The Alexander Technique is an all-purpose postural approach that aims to help you lose the undesirable or uncomfortable physical habits you have developed in your life. It’s most appropriate for strain or injury, back and neck stiffness, discomfort in sitting and other physical positions, and particularly for professionals in physically-based activities: musicians, athletes, and dancers very often turn to the Alexander Technique to help them perform optimally.

This website explains the method, offers different applications of the method depending on your condition, provides research and endorsement information, and hosts a huge number of links to different practitioners and courses available worldwide. There is also a site specifically dedicated to the Alexander Technique International, which also offers information on a number of books and audiobooks, periodicals, and dissertations on the technique. Search by country or for specific practitioners here.

The following is a two-part video created by the British Medical Journal about the Alexander Technique:

New York

The Feldenkrais Method is a postural approach that, by employing exercises in movement and encouraging the mind to reconnect with the body, helps individuals restore better physical function. Through the website you can search for practitioners and classes across the United States. Courses offered are either part of their “Awareness Through Movement” therapy, in which patients are guided verbally through sequences of motion and exercise, or part of the “Functional Integration” program, in which practitioners guide participants through movements with gentle, non-invasive touching.

You can also find information and excellent course selections at the New York Feldenkrais Institute, which has Feldenkrais superstar Marek Wyszynski on staff – and Wyszynski is also president of another NY-based Feldenkrais institution, Physical Therapy & Feldenkrais NYC.

Watch this video (or watch below) on “How The Nervous System Senses Differences,” presented at the Feldenkrais Institute of New York.

Colorado

The Rolf Institute of Structural Integration is the official institution of the postural approach called “Rolfing,” developed by Ida P. Rolf. Rolf founded the institute in 1971, and it is located in Boulder, CO. Its website offers information on Rolfing as well as a comprehensive catalogue of certified Rolfers through a search function, if you can’t attend classes at the Institute itself in Colorado. (Note: there are more Rolfers than will appear on the RSI site, however; the site displays practitioners who have paid to be advertised there.)

East Midlands, United Kingdom

If the location makes sense for you, consider the RealHealth Institute, located in the East Midlands of the UK, with locations soon to come in London. The institute offers non-surgical treatment options, with an intensive treatment program for the treatment of persistent pain as well as a functional restoration program geared toward recovery from a more specific injury.

New Hampshire

This functional restoration program in Lebanon, NH is provided by the Spine Center of the Dartmouth-Hitchcock network of health programs in northern New England, and led by Dr. Rowland Hazard, one of the leaders in functional restoration. The goal of their rehabilitation program is to limit the need for more spine surgeries and instead help patients develop the tools to return to functional lives at home and work alike.

Massachusetts, Minnesota

The Spine Center at NEBH specializes in evaluation, treatment and management of spine disorders. Dr. James Rainville leads an internationally-recognized exercise-based “boot camp” program. 

Here’s a midwestern program based on James Rainville’s protocol.

Read an article featuring Carol Hartigan from the New England Baptist Hospital about hitting the weights.

Florida

The Ergonomics Program in Back Pain at the Rosomoff Comprehensive Rehabilitation Center offers personalized health services to individuals suffering from a range of musculoskeletal disorders, with a focus on back pain prevention and treatment.

Illinois

Each year, the American Pain Society gives a Clinical Center of Excellence in Pain Management Award to five or so pain management facilities around the country. The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago was a winner in 2009, the third year of the annual awards. You can find practitioners, locations, and information on different conditions and how the RIC can treat them. Their Center for Pain Management has a number of excellent programs to treat chronic pain, involving long-term strategies for developing a healthy, balanced, and active lifestyle.

Missouri

I met Dr. Heidi Prather, D.O., Associate Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery and Neurology and Co-Director Director of Orthopaedic Spine Center at Washington University School of Medicine, at a spine surgery conference where many of the other doctors (mostly surgeons) did everything they could to avoid me. Dr. Prather and I chatted for a couple of hours about her interests – women’s health; in particular, low back pain, radiculopathy, sacroiliac joint pain and pelvic dysfunction. A few weeks later, I had a woman call her who had been scheduled to undergo a two-level spinal fusion…but who turned out not to need any type of surgery. It can be tough to get a hold of Dr. Prather – her office tends to put people off, telling them she only sees dancers and athletes. Not true. If you’re in the St. Louis area, keep trying, because it’s worth it.