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.
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.
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.
“Musicians, actors, dancers, and other artists have long recognized the benefits of applying Alexander Technique to their art form. Reducing excess tension in movement and posture, freeing up the breath, enhancing vocal production, reducing performance anxiety, and accessing a deeper, more anchored presence during performance are just a few reasons why artists are repeatedly drawn to the Technique.” This quote is from our national website for Alexander Technique in Canada, and summarizes how important the technique can be for anyone learning an art form.
I myself got into the technique as an injured musician, and it helped me so much that I am convinced I would not have had a professional playing career without the Alexander Technique. Now I am happy to share this technique through introductory workshops, group classes, and private lessons. This week I will be co-teaching an introductory AT workshop for the string orchestra class (violin, viola, cello, bass) of Mr. Nicholas Urquhart, Killarney Secondary School, Vancouver. The other teacher is Erin Macdonald, who is also a professional violist as well as a CanSTAT certified teacher of the Alexander Technique.
For more information about the Alexander Technique, or to request a workshop for a specific group, please don’t hesitate to contact me at info@soundbeingstudio.com.
My name is Heather Walker and I am a certified teacher of the Alexander Technique. I currently live and teach the technique in Nanaimo, on Vancouver Island, B.C., as well as teaching workshops throughout the province and beyond. In addition to being a teacher, I am a professional musician, and use the technique to help myself in all areas of my music career. I am always inspired to teach others how they can become more aware of their posture and movement habits and how they can learn to live and move with more ease and efficiency.
Did you know that we have a national website called “Alexander Technique Canada”? I am part of this national non-profit organization that supports the growth and education of Alexander Technique in Canada. Through this website you can access so much more information about the technique: what it is, including the benefits, science, and research supporting it. You can also access a national directory of Alexander Technique teachers and more information about other programs. The website includes many other topics, including information about our professional standards, teacher training programs, and international community. Please feel free to check it out…. https://alexandertechniquecanada.ca/
For more information about Alexander Technique lessons in Nanaimo and workshops throughout B.C., please contact me at 250-716-3464.
To all those interested in the Alexander Technique…the Sound Being Studio will be closed for 2 months, from November 8th 2023 until January 8th 2024. I am taking an incredible opportunity to travel and study at the same time, as I will be going to Europe for professional development in the Alexander Technique and also for my French horn playing. I am excited to re-immerse myself into the Alexander Technique in a certified training course, much like the one I trained in 15 years ago. I will be spending 4 weeks in the Tècnica Alexander Terrassa (Barcelona), a training course dedicated to the study of the Alexander Technique in Spain. For more information about the course and teachers: https://tatbcn.eu/eng/home-en/
From there I have the opportunity to travel for a few weeks with my husband, and then participate at an international conference for French horn, just outside of Valencia. I look forward to coming back to Nanaimo full of new ideas and re-inspired for both my Alexander Technique teaching and my professional music work. For information about the Alexander Technique, and lessons and workshops on Vancouver Island, please contact me after January 8th 2024.
The Alexander Technique is practical, educational approach used by people of all ages and abilities to enhance health and well-being. Students of the Alexander Technique learn to enhance their natural coordination and improve how they engage in everyday life.
In Alexander Technique lessons you learn to recognize, understand, and avoid harmful patterns of movement, posture, and ways of going about your activities that may be contributing to pain and inefficient function.
As you increase your ability to recognize how persistent aches, pains, and stresses relate to the ways in which you perform, move, and posture yourself in daily life, you learn to move with greater ease and efficiency, and build your independent ability to positively influence your health.
There is considerable research available regarding the Alexander Technique and Health-related outcomes: Please go to https://alexandertechniquecanada.ca/research for more information.
Here is a sample of some of the research you will find on the above link:
AT for Medical and Health‐Related Conditions Overview: Evidence for the effectiveness of Alexander Technique lessons in medical and health-related conditions: a systematic review (2012)
AT for Chronic and Recurrent Back Pain Overview: Randomized controlled trial of Alexander technique lessons, exercise, and massage (ATEAM) for chronic and recurrent back pain (2007)
AT for Chronic Neck Pain Overview: Alexander Technique Lessons or Acupuncture Sessions for Persons With Chronic Neck Pain: A Randomized Trial (2015). Alexander Technique lessons led to significant reductions in neck pain and associated disability compared with usual care at 12 months in persons with chronic non-specific neck pain.
Heather Walker is a certified teacher of the Alexander Technique. She works with individuals who want to be free of tension, pain, bad posture, and injuries. Each Alexander Technique session involves practical experiments to learn how to notice tightening, release muscle tension, re-establish better balance and move more efficiently. Anyone can learn to recuperate from stress, prevent undue wear and tear, relieve back pain, improve posture, and use less effort in daily activities. Heather is based in Nanaimo, B.C. and can be contacted at 250-716-3464, or heather@soundbeingstudio.com.
Heather Walker will be presenting an introductory talk on the Alexander Technique to the University of Victoria “Business of Music” classes. Theses talks will take place on Tuesday January 17th, 2023 for two different groups of students that are a mix of music and business students. The Alexander Technique can be used for anyone – from postural awareness at a computer to avoiding strain & injury while practicing an instrument. Careers in music are well known to be highly stressful with many people developing repetitive strain injuries, so the Alexander Technique is particularly well known throughout the music performance world, especially in Europe. Many high level schools like the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (U.K.), Juilliard School (New York), Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh), Royal Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (U.K.), and Curtis Institute of Music (Philadelphia) both recognize the importance of the Alexander Technique and have teachers on staff. Heather will discuss some basic principles of the technique, and some ways students can start to bring awareness and change to their daily movement habits.
