at playing it immediately? Not very good at all! If I gave you one lesson (with you trying it out, copying examples, and being corrected), then how good a French horn player would you be? However, if I gave you a series of lessons over ten weeks, and you took it home and practiced every day….exploring the sensation of how play the horn, making mistakes, figuring out how to make the best sounds possible with the most efficiency…then how much would you have improved? The Alexander technique is also learning an instrument…it’s just that the instrument is your complete self (body & mind)…and it takes practice to become skilled at using it!
One aspect of the Alexander Technique is that it is often taught with “hands-on” kinaesthetic feedback, meaning the teacher is using her hands to gently guide the student through movement and also giving feedback to each student on how to “listen” to their own kinaesthetic quality (tension, fluidity, fixing, lightness, etc.) In large workshop situations, there is very little opportunity for “hands-on” work. In smaller group classes there is a bit more time for it. But by far, the private sessions is where each student gets an incredible amount of time with kinaesthetic feedback specific to their own movement and habitual patterns.
My introductory workshops are just that…an introduction to the basic principles and ideas of the technique, with small little experiments to get people moving, thinking, and learning how to use these ideas. With some of the most basic information in mind, we play with gentle movement patterns (standing, walking, bending, sitting, lying down), to see how those ideas can be integrated into your life moment by moment. With focused-based workshops (specifically for musicians, athletes, seniors, or any other group), we explore how these ideas relate to their specific interest or issue.
The group classes are often smaller (maximum 12 people), with classes over a series of weeks. Currently I offer three group classes per year, each one is a 1.5 hour class for 5 weeks. In the group class we explore the same principles, ideas, and movement patterns, but we have time to revisit the previous ideas each week and to hone the interpretation and practice of them. The group classes are interesting because students can also watch and learn from each other, and understand how some of their patterns might be the same or different from others. In the group class there is a little more time for kinaesthetic “hands-on” feedback, but even then it is extremely limited compared to private lessons.
Most of my private sessions are 1 hour each and are focussed completely on the individual student’s particular interests, issues, injuries, and habits of movement. There is significantly more hands-on work with the teacher guiding the movement patterns, as well as visual and verbal guidance (posters, skeletons, and verbal direction to help with practice). Each student also spends 15-20 minutes doing the “lying-down” work…but in this case on a massage table with the teacher giving kinaesthetic feedback and adjustments. It is very subtle and gentle work, and can be used even with some fairly extreme injuries or limitations. The private sessions are absolutely the best way towards ongoing change and transformation of your particular patterns, and are important for anyone with very specific injuries that I cannot address in a group setting.
Of course, workshops and group lessons are less expensive than private sessions, but also less effective at long-term change. Many of my students start in a group setting to see what the Alexander Technique is “all about”, but then proceed to private lessons once they realize how life-changing the technique can be. One of my recent students said “This is the best thing I have done for my health in years. I am no longer using all the other supports, massage, chiropractor, physio and acupuncture. I started in a group class, moved to private lessons, and I am now doing one follow-up session a month. It is different from anything you have been taught. It is based on how our bodies are built to move.”
Please come try out the Alexander Technique, in whatever format works for you! Call me for more information: 250-716-3464. Sincerely, Heather Walker
May/June 2025 – Introduction to Alexander Technique, 5 week course
Heather Walker will be teaching a five-week introductory Alexander Technique group course through the City of Nanaimo, Parks and Recreation department. The course happens on Tuesday afternoons, May 27th – June 24th, from 3:45 – 5:15 PM at the Bowen Senior’s centre. The course is limited to 12 participants. Registration is currently full, but look for another 5 week course in November 2025!
Here is the course description: Use the Alexander Technique to improve posture, reduce stress, change habits and expand your awareness. This is a hands-on class where we explore the body’s naturally efficient design for movement, and understand how we interfere with it through ingrained habits. We will use practical experiments to learn how to notice tightening, release muscle tension, re-establish better balance and move with ease. Anyone can learn to recuperate from stress and prevent undue wear & tear by using less effort in daily activities. Instructors will use visual, verbal, and kinaesthetic (hands-on) cues to teach better movement. Participants should be able to do gentle movements of walking, sitting, and lying on a mat.
