Two Examples of working with students with back pain:
1) Yesterday I had the pleasure of watching my colleague, Judy Stern, give a first lesson in the Alexander Technique to a woman named Alice, who was having sciatica (pain referring down her lower leg into her foot) from a pinched nerve.
Before Judy began working with her, she wanted to get a sense of Alice’s discomfort. On a scale of 0 – 10, 0 being no pain, 10 being the worst, Alice was at about a 4-5. Judy then gave an basic introductory lesson to Alice, with a particular emphasis on the idea of teaching her how to decompress through her spine, and use her legs for support. Judy worked with her the same way any of us would work with any student, teaching the principles of awareness, inhibition and direction. There was no special attention paid to any one part of Alice. Rather, Judy taught her how to use her whole self by releasing her head from her neck.
After the lesson, Alice reported her pain at 1/2 to 0. At the end, Judy asked Alice if she’d ever had a massage (she had) and if this was like massage. Alice’s reply: “No, this is not at all like massage.”
Watching Judy reminded me all over again how much potential our work has to teach people how to use their bodies in a healthier, more accurate way.
2) Quite coincidentally, I have a friend, Dierdra, who recently tore the disc between her sacrum and lowest lumbar vertebrae. I saw her this past weekend and she agreed to try Alexander lessons to help her with her injury.
Last night, I gave her a lesson. When we began working, she was walking bent forward at her waist, with sciatica pain down her left leg. Unlike Alice, I watched Dierdra wincing in obvious pain as she changed positions while lying on her couch, and at moments when she was walking.
I began working with her at her desk chair, since she spent a lot of time sitting at work. She was able to stand and sit using her legs, and change her habit of arching her lumbar spine. She immediately understood how using her hip joints instead of bending her waist could help stop some of the irritation and compression on her nerves.
In walking, I helped Dierdra locate how high the top of her spine goes and helped her release some downward compression from the top down. When I showed her where her knees are and how her legs could move, she was able to walk without pain. She saw how her anticipation of the pain and her attempt to keep weight off the sore leg was actually causing her to use her waist to lift her sore leg to move it for a step. When I showed her how she could let her leg swing in the hip joint to take a step, the waist area was no longer being bent back and forth and there was less irritation to the nerves.
When we finished, Dierdra felt much better. She said she also felt more hopeful about her recovery. She’d started feeling depressed and was emotionally as well as physically relieved.
I was not at all surprised by the results Dierdra and Alice had from their lessons. They both understood how the tools they were learning helped their situations. As dramatic and immediate as their relief was (and not everyone will get results as quickly) it made sense. The Alexander Technique teaches a simple set of principles which help anyone interested access more accuracy in their body by engaging their mind in a clear way.