‘The Gift of Our Understanding’
Continuing Online Zoom classes offered in time zones
for the USA, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Korea
January through May 2021 (part II)
Greetings Everyone,
Since the beginnings of the Pandemic, from March 2020 I have offered online Zoom classes which have been based loosely on my recently published book Touching Presence. Both my experience and the class participants’ experience has been quite positive. Our understanding was that it is possible to convey online, through discussion, observation, coaching and theme-based exercises the essence of hands-on teaching.
In each class a theme relevant to Alexander’s teachings would be introduced, then explored through guided practical application both individually sometimes in breakout rooms or on screen collectively. During the ensuing week before the next class, each participant incorporated when possible the fruits of our exploration in their daily life. This would often include practicing teaching online and what eventually might translate to teaching in-person. Their practice was based upon material we had covered the previous week in class. Subsequently all this became topic for group discussion in the next class before a new theme was introduced.
My principle reason for offering online sessions is because only through the full expression of who we are, will we have the experience of who we are. Conversely, when denied the full expression of who we are, we will be denied the experience of who we are. Consequently, as teachers and those who are training to teach, only through the full expression of what we teach will we experience what we teach. When denied this we will have less of who we are as a teacher available to teach what we need to learn. Basically, when teaching we give to others the Gift of our Understanding.
You have only to think of any artist, any dancer, physician, scientist, athlete, anyone who has chosen some way of life as an expression of who they are, and who when denied that expression by external circumstance beyond one’s control they will be denied the experience of who they are. This is to live a life not chosen. And this what is being presented to us by the Pandemic: denial through circumstance.
By all reasonable accounts, this pandemic will be affecting our lives personally and professionally for an indeterminate length of time. Primarily for this reason, I will continue to offer Zoom classes hoping that all teachers who wish to explore their teaching in a manner in which they are allowed, can do so successfully; with confidence and good feeling about what they have to offer.
The class structure will focus primarily on my book Touching Presence as a basis for learning and teaching online. Touching Presence is divided into chapters on a specific theme or subject. We will examine meaning and content in each chapter. I will also provide practical application of content with exercises which will be of personal benefit to you and can be used for the benefit of teaching others online or in-person. You certainly do not have to buy my book to take the course. The book simply provides a reference as a way of envisioning and practicing Alexander’s principles and concepts. However, if you are interested, it can be purchased on my website here 0r on Amazon. By November, a Japanese translation will be available. And sometime later in 2021, a French translation will be available.
About the Course
There will be two segments to the course given sequentially in 2020 and 2021. One may register for one or both segments. Each class will be an hour and a half in length, yet often we spill over if the discussions and applications seem to merit more time because we feel something new and wonderful is being learned. Recordings of each class will be emailed to you. If during any given class someone wants to share and they do not wish recorded, I press the pause button and resume recording after you have spoken.
Upon completion of the Course part I and II, participants will receive a Career and Life Enhancement Advanced Study Certificate from the Alexander Technique Center at Cambridge,Massachusetts.
Participants’ voice on what to expect from the Zoom classes…
“It has been a pleasure and a gift to have the opportunity to experience Tommy and his teaching online the last couple of months. Each week I have eagerly anticipated the meetings because they leave me inspired, uplifted and with many ideas to ponder. It has been wonderful to be the recipient as he shares the wisdom and understandings garnered from a lifetime of experiences both personal and professional. His stories and lessons are full of compassion and insight and even through the medium of Zoom there is a sense of connection and being part of a group process. The gentle exercises he offers for exploration every week bring possibilities for self-observation, discovery and those lovely “aha!” moments which culminate in a sense of ease. If it can dare be said that there are any silver linings in this Covid cloud that envelops us, for me the opportunity to meet and learn from Tommy has been one of them”.
Victoria Menear MD, Alexander Teacher USA
“Tommy’s teaching of the Alexander Technique translates very well to the Zoom format. I am continually amazed at how much better I feel after one of his classes. He creates a feeling of safety and mutual respect with his students that allows for honesty and openness. I have learned a great deal since beginning online study with him and would wholeheartedly recommend these classes to any student of the Alexander Technique.”
