Amira Alvarez

Students Rave!

I started studying the Alexander Technique with Amira when I realized how tense I was while playing the guitar and how negatively that was affecting the music...both technically and expressively. Not only was there tension in my fingers, arms, neck, and back, but the clincher was that I was tight in my stomach as well. In learning the Alexander Technique, I learned (and am still learning) how to release all the extra useless and detrimental effort I put into my classical guitar playing. I now use the appropriate amount of effort and the appropriate muscles for fingering; no longer creating tension in my whole body when I play. As a result, I no longer have the back pain with which I have struggled for so many years, and have little, if any, tension when I play. What I've learned has allowed my playing to be much more effortless, freer and cleaner so that the musical content can be totally explored and expressed.
         - Robert Brandon, Classical Guitarist

Over the past 20 years I've tried a number of techniques, from massage to yoga to Rolfing and chiropractic. All of them have been helpful and useful but nothing has improved my day to day living with my body as much as Amira and the Alexander technique. It is always available for use wherever I am and whatever I'm doing.
         - John Baylor, Software Engineer
Click here to read John's blog about applying the Alexander Technique to swimming.

"I am so grateful to you and the Alexander Technique. Twenty-four hours after our first session I was able to pinpoint and begin to alleviate the main source of my chronic back and neck stress: something two doctors were not able to do for me. After our second session I came to the joyous realization that back pain does not have to be part of the normal aging process; that a person can learn to re-establish a friendship between body and mind. And after our third session I was dancing again!"
         -Cindy Neureuther, Retired, Age 56

The Alexander Technique was the first thing I tried that actually improved my sciatica pain. And I felt the difference right away. Over time, as I learned more of the technique, it only got better.
         - Deborah Bayer, Nurse

After two lessons with Amira, I realized how to release the deeply ingrained tension in my neck. The result has been amazing - I haven't slept this deeply and soundly since I was a teenager.
         - Michele Voilleque, Soprano and Music Educator

I'm a better trumpet player as a result of learning the Alexander Technique with Amira. One significant benefit is how it's helped me improve by breathing. My posture has improved and my pain has reduced significantly. I'd say it's almost 80% gone.
         - Mike Margulis, Music Educator

Because of the scoliosis in my spine, I didn't think my body could get into such an upright position no matter what you or anybody did. And it was startling that it could happen so quickly. The work is amazing. It really is like having an Owner's Manual. I'm finally learning how to use the various parts in the right way.
         - L.J., Psychotherapist

Learning the Alexander Technique has significantly changed how I visualize my body in space and how I put it to use. I sit differently, walk differently, bench press and do squats in the gym differently--all for the better. Amira brings tremendous presence to her teaching, listening carefully to her students and working with them with intentionality and generosity of spirit. Even on a student budget, I feel that my lessons with her have been one of the best things I've done for myself in the past year.
         - C.C., UC Berkeley Graduate Student

I took a group class with Amira and can now sit comfortably in meditation and also at performances with cramped seating. I used to always fidget in my seat trying to be comfortable. I'm very happy that not only can I sit comfortably in all situations, I have learned to use my body more effectively in other activities, such as cooking and knitting. Thanks, Amira!
         - Participant in 10 session/5 week class

For over a year and a half, I suffered from severe sciatic nerve pain due to a herniated disc. I woke up every night from pain and getting up in the morning was on par with labor pain. I received short term relief from epidural cortisone shots but the benefit from each shot wore off after about 1 month. After just a few lessons with Amira, I became aware of certain ways that I hold my body that created the condition that causes and exacerbates my sciatica and back pain. I was able to immediately use what I learned to help. Certain activities were especially likely to cause flare ups such as gardening or lifting heavy objects (such as full laundry baskets). Amira's lessons are very practical - she had me outside weeding in her garden and got a laundry basket from her house and worked with me on lifting a fully loaded basket properly. I used to take strong pain medication every day. I have had 20 lessons with Amira and now I am pain free most days just by using the techniques that Amira taught me. I highly recommend Amira as a teacher; she is gentle, intuitive and very effective. I leave her lessons feeling lighter, calmer and centered.
         - Cynthia Mah, Mother of Two

Amira has been a great discovery! I am a member of RSF at UC (Recreational Sports Facility) and signed up for an Alexander Technique course taught by Amira. As a serious amateur musician I had taken an AT group class for musicians many years ago -- and didn't find it very helpful. Amira's class was very different! She has magical hands and uses them to communicate directly with the body. Our class worked on alignment while sitting, standing, bending, chopping vegetables, carrying heavy backpacks -- and in my case, holding my flute. After this very successful group class I have signed up for a series of private lessons to remake the way I use my body! Exciting!
         - Susan K., Flutist