April/May 2025 – National teacher listing and intro A.T. courses in Nanaimo
I often have questions from current Alexander Technique students about referring the technique to their friends and family, and how to find a teacher in another area. There is a worldwide Alexander Technique teacher training standard of qualification with national Alexander Technique associations in many countries. Here in Canada the website is AlexanderTechniqueCanada.ca, where there is a lot of information about the technique and our professional standards. There is also a national teacher directory by area where you can search for other A.T. teachers.
Here in Nanaimo, there are 2 certified teachers of the Alexander Technique, myself, Heather Walker, and another teacher named Heike Walker (same last name just for confusion!). We are colleagues and highly recommend each other’s private teaching, group classes and workshops. Heike occasionally teaches introductory workshops for the City of Nanaimo, and the next workshop of hers will be on two Mondays, May 5 & 12, from 3:30-5 PM. This workshop is called “Reduce Stress & Pain with the Alexander Technique.” For more information, contact the City of Nanaimo at recreation.nanaimo.ca or call 250-755-7501.
Feb/March 2025 – 5 week “Introduction to the Alexander Technique” group class
Heather Walker will be teaching a five-week introductory Alexander Technique course through the City of Nanaimo, Parks and Recreation department. The course happens on Monday afternoons, February 24th – March 24th, from 3:30 – 5 PM at the Bowen Senior’s centre. Registration is currently full, but look for another course on Tuesdays in May/June 2025!
Here is the course description: Use the Alexander Technique to improve posture, reduce stress, change habits and expand your awareness. This is a hands-on class where we explore the body’s naturally efficient design for movement, and understand how we interfere with it through ingrained habits. We will use practical experiments to learn how to notice tightening, release muscle tension, re-establish better balance and move with ease. Anyone can learn to recuperate from stress and prevent undue wear & tear by using less effort in daily activities. Instructors will use visual, verbal, and kinaesthetic (hands-on) cues to teach better movement. Participants should be able to do gentle movements of walking, sitting, and lying on a mat.
November 2024 – Five week “Introduction to Alexander Technique” group class
Heather Walker will be teaching a five-week introductory Alexander Technique course through the City of Nanaimo, Parks and Recreation department. The course happens on Thursday afternoons, November 7th – December 5th, from 3:30 – 5 PM at the Bowen Senior’s centre. Registration is currently full, but look for another course in March 2025!
Here’s a course description: Use the Alexander Technique to improve posture, reduce stress, change habits and expand your awareness. This is a hands-on class where we explore the body’s naturally efficient design for movement, and understand how we interfere with it through ingrained habits. We will use practical experiments to learn how to notice tightening, release muscle tension, re-establish better balance and move with ease. Anyone can learn to recuperate from stress and prevent undue wear & tear by using less effort in daily activities. Instructors will use visual, verbal, and kinaesthetic (hands-on) cues to teach better movement. Participants should be able to do gentle movements of walking, sitting, and lying on a mat.
Fall 2024 – Alexander Technique for People Living with Parkinson’s Disease
The Alexander Technique is being used more and more as a highly effective aid for people living with Parkinson’s Disease. One significant source of information about this is through the Poise Project, which can be found here: www.thepoiseproject.org/alexander-technique-for-parkinsons
Here in Nanaimo, on Vancouver Island, there are two certified teachers of the Alexander Technique…both with the same last name, just to make it confusing! I would like to highly recommend a new course by the other Alexander Technique teacher, Heike Walker, that is for People Living with Parkinson’s Disease (PLPD) and their Care Partners.
Here is some more information about her course: AT is an embodied approach to increase body awareness, change habitual posture and find more ease and calm in body and mind. Clinical studies have shown that AT is helpful for PLPD to gain better coping skills with postural challenges and day-to-day living.
Increased body awareness assists in gaining more balance and a better sense of the body. Changing postural habits allows for better gate, more uprightness and more flexibility. AT assists in reducing muscle tone for less rigidity, less tremors and more fluidity in movement. AT helps to acquire a better connection to oneself, a more positive outlook on life and more self-confidence!
Classes are Mondays 3:30 – 5:00 PM, September 23, October 21 & 28, November 18 & 25, and December 2nd at the Bowen Park Complex, 500 Bowen Rd., Nanaimo. If you have any questions, please contact the instructor Heike Walker, at 778-245-1750 or heike@balanceartsstudio.com.
Space is limited – please register early!
To register, please contact Nanaimo Parks & Rec