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Bone Health
Published in Carolyn Torkelson, Catherine Marienau, Beyond Menopause, 2023
Carolyn Torkelson, Catherine Marienau
The Alexander Technique is a body alignment program to reduce tension in the head, neck, and back, named after its developer, Frederick Matthias Alexander (1869–1955). His techniques improve posture and movement, especially those caused by poor habits—which can be easy to fall into. The Alexander Technique teaches you to be more aware of your body and how to improve poor posture and move more efficiently. A typical lesson involves taking a close look at your patterns during common movements (eg, bending, walking, reaching, sitting at the computer, standing). Being aware of how you move and hold tension in your body helps to retrain and realign your body so that everyday actions can reduce muscle tension and improve posture.
A Sampling of CAM Therapies and Philosophies
Published in Lillian R. Brazin, The Guide to Complementary and Alternative Medicine on the Internet, 2020
This Web resource includes names of some Alexander technique practitioners and provides links to a small number of sites on AT, AT teachers, societies, an online magazine, and a book publisher. The links to societies include detailed descriptions of the Alexander technique, articles, and notices of training workshops. Alexander Technique International (ATI)<http://www.ati-net.com>
Complementary and alternative medicine
Published in Jeremy Playfer, John Hindle, Andrew Lees, Parkinson's Disease in the Older Patient, 2018
Some of those approaches have been the subject of trials (mostly small and unreplicated). A study comparing aerobic fitness training and Qigong exercises provided support for aerobic exercise in improving measures of respiratory and cardio vascular function, although neither form of exercise had any impact on motor function, mood or quality of life.17 Another trial of Qigong exercise was similarly negative.18 Of the more formal physical therapies, Alexander technique has been shown to have some benefits in a small-scale RCT,19 while Dance Movement Therapy has been shown to be superior to simple exercise in improving in movement initiation, at least within session.20 A trial of active Music Therapy reported superior effects on bradykinesia and mood than a non-music based physical therapy control.21 Finally, massage or massage therapy, is a popular CAM approach used by people with PD, particularly those with more advanced disease. Small open-label studies offers some support for its use22,23 possibly for the management of tremor.24,25
Interventions in the Scope of Occupational Therapy to Improve Psychosocial Well-Being in Older Adults with Low Vision and Mental Health Concerns: A Systematic Review
Published in Occupational Therapy In Health Care, 2021
Callie Barber, Caroline Gould, Gio Guillermo, Julia Dupree, Meghan McLeer, Teal Benevides, Mallory Rosche
Gleeson et al. (2017) evaluated the use of the Alexander technique plus usual care as compared to usual care alone (provision of mobility programs from Guide Dogs NSW/ACT). The Alexander technique uses physical conditioning and requires clients to plan movements to complete a meaningful task, with specific guidance on planned movements, mindful movements, and the physical coordination to accomplish planned tasks. This parallel group randomized controlled trial resulted in no statistically significant differences in depression scores for those who used the Alexander technique as compared to those who received usual care (Gleeson et al., 2017). Evidence from these three small RCTs suggests that usual visual rehabilitation paired with reading training, video magnification, or the Alexander technique are not statistically better than use of placebo (usual care). There is moderate evidence that these approaches that use skills-based interventions (e.g. reading training, video magnification, Alexander techniques) are not effective at improving mental health outcomes in patients with low vision.
Sexuality, sex therapy & somatics. In bed with the most likely bedfellows. So why aren’t they?
Published in Sexual and Relationship Therapy, 2023
Somatics practitioners across many disciplines offer rich case studies describing how different massage and bodywork techniques produce a variety of emotional responses in their clients that transcend remedial pain relief, to involuntary release of stored emotion and somatic history. Acupuncturists describe floods of tears. Rolfers witness coughing–fits as the body releases tension. Practitioners of Alexander Technique facilitate ease with blocked communication. This increases significantly when the attention shifts to the pelvis, (van der Kolk, 2014), arguably the home of erotic energy. Increasingly, we understand that information which orients us toward wellbeing is stored within the body and in order to access its wisdom, we must consult it directly (Dana, 2018). Furthermore, there is an increasing body of evidence arising from the world of psychiatry and neuroscience that describes in detail, how the relationship between the body and wellbeing is mirrored within the brain. The understanding is that our wellbeing is bidirectional (Seigel, 2009). That is to say, information about our wellbeing travels from the brain to the body, but it also from the body back to the brain via the nervous system (Dana, 2018; Seigel, 2009) offering a tool for self-regulation in trauma. As mentioned, none of the popular contemporary, somatic interventions explicitly address pleasure and certainly not erotic pleasure, but the research and resources are abundant enough for us to deduce that somatic practices are imperative in restoring equilibrium within the body, both individually and collectively. With cognitive and medical therapies struggling to meet the complexity of clients’ contemporary sexual quandaries and systematically avoiding embodiment as a resource, we are invited as a collective of professionals to reflect upon the degree to which omitting somatics from sex therapy is determined by: evidence-based data to warrant its elimination orlack of training for practitioners orthe result of social and practitioner discomfort orperhaps the boards’ codes of ethics in both sex therapy and somatics that, in striving to be legitimised (Iantaffi, 2011), have fallen out of sync with modern lives and the needs of clients for erotic embodiment and pleasure in clinical spaces.