The Alexander Technique has been a great addition to my life. Now I have a great tool to manage my lower back pain and sleep well again. When pain does start to return, I use the Alexander Technique Amira has taught me to diffuse it. If you have any body pains you're struggling with, I highly recommend Amira Alvarez and the Alexander Technique. You'll wish you'd done it sooner.
         - Janis Kaye, Principal, Marketing Research Firm

I really enjoyed and benefited from our work together. The work definitely went beyond simply correcting my posture but, as it is intended, opened up new possibilities for my "use of self," with implications for my work both as a therapist and a teacher. I also learned a lot about teaching from observing how you do that. I find you balance the conceptual and experiential well, and use language skillfully to suggest or invite new possibilities of experiencing.
         - Jamal Granick, Psychotherapist

I always feel great when I leave my lesson with Amira. I am standing straighter and feel so light. Amira has already help me eliminate at least 70% of my chronic neck and shoulder pain! These sessions are a real treat!
         - Sandra Angell, Retired Corporate Manager

After fifteen years of chronic pain from my neck all the way down my spine and into my finger tips, and innumerable frustrating attempts to find answers and relief, Amira has helped me to both understand my pain and take charge of it. I feel wholly empowered and confident that, as I continue to work with her, I will be able to use my body gracefully, efficiently, and powerfully to accomplish any physical or mental task I want. Since working with her, I have been able to improve every activity I engage in, in particular my swimming and running. I now swim tirelessly and effortlessly and have acquired an awareness that enables me to grow more with each swim. I had stopped running several years ago because of the strain and discomfort it caused. But, recently, I decided on a whim to try again since the pool was closed. I used the Alexander Technique directions Amira has taught me and was surprised to find not only that running was light and easy as swimming, but also that I could run much further and longer than I ever had before. I am deeply grateful to Amira, who is gentle, generous, intuitive, and thorough in her work and has given me the gift of self-direction and self-knowledge to drastically change my approach to living.
         - Preetha Mani, UC Berkeley Graduate Student

I came to see Amira, not for pain, but for chronic tension patterns that were left over from a car accident when I was 13 years old. Her sessions help me to break the patterns that create tension and teach me ways to have more ease in the way I sit, stand and move. Her work on the table is better than a massage and I look forward to it every week. After my last session, I had to adjust my rear view mirror to accommodate how my spine had lengthened. I was actually taller! I recommend her work to anyone that wants to have greater ease in their life.
         - Kara Sorensen, Acupuncturist

I am feeling really great after my Alexander Technique lesson! It's so amazing to feel like I am starting to have some skills to prevent the chronic fatigue, pain, tension and worse, that result from endlessly sitting in an incorrect posture. I am starting to see meetings as an opportunity to practice healthy sitting. Hooray! The results have been wonderful!
         - Amy Karon, Public Health Veteriniarian

After just a few lessons with Amira, I became much more aware of certain ways that I hold my body throughout the day that create needless pain and tension. I use what I've learned in my lessons to release tension, relax my body and to use my body more effectively. The result, on a daily basis, is less tension, less pain, more comfort and more awareness. I was surprised how much my thinking and awareness changed after a brief exposure to the concepts of the Alexander Technique. Although I think it's a lifelong journey to learn more about this technique, I found a lot of information readily accessible with just a few lessons. One of the great things about this work is that Amira gives you tools you can use yourself throughout the day, at work, travelling, etc. It's very empowering.
         -Julie Schindler, Licensed Architect

I've been studying the Alexander Technique this past year with Amira Alvarez. In a nutshell, the Alexander Technique is a practice that teaches you how to naturally move your body for common everyday activities such as walking, getting in and out of a chair, and sitting at a desk to avoid and relieve chronic pain and tension, and to promote a stronger sense of well being. I've found that this practice has almost eliminated my chronic tight Achilles tendons and has given me more energy and confidence in both physical and mental activities.
         -Katherine Wenc, Manager, Apple Inc.

After taking Alexander Technique lessons with Amira, I improved my form, movement and performance in many activities - ranging from sitting at my desk to swimming long distances. Through increased awareness of my body and its alignment, I reduced wrist pain caused by Carpel-Tunnel Syndrome and learned how to avoid future pain and injury. The Alexander Technique also improved my running and swimming endurance by teaching me how to move more efficiently and with ease. As an instructor, Amira was enthusiastic, dynamic and responsive to my needs. Not only did she tailor each lesson to my goals, she provided invaluable encouragement and information. It was a true pleasure to work with her!
         - Cindy Huang, Graduate Student, UC Berkeley

