From the Founding Co-Director
The Alexander Technique changes lives. In 1982 it saved mine.
Not only did it provide relief from long standing pain and a means to prevent it, it offered a glimpse of a wholeness I had not yet imagined — a new way of being; the Technique has been saving my life ever since.
In 1995 I became a teacher, and in 2005 I started the journey of training teachers. In 2014, I founded RIAT, and in 2020 formed Sapientia Initiative, the umbrella non profit organization for RIAT.
At Sapientia we believe that everyone should have access to the resources to feel, think, breath and move better; and our AT for All Programming reflects that belief. In the past few years a new kind of AT community is growing: one that is rooted in years of experience with direct lineage teachings; one that reaches out to underserved communities; one that innovates with new learnings and connections to research science; and one that branches out anew with each new generation, dedicated to serving and preserving the Technique for the generations to come. Please join us.
—Nan Walsh, Founding Co-Director
What is AT?
The Alexander Technique is a time tested practice for improving your overall mental and physical well-being. Through gentle hands-on guidance from skilled instructors, you’ll identify and address habits that may be causing stress in everyday activities, starting with the basics — like sitting, standing, walking, and lying down! Simply and practically, the Technique will help you to engender greater calm, breathe more easily, and become more of who you are and who you want to be in the world. Move better, breathe better, feel better.
Breathing and moving well is a birthright, not a luxury; nor is it an activity of the body alone. All our thoughts, feelings, intentions and responses play a crucial role in the ongoing dynamics of upright support—dynamics upon which every breath and movement depend. Learn more about the Alexander Technique >
Sapientia Initiative is a 501c3 organization, dedicated to lifelong learning in the Alexander Technique. We have two major programs: RIAT, our 1600-hour AmSAT-certified teacher training course, is the flagship program of our organization; and our AT for All program, the heart of our community outreach, offers accessible, low-cost somatic education for everyone. We are committed to the ongoing process of deepening, understanding, and enacting inclusion. All are welcome. Our main center, based in the Flatiron district of New York City, is a place of community-building, growth and learning.
AT for All
Our AT for All program offers somatic education for everybody through the Alexander Technique. We offer group classes and individual lessons at discounted cost.
RIAT Teacher Training
The flagship program of Sapientia Initiative— the Riverside Initiative for the Alexander Technique, is dedicated to intensive personal study of the technique in a group setting. It offers a high teacher student ratio (at least 1:5) and a path to teacher certification through the American Society for the Alexander Technique.
Nan Walsh on RIAT’s teacher training (directed by Nan with Caren Bayer, Ariel Carson, and Lori Schiff)
We currently offer:
• Matriculation: in an AmSAT-certified, 1600-hour Teacher Certification Program, ideally completed in a minimum of 3 years.
• Non-matriculation: daily, weekly, or monthly periods of intensive study as a participant on the course.
The Alexander Technique
The Alexander Technique effectively undoes fixed habits that interfere with how we breathe, move, and support ourselves. To be increasingly freed from fixed habits, is to be simultaneously freed from nonconstructive physical, mental, and emotional reactions to stimuli. Simply and practically, the Technique helps us breathe more easily, discover our innate capacity for efficiency in the activities of living, and become more of who we are and who we yet might be in the world.
To learn the Technique is to learn how to participate effectively in our natural processes of support, well-being, and becoming. With practice, reliable sensory perceptions are regained, unhelpful thoughts and intentions are re-educated, misdirected energies are made more coherent, and the ability to realize our innate potential becomes a reality.
