Alexander Technique

Alexander Technique leads to improved sensory discrimination, greater awareness of body and mind and their interconnection

Fiona Luby – Alexander Technique Practitioner

MChoreog | BDance | Dip Dance | Adv Dip Alex Technique | M AUSTAT | Cert IV TAE | Cert III Disability

Fiona is a qualified Alexander Technique teacher, a member of AUSTAT and has both a Cert IV in Training and Assessment and Cert III in Disability. She is a contemporary and ballet teacher for children and adults including those with a disability and a volunteer dance therapist. In her Alexander Technique practice Fiona combines these expertise with her extensive and ongoing movement training and research and is the founder of The Movement Studio.

In addition to her private practice Fiona has taught Alexander Technique and Body Mapping on the teacher training course at the School for F.M. Alexander Studies in Melbourne, on the Bachelor of Arts (Dance) course at the Victorian College of the Arts and on the Dance courses at the Queensland University of Technology. Her book Body Mapping was published in 2017 and offers a practical ten-session guide in experiential anatomy.

Locations and Contact

Fiona regularly teaches Private Alexander Technique, Alexander Aqua, Flow and Mat Work classes as well as specialist sessions for those with disability. She also run regular workshops in Body Mapping and Dance and takes bookings to do so in workplaces and schools. Fiona is based on the Sunshine Coast QLD and in some instances offers a mobile clinic service.

What is Alexander Technique?

The Alexander Technique is a method of psychophysical re-education that helps to illuminate and in turn change inefficient movement and postural habits that interfere with our ability to move easily and according to how we are designed.

The process of learning the Alexander Technique leads to improved sensory discrimination, greater awareness of body and mind and their interconnection, improved ease of movement and posture and enhanced ability to think clearly and creatively. The medium of study is one’s own sense of kinesthesia or proprioception, which is the sense used to calibrate one’s own bodily organisation and to judge the effort necessary for moving.

Developed over 100 years ago by Australian actor F.M. Alexander, the Alexander technique is a learnable skill (rather than therapy) for applying thinking to change mental and physical habits that are not serving a person well.

Alexander Teachers have had extensive training in observing patterns of movement as well as using subtle manual guidance and verbal instruction to support people to move with greater ease and coordination in all activity.

Overcome

The Alexander Technique has been successfully used to help people overcome:

  • Muscle Tension
  • Poor Posture
  • Breathing and vocal problems
  • Anxiety and stress-related conditions

Enhance

Alexander Technique is also used to improve performance in the arts, sports and workplace. It is a powerful tool for anyone looking to develop greater self-awareness, improve overall functioning and well-being.

Your Alexander Technique Session

Sessions take place fully clothed and involve core movements including sitting, standing, walking and laying down. The Alexander technique can be applied to other bodywork and exercise modalities including Pilates, body conditioning, running, swimming and gym work

Clients engaging in a specific skilled activity i.e. music, may wish to bring their instrument along to their sessions. Other activities such as working at a computer can usually be simulated.

Most clients will need to have at least ten sessions in order to grasp and apply the technique fully to their daily work and life, however this is very individual and will be discussed with Fiona after an initial assessment.

*Cancellations and rescheduling of appointments must be arranged at least 24hours in advance by phone, sms or email. Please endeavour to arrive on time. Due to tight scheduling, late arrivals will reduce session time

Alexander technique is a very enabling practice it has created major shifts in my body. It asks for a reduction of action that frees the body to experience and inhabit our surroundings. The attention to the body’s anatomical form and our inherent capacities and functions allowed me to acknowledge and respect the physical intelligence within my body. It offers me the time and support to begin to unblock the habits that interfere with my body’s own intelligence.  As a dancer Alexander Technique has been a rich source of information, it has given me a structure through which I am able to practice embodiment in a diverse range of contexts. I have become more patient and attentive to listen to my body. I am beginning to feel how spacious and available my body can become. My identification and association of alignment has become much more personal. Alexander technique has encouraged me to relax into the home of my body.

Chloe Chignell

Dancer & Pilates Instructor

Alexander Technique lessons with Fiona have opened up a whole new dimension of understanding of my physical body – like taking off blinkers – it’s been life changing.  The lessons are a gradual process of becoming aware of the habitual patterns of poor posture and holding tension in the body and replacing them with physical balance and freedom.

Lynne Conway

Health Economics Advisor

For the last 12 months I have been a client of Fiona. I have a background in physical education, sports science, and education having spent my academic life preparing people to work in this field. There is no doubt Fiona is a great teacher and problem solver, she brings depth of knowledge that culminates from a background in Alexander Technique, dance and sport. I have carried a injury for the last 12 months and Fiona, using Alexander Technique, has re-educated me to not only overcome the injury but to reestablish new movement patterns that have totally changed how I move and engage in activity. From this engagement I have questioned my own field and why Alexander Technique is not more widespread in the physical education of the population, and in the foundation of movement patterns in sport. I would highly recommend Fiona as an Alexander Instructor, she has depth of knowledge and communicates it well.

Dr. Julia Walsh

Physical Education Researcher & Educator