I went to Amira several months ago with lower back and sciatic pain due to scoliosis and degenerative discs. Intensive physical therapy had strengthened my core, but Amira is now patiently and gently teaching me a new way to stand, walk, get up and down out of a chair, pick things up. She even came to my house and worked with me at the computer. I can now work comfortably without causing myself unnecessary tension. At age 74, I have years of habits to unlearn, but Amira is transforming the way I use my body. I am sure without her help I would be back to where I was a year ago. Everyone should study the Alexander Technique. Top recommendation for Amira.
         - Meredith Stout, Retired

I really enjoyed the Alexander Technique class. I was amazed to see the difference it made in personal appearance for each member of the class. But the real benefit seems the lightness and freedom that I'm just starting to become more aware of.
         - Joan Garvin, Systems Librarian and Amateur Musician

Thanks for all your patient help. I feel that learning the AT has been a real turning point in decreasing my tension and pain and has allowed my body to rest and heal. And I owe that to you Amira, for your kind and approachable teaching technique. You have been a real blessing in my life.
         - Nina, Editor

Amira is a great resource for you if you have neck or back pain that is habitual. With remarkable gentleness and skill, she teaches you the right way to sit, stand and walk, to relieve the points of tension you hold. For me, it was the back of my neck. I thought it was because I was a tense person, and that it was emotional holding. But what I found with Amira, was that the ways I had learned to sit and stand (mostly in ballet class) were causing a continual "crunch" in the back of my neck. Her teaching is wonderful.
         - Colleen W.

If you want to change the way you feel in your body for the rest of your life, give yourself the gift of the Alexander Technique. Amira is the best!! I've experienced her awareness-raising touch myself and I've witnessed others in a classroom setting. I've seen people be transformed...in body and spirit...by learning how to live with less effort through Amira's work. Amira is professional, light-hearted, honest and persistent.
         - Katherine Korlacki, Professional Organizer.

Don't underestimate the power of the Alexander Technique! Under Amira's excellent teaching and support, I've been able to consciously choose better ways to hold and move my body - and I'm pain-free for the first time ever! Perhaps even more powerful is that I now feel calmer within myself, and more intentional in my thoughts and actions - life-changing! Working with Amira has been a pleasure. She's personable, professional, knows her stuff, and clearly takes great satisfaction in the successes of her clients. And her touch is magic - how DOES she do that?!
         - Bettyanne G.

Many thanks for your teachings and healing touch. I'm so fortunate to have found you and grateful for learning some of the Alexander Technique. His work through you contributes greatly to my dancing body of knowledge.
         - Janet Jacobson, Dancer

I recently had a session with Amira and, afterwards, my body felt the way it does after receiving any great bodywork... relaxed, relieved, changed. What was different from other bodywork is that, even after just one session, I knew my body had learned to move both in a stronger and more fluid way. In addition, I loved her bedside manner, her confidence, knowledge and the way my body responded to her instruction.
         -Barbara Reiner, Counselor

I had been introduced to the Alexander Technique years ago in a horseback riding clinic however I rediscovered it when I came upon a donation that Amira Alvarez had contributed to a local school's fund-raising raffle.

I have a background of years of yoga, Feldenkrais and Pilates movement classes. While learning ways of moving is not new to me, when I was diagnosed with Parkinson's six years ago I found myself becoming more contracted and stiff, while repeating unhelpful movements and ways of holding myself.

Amira has given me the gift of recognizing my habitual ways of moving that were not working and teaching me how to replace these with movements that are more helpful to my changing self. I have found the new knowledge of myself to be profound. For example, using the awareness that Amira helped me develop, I discovered a better way of dining in which I no longer slouch over my food but now bend forward at the hip, allowing my spine to lengthen and easing my lower back pain.

We worked on daily activities such as walking, gardening, and doing yoga so I was able to do them with less stiffness, better balance, and more comfortably. I found the range of motion of how far I could turn my head increased (because I was no longer stiffening my neck so much), my Parkinson's test numbers at the Stanford clinic improved and there were frequent times when I experienced a complete or significant quieting of the tremor in my arm.

I have found that I can not only apply Alexander technique principles in my own life, but can help others apply them as well. In my profession as a teacher, for example, I used the principles to teach 7 year olds how to stop writing movements that produce reversed letters and replace them with a more effective way of writing. They became aware of the reversals of the letters b and d and learned to make them correctly by starting each movement stroke at a different point. In this way they learned to a) stop, b) inhibit old patterns and c) substitute ones that worked better.

I am grateful to have Amira as my teacher/coach and happy to be able to find new applications for what I am learning in the Alexander Technique.
         - Scott Wachenheim, Semi-retired Teacher

My students voted me the "Best of the Bay" in the 2009 SF Chronicle. Thank you!