In an interview with Robert Rickover, Alexander Technique teacher Michael Ostrow says: “I started working with people with bad breathing problems. I’ve been amazed at how people with asthma can have their breathing quiet down quickly and they can get off inhalers. I had someone with spasmodic dysphonia (strangled voice that comes with bad breathing and bad voice patterns) and she was also diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, severe, and within a few months [of Alexander lessons], they did a breathing test and it was down to mild chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. She doesn’t need the inhaler. Eventually, I think it will go away.
“Many of the names people have for these disorders, from an Alexander point of view, they’re just bad habits. They’re not a syndrome. They’re bad habits we can change.”
Robert: “They’re bad habits that manifest in a certain way and get categorized by this way of manifestation.”
Michael: “They think it is this thing and it gets treated by various medications.”
