Welcome to my very first blog post!

I’ve had this website for quite a while, but like many things, the blog section kept getting pushed down the list. That changes today.

This blog will be a place to share practical tips, stories, and thoughts about the Alexander Technique—a method that’s not just about posture (though it helps with that!), but about how we move through life. Literally.

But first, I want to share how I got here.

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The Day Everything Changed

It was the summer of 1988. I was on my way to an early hospital shift in Manchester, a passenger in a friend’s car. We were driving along a main road when a car shot out of a side street and ploughed into us.

Our car spun, flipped, rolled—and landed upside down.

We managed to crawl out through the broken driver’s window, dazed but alive. But that crash was the start of something that would stay with me for decades: chronic neck and back pain.

At the time, I was in my third year of a nursing degree. I took only a few days off—despite severe pain and headaches—because I had to complete a key placement. My “treatment” was a neck brace, later joined by a back corset. I got through the year by sheer grit. But the pain never really left.

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Living with a “Bad Back”

Once I qualified, I carefully chose jobs I thought I could manage with my “bad back.” (I’d already labelled myself.) I saw osteopaths and chiropractors. I learned to cope. I kept going—working as a nurse, then a health visitor, then a university lecturer. But the pain followed me everywhere.

By 2010, things had got worse. Much worse. Constant headaches, jaw pain, neck and back pain. I was getting osteopathic treatment twice a week just to stay afloat. Sitting at the computer—something my job demanded—became almost unbearable.

So I did what many of us do. I googled ergonomic chairs.

And that’s when I came across one sentence that stopped me in my tracks:

“It’s not the chair. It’s how you’re sitting on it.”

Boom. That was it. The penny dropped. It wasn’t just the chair, or the desk, or the setup—it was me.

That sentence led me to the Alexander Technique, and the rest is history.

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The Turning Point

I started lessons and immediately felt something shift—not just physically, but mentally. I realised I wasn’t broken. I just needed a better way of using myself.

And I could learn it.

The Alexander Technique gave me back a sense of ease I hadn’t felt in years. It reduced my pain, improved my movement, and changed the way I related to my body—and to life.

So much so that I decided to train as a teacher. I qualified in 2016 and now I share this work with others.

Because if it changed my life, maybe it could change yours too.

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What’s Next?

This blog is where I’ll be sharing bite-sized ideas, real-life tips, and gentle questions to help you tune into how you move and live.

We all carry tension—usually without even realising. But what if it didn’t have to be that way?

What if there was something you could do about it?

Thanks for reading. I’m so glad you’re here.