Kevin Hoffmann
Assistant Professor of Performing Arts, Elon University USA
“Because of the pandemic and the exponential growth of Zoom classrooms, I have been fortunate to work with Alexander Technique teachers that otherwise I could never have afforded to travel to and work with. Tommy Thompson, an AT teacher I greatly admire, is one of those teachers. I have been attending Tommy’s weekly group sessions all summer. I’ve learned something new about myself each week as he shared his insights and expertise teaching of the Alexander Technique. I also attended Tommy’s Ease of Being online retreat in July and have had private AT lessons with Tommy virtually. His insight into human nature is a gift that he is able to share virtually. I’ve only met Tommy once in person, several years ago. Yet I have found his online workshops inspiring. I am so grateful for this valuable learning opportunity to work with Tommy from the comfort of my home in a way that is affordable for me”.
Toni Sheads, Alexander Teacher, USA
“After I graduated from Tommy’s training 6 years ago and started my own practice, I realized there was something I dearly missed in my life and in my teaching. Tommy’s take on the Technique on how to keep working on our personal narrative and free ourselves from its constraining chains was one of the parts I missed most. Tommy’s teachings are full of compassion and understanding about what it is to be human. The online classes provide us with tools to help our students (and ourselves) to become fully present to the experience of being alive on this planet, present with our activities and our emotions and thoughts.
In these difficult times we are living through, Tommy’s online classes have become for me, an oasis for staying sane and continue learning different ways to help our students.”
Clara Sandler, Alexander teacher ATI certified
Voice faculty New England Conservatory
There will be a rainbow to these unprecedented times.
I very much look forward to seeing you online
and hopefully soon in person!
My blessings to you and all your loved ones.
Tommy
Click on the picture for more information.
Touching Presence — A new book by Tommy has just been published !
Touching Presence by Tommy Thompson (with Rachel Prabhakar)
Paperback — Pages: 129 numbered, 154 total — 5.25 in x 8 in (133 mm x 203 mm) — ISBN 978-1-7334005-0-3
Description: Enter into the teaching space of Alexander Technique teacher and trainer Tommy Thompson. With compassion and integrity, Tommy’s teaching explores the ways in which each of us can belong to the moment and stop defining ourselves by our habits. With its insightful, moving reflections, Touching Presence will inspire Alexander Technique teachers, trainees, and students — indeed anyone — to find their own path to being more fully present for themselves and the person in front of them.
“Touching Presence is a seminal book about the Alexander Technique and it is filled with delightful vignettes, rich moments of teaching, and an honesty that awakens all of us.”
Welcome to the Alexander Technique Center at Cambridge
The Center Offers:
Tommy Thompson’s private teaching practice, offering lessons since 1975.
Teacher Training Program in the Alexander Technique, a three-year, 1600-hour residential program, founded in 1983.
Tommy’s annual Post-graduate Refresher Courses, open to all certified teachers of the Technique.
Career and Life Enhancement Course open to all applicants beginning January 2016
Advanced Study in the Alexander Technique, a 500-hour course of continued study (by application only) for students with a thorough background/experience with the technique, who are not currently interested in teacher training, but wish to increase their practical and theoretical knowledge of the technique to use the principles and concepts that are the basis for the Alexander teaching in their life and in their work.
Workshops for Alexander teachers and the general public.
Online Mentoring for individuals and groups
Summer Residential Alexander Retreat (each summer - 2019 - Jul 28-Aug 2 - Roger Williams College, RI)
Founder and Director Tommy Thompson
Recipient, Best of Cambridge Award for Holistic and Alternative Health for Three Consecutive Years (2016-2018)!
The Alexander Technique Center at Cambridge opened its doors in 1975, and since then has welcomed many hundreds of people. Each person comes for a different set of reasons, always motivated by a need to be addressed. Musicians, actors, dancers, and athletes come looking to improve their performance while minimizing the risks of repetitive stress injury. Many people come in struggling with pre-diagnosed chronic pain. Usually, they have tried modality after modality, often to little avail, and are desperate for a solution to their particular issue. Trainees come in, already deeply touched by the work of the Technique, eager to become teachers themselves.
The musicians, actors, dancers, and athletes generally do find improvements in their performance and a more sustainable use of themselves in practicing their crafts. People in chronic pain physically and emotionally do find significant and quite often lasting relief. Students of the Technique do learn the skills and concepts necessary to teach. But what I find most inspiring and rewarding is that everyone, to a greater or lesser degree, also comes away with a deeper sense of the profound majesty of the potential inherent in each human being. The Technique offers the insight – which takes a lifetime to truly explore and develop – that if we can lessen our commitment to seeing as we usually see, reaching for who we think we need to be, and reacting as we habitually react, then we can be more fully present for ourselves and the people with whom we share our lives.
Welcome to the Alexander Technique Center at Cambridge.
All good blessings,
Tommy Thompson
Director and Founder