ASO Annual Review - 2025 Alexander Technique Research & Insights
The ASO Newsletter - 59th edition
Enabling greater understanding of the Alexander Technique.
Introduction
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As 2025 draws to a close, we look back on another year of thoughtful inquiry, dialogue, and collaboration across the Alexander Technique (AT) community. This year’s conversations moved deeply into the connections between AT and adjacent fields including neuroscience, psychotherapy, embodied arts, integrative health care research, and more. Across interviews, written reflections, and research-focused discussions, 2025 continued to broaden our understanding of AT.
We extend our sincere thanks to our contributors, interviewees, readers, and members for their engagement and support throughout the year. Your participation sustains a safe global space for critical inquiry, reflective practice, and shared learning within the field of Alexander Technique. Thank you.
Highlights
The year opened with an exploration at the intersection of practice and research. In Episode 49, Mandy Brass, MSc, a Traditional Chinese Medicine acupuncture practitioner, shared insights from her service evaluation at Dimbleby Cancer Care, an integrative oncology centre in London. Using patient self-report measures, she captured lived experience in ways that offered valuable parallels for Alexander Technique teachers interested in integrating research approaches into professional practice.
In a milestone 50th episode, Erica Donnison interviewed Dr Tim Cacciatore on contemporary understandings of muscle tone regulation in balance, pain, and performance. The discussion addressed longstanding misconceptions rooted in reflex-based models and introduced current neuroscience perspectives with direct relevance for AT teachers. The open-access paper linked in the episode provided further depth for those wishing to explore the research directly.
Part II continued this in-depth discussion with Dr Cacciatore, co-author of the open-access paper Central Mechanisms of Muscle Tone Regulation: implications for pain and performance. The conversation examined how these findings connect with key concepts in Alexander teaching, including exploring ways to bridge modern neuroscience and common language in AT pedagogy.
ASO returned to the theme of psychological and non-physical outcomes in AT work, revisiting questions raised in earlier research such as Kinsey and Glover’s realist review (see Episode 19). Erica Donnison interviewed AT teacher Abi Wright, founder of She Stands, an AT-based initiative supporting girls and women to feel more at home in their bodies and confident in taking up space. The discussion explored embodiment, identity, and empowerment through an AT lens.
This episode launched a new Connected Conversations series focusing on AT teachers who integrate other professional practices alongside their teaching. Adrian Farrell shared his embodied perspective on combining AT with craniosacral therapy, touching on touch, therapeutic roles, the challenges of articulating embodied knowing, and the boundaries between disciplines.
Dr Nicola Brough introduced the Warwick Holistic Health Questionnaire, a patient-reported outcome measure developed to capture wellbeing outcomes in complementary health contexts. She discussed its development and use in craniosacral practice as we explored its potential relevance for Alexander Technique teaching and research, particularly in understanding broader psychosocial outcomes.
Marcus James, AT teacher and psychotherapist, joined Lesley Glover for a conversation on the intersections between psychotherapy and Alexander Technique. Their discussion examined working with emotion in AT contexts, the overlap with body-focused therapies, and how Marcus integrates both disciplines in his Alexander Technique teaching practice and clinical work.
In this episode, Brigitta Mowat reflected on her dual background as an AT teacher and psychotherapist. Drawing on her MSc research and clinical experience, she discussed the role of counselling skills in AT teaching, the emotional dimensions of the teacher-student relationship, and how touch in AT may sometimes lead to emotional release.
October marked a change of pace with a written contribution from Pedro de Alcantara, author and Alexander Technique teacher. In this personal essay, Pedro reflected on a lifetime of using his hands and explored the extraordinary complexity and expressiveness of the human hand. The piece emerged from his creative process while developing his forthcoming book on the subject.
The year concluded with a written reflection by Niall Kelly on the presence of trauma responses within Alexander Technique lessons. Drawing on his teaching experience and personal research into trauma, he shared observations from his work with students and invited thoughtful dialogue on how the AT community might engage with trauma-informed perspectives while remaining within the scope of AT practice.
Additional Links to Research Published in 2025
Findings from the Development of a Novel Course of Both Group and Individual Alexander Technique Lessons for Neck, Hip, and Knee Pain: A Mixed-Methods Study
https://bjgpopen.org/content/early/2025/10/05/BJGPO.2024.0295
Pause, Observe, Intend: A Qualitative Study Exploring Expert Practitioners’ Perceptions of How Mindfulness and Alexander Technique Work Synergistically to Address Stress
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1876382025000460A Report on an Online Self-Care Package Based on the Alexander Technique to Aid Postpartum Mothers’ Self-Care
https://www.ovid.com/journals/tjope/abstract/10.1891/jpe-2023-0035~a-report-on-an-online-self-care-package-based-on-the
Conclusion
Reflecting on 2025, the Alexander Technique continues to engage with an expanding range of disciplines, contexts, and research perspectives. From neuroscience and integrative healthcare to psychotherapy and reflective practice, this year’s contributions have deepened both the theoretical and experiential conversations shaping contemporary AT teaching and research. We look forward to continuing this work together in 2026.
Thank You
Thank you to the ASO board and all contributing members for their generous time, care, and collaboration throughout the year. To our wider community, your readership and participation are central to this ongoing project. You can support ASO by sharing these posts, inviting colleagues to subscribe, contributing reflections, or getting in touch with us directly. We always welcome hearing from you.