BodyMind Integrity

06/09/2026

"I don't know if I should clap or stop before we clap.." I was told at the end of my workshop, where we talked about the importance of STOPPING. It was said not in a mocking way, but by really understanding the meaning of stopping and playfully using the new idea.

The workahoo was for physiotherapists, who are excellent at helping people move better by stabilizing, correcting, and strengthening muscles. As Alexander Technique teachers, we really like working with physiotherapists to help patients establish a stronger connection with their bodies before they start doing more exercises for unbalanced bodies and overcompensating muscles.

You probably know someone who can't relax. Someone who overexerts themselves with every movement, tries too hard, or is in defensive positions. Physiotherapists, teachers, and managers see this all the time in their work. How do you help someone with knee pain when they are visibly tense from work stress or emotional trauma? Send them to me! I am trained to manage tension patterns, restless minds and fears both physically and mentally.

Both physiotherapists and AT teachers are interested in good, economical and effective movement, because it is such an important part of good health. However, before improving movement, the Alexander Technique focuses on making a person feel at home in this body that moves, sometimes hurts, and feels strong feelings. This was one participant's own feedback on the training: the body is home.

However, stopping is important in order to notice. In order not to run endlessly and restlessly with old patterns. Stopping itself is likely the most difficult part of the whole process. Fortunately, the Alexander Technique has a very effective (physiological) solution to offer here. We do not just take a relaxing break to then continue in the old way, but we stop old nerve signals in order to reshape new neural pathways.

Every pause matters! For every team, who value efficiency, where bodies and minds work.

-managementtraining

28/08/2026

For an invisible disorder, where the visible part (flexibility) is typically cherished, it means a lot just to be acknowledged, recognized, seen and heard. Thank you for everyone who has raised awareness! 🥲 Understanding can bring safety, progress and healing.

The disorder may affect hundreds of thousands in the UK, but many face delays in getting a diagnosis.

08/07/2026

An interesting take on listening to your body, ancestry and nervous system's habits. Pain is a learned experience - it can be unlearned.

As a child, enduring break after break, I thought of myself as simply unlucky. Truth was, I needed to tune in to my aches, pains and well-founded fears

27/06/2026

HM prevalence is estimated at one in 227 people in the UK and 95% of sufferers remaining undiagnosed.

If you are waiting for the right diagnosis for 21 years, these 21 years are spent in confusion, lack of support and improper symptom management.



https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/jun/15/uk-hypermobility-sufferers-wait-diagnosis-study-ehlers-danlos

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/jun/21/undiagnosed-hypermobility-ehlers-danlos-syndrome-britain?CMP=share_btn_urlWith

Awareness of disorders such as hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome is low among British healthcare professionals

09/06/2026

Emails I've enjoyed a lot lately: Robert Fripp

Former working player. Click to read ROBERT FRIPP, a Substack with thousands of subscribers.

02/06/2026

Are you very flexible, but also prone to pain, tension, and hypersensitivity?

This bendy thumb is mobile beyond its normal range of motion due to a congenital weakness in the connective tissue. You may have heard of hypermobility - it’s much more common than, say, being left-handed.

Many hypermobile people experience:
✨ constant fatigue
✨ muscle tension and pain
✨ poor recovery
✨ a feeling that the body isn’t holding itself together
✨ anxiety, depression
✨ fear of movement

In this state, you don’t need stretching or pushing through the pain, but rather more mindful body awareness, coordination, and self-regulation.

One of the best solutions for hypermobile people is the Alexander Technique. It helps you learn to use your body with less effort and more support.

If this sounds like you, send a message with the keyword "FLEXIBLE." Let’s discuss whether my individual sessions could support you.

📍 In Pärnu and online

24/05/2026

Moment from the brilliant speech that led me to want to learn from a man who has such presence, and also words for it.

"Before we do something, we do nothing. We begin by Doing Nothing: we cultivate a Still Point from which all action proceeds. And while Doing Nothing, we become present."

Part 2 of 7Keynote by RF at the Alexander Technique Congress. Aug...

17/05/2026

has a long history of working with the Self, not only the instrument. The Alexander Technique has been a valuable part of the courses for over forty years. Many lives have been changed through it, and many discoveries made. There are countless beautiful accounts of people describing the ease, self-awareness, and sense of presence that Alexander teachers have so unexpectedly brought to their attention.

As an Alexander teacher, I would also like to represent those for whom gentle hands-on work and inner quiet may initially feel frightening rather than relieving.

Some Selves are more wounded than others. Personally, I almost never felt comfortable receiving Alexander work until several years after graduation, when something finally shifted. It simply took me longer, as I was working through emotional trauma.

On my first GC course this year, I felt deeply grateful for the trauma-informed training I received with Anthony Kingsley in London. In GC setting, I could fully experience the benefits of the work: resilience, self-connection, and the ability to regulate myself within an environment that previously would have felt highly intense, vulnerable, and emotionally overstimulating.

If there is even one person in the room carrying a trauma background similar to mine, it becomes important to approach the whole group with an awareness that fear reflexes may be more easily activated. Statistically speaking, there is almost always at least one such person present, and fear responses are often not difficult to notice.

From my experience, one simple way to increase safety is through clear communication. In Alexander settings, this might be as straightforward as briefly explaining that there will be gentle hands-on contact offered as a reminder or invitation toward awareness of the Self. The hands are not there to fix or correct, and there is no need for the student to physically respond.

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Photos: Frank Salama

16/04/2026

This is so good that I want it on my feed. Enjoy!

It's easy to understand how fear of failure can hamper a performance, but an unconscious fear of success can be just as destructive. Cellist Joanna Latała delves into what sport psychology already understands - and music still avoids