Hi, I’m Diana and I have been teaching the Alexander Technique since 2018.
What do I do?
I am an ITM-trained teacher of the Alexander Technique. That means that I work with students in an activity of their choice (sitting, walking, juggling, typing … anything my student is interested in), and look at the way they are thinking about themselves and their activity, and how that thinking may be affecting their movement. I then interact with my student, using words, questions, and gentle touch in order to challenge them to try and change their ideas and their movement in such a way that brings them closer to the freedom and ease of motion that they are capable of experiencing.
I teach mainly in Wantage, Didcot and Oxford. I also teach at ITM training courses in Bristol, and at our UK summer workshop in Cirencester.
What brought me to the Alexander Technique?
Many people come to the Alexander Technique because they have heard it can help with some kind of problem: they think it is about good posture (it isn’t), or relieving pain (it isn’t, although that can be one of the side effects), or helping them as performers (many performers gain great benefit from Alexander Technique training, however it is the same benefit that is available to all, in all of their activities). I was simply convinced that Alexander’s ideas provided the best framework for life. I was introduced to these ideas when I attended my first ITM summer school, as I wrote about here.
What else do I do?
My background is in science. I studied physics at the University of Edinburgh, worked as a postgraduate at Lancaster University, and completed a D.Phil. in the physics of archaeological dating at the University of Oxford.
Fun Wessex-related fact: The bronze-aged Uffington White Horse, as seen on our banner image, was dated by the lab at Oxford, using the technique I studied: optical dating. Prehistoric and historic chalk figures occur throughout the ancient kingdom of Wessex.
I have spent the last 14 years working as a carer, and in addition to those responsibilities I have re-trained with ITM in order to teach the Alexander technique. I have also taken the pedagogical approach of ITM into my other work as a tutor. I teach several other skills, primarily mathematics, knitting and spinning.
I live in Wantage with my husband and two teenage daughters. I pursue my interests in permaculture, philosophy, history, literature, crafting, and more.
Wessex Alexander Technique 