Rethinking How We Teach to Back Pain ~ Kitty Breen

Date/Time
Date(s) - Wed, 12th Apr 2017
10:30 AM till 4:00 PM

Location
Alexander Technique Centre

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In this workshop you will learn practical understandings and techniques on how to best teach to the pupil with back pain.

This will include an intellectual understanding of how back pain interferes with proper functioning of the primary control (and the hyoid system’s role within this) and from this, a philosophical and structural framework through which to teach. Coupled with educational theory about how people best learn, this lens leads to practical Alexander techniques, tips and activities most useful for teaching the pupil in back pain.  You will also be introduced to The Educated Back™ series as an example of a graduated curriculum involving both group and private lessons that deepens and accelerates full recovery from chronic back pain. It was created in 2003 and has been taught for the last 14 years at the Alexander Center for Back and Chronic Pain located in Cambridge, MA, USA.

Finally, participants will be given the blueprint for a complementary two-hour introductory workshop “Freedom from Back Pain™” which you can teach on your own.  Freedom from Back Pain™ enjoys sold-out status in the US and generates both income and long-term students for the Alexander teacher.

2.5 million people in England suffer from daily back pain; the 2008 ATEAM results published in the BMJ confirm AT lessons as a leading solution to a medical conundrum; all AT practices in England could be thriving.

Do you want to teach in a way which fulfills and inspires you? Would you like to help people in chronic pain get better? Would you be interested in knowing what Walter Carrington thought was “the single best thing” we could teach our back pain pupils? Do you know why the little finger is the back’s best friend? Come find out! And . . . a good income won’t do you any harm. 🙂

Date

Wednesday 12 April, 2017.
10:30 am – 4:00 pm. Lunch break at 1:00 pm.

For Teachers and 3rd year students.

Cost: £50.

This workshop qualifies as STAT CPD.

How to Book

Please  email Sage: sage.pearcehiggins@gmail.com, (cheque payments to 12a Dunraven Road, London W12 7QY). Telephone: 07715 932 384.

Biography
Katherine H (Kitty) Breen, m.Stat & m.AmSat 1992 from TCAT (Ed and Linda Avak, who trained with the Carringtons).  Kitty also holds her MBA from Yale University, 1994, and benefitted from an Alexander postgraduate fellowship with Ruth Murray (CTC), fall, 1994.

Kitty came to the Technique after surviving a car going off a cliff and suffering from a head injury, internal injuries and life-altering back pain for many years. Kitty is grateful to the Alexander Technique and her teachers for full recovery.

In addition to her Alexander experience, Kitty worked for over fourteen years in the field of education as teacher, administrator and grant maker. In these roles she taught, oversaw and developed what went on to become national-award-winning educational programs/curriculums; many had drawn upon Alexander principles in their approach.

In 2003, Kitty established the Alexander Back and Chronic Pain Center and applied her knowledge about teaching and learning to the question of how pupils in back pain best learn the Alexander Technique. This grew from the recognition that the time and resources needed (and that she had been fortunate to have) was untenable for many pupils.  In accordance with Alexander principles, she developed a philosophical framework, curriculum, teaching techniques and strategies which deepen and accelerate the learning/recovery process for pupils in back pain.

Many of these techniques can be taught in a private lesson but Kitty also developed a 6 group/6 private-lesson curricular series called The Educated Back™ that has been highly successful. The introductory class in this series, Freedom from Back Pain™, has been sold out consistently for the last 10 years and is suitable as a one time introductory offering. This is the blueprint class being offered in this workshop.

Kitty has taught workshops at US AGM’s and International Congresses including “Teaching to Back Pain” (Lugano, 2008) and “Teaching To Trauma, Concussion and Brain Injury – The Hyoid System” (Limerick, 2015) and she published chapters in the ensuing Congress Papers.  The Alexander Back and Chronic Pain Center enjoys a full practice and receives referrals from doctors at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School.