A paper on AT and mindfulness co-authored by Sapientia affiliate Rajal Cohen—along with Patrick M. Johnson, Gabriella Minnes Brandes and Victoria Door—has been published in the international, peer-reviewed European Journal of Integrative Medicine. The paper is titled: “Pause, observe, intend: A qualitative study exploring expert practitioners’ perceptions of how mindfulness and Alexander technique work synergistically to address stress” — and is likely the first peer-reviewed study which compares Alexander Technique and mindfulness practice.
Motivations and Implication for AT Teachers from the authors
(written by the study authors)
There had been a lot of talk in the AT community that AT and mindfulness overlapped, for example that AT was “embodied mindfulness” or was “mindfulness in action”. We wanted to explore these claims in a systematic way.
We chose to focus on whether the two disciplines could work synergistically as well as independently to address stress by improving both recognition and coping strategies.
Practitioners of mindfulness and AT together seemed like a good group for describing the two disciplines in action. We were interested in the “insiders’ view” and therefore invited practitioners who defined themselves as deeply committed to both. We asked participants to describe specific stressful experiences so as to encourage phenomenological, experiential descriptions of the two techniques in action rather than theoretical discussions. We wanted to cut through jargon to describe AT and mindfulness experiences in specific and down-to-earth ways, avoiding overgeneralizations that get in the way of clarity in description.
Developing effective coping mechanisms for stress is considered important for long term health and well being. We wanted to see how these two disciplines work synergistically (and independently) to improve coping strategies.
Takeaway for AT teachers:
- The three themes we developed can provide a complementary way to talk about AT skills. They are slightly different from some of the traditional themes (inhibition, direction, and primary control, not endgaining, etc.) so that might offer a new perspective in speaking or teaching.
- We use language that is consistent with the psychological literature rather than AT jargon. This can be useful for communicating with psychologists and other scientists or health care professionals.
- Participants reported at times certain specific relative strengths and weaknesses in both AT and mindfulness practice. These give perspective on our discipline and could be useful for examining and improving our own practices.
—Patrick, Gaby, Victoria, and Rajal
Access the Paper
The paper is free to read or download at this link for 50 days.
Webinar
The authors are giving a free webinar to discuss the study, which takes place on Wednesday, September 17th at 1pm EST.
Rajal Cohen
Rajal G. Cohen, Ph.D., M.AmSAT, is a Professor in the Department of Psychology & Communication Studies at the University of Idaho, iiliate faculty in the Department of Biological Sciences, and a member of the graduate faculty in the Human Factors graduate program. She has published over 40 peer-reviewed scientific articles and chapters on the role of cognitive factors in human movement and posture, which have collectively been cited over 3000 times in peer-reviewed scientific literature. Dr. Cohen’s research is dedicated to exploring the interconnectedness of thought, action, and posture. She trains M.S. and Ph.D. students in the Mind in Movement Lab.