Foundation

Aim: reclaim your body, your presence, and your creativity

Year One helps you reconnect with your body and breath so that learning can take hold again. We start simple. You learn clear maps of the body, the basics of Alexander work, and everyday practices that lower stress. We discuss the nervous system in simple terms. It is the part of you that runs stress and calm, focus and fog, rest and go. When it gets stuck in survival, you feel it as tension, pain, worry, racing thoughts, or numbness. In Year One, you learn to notice when that happens and how to settle it. The goal is to move out of burnout, survival, and chronic anxiety and into steadiness, ease, and creative freedom. We use gentle spiral learning. That means we revisit the same skills in small steps so your body can receive them.

What you will learn

• Simple body maps for head, spine, torso, breath, and arms

• How to notice survival signals early and settle them without force

• Alexander’s directions that soften effort in movement, playing, and teaching

• Breath that supports sound and speech without pushing

• Short awareness practices that fit inside a real day

How it works

• Twenty two live sessions, each ninety minutes, paced through the year

• Ongoing one to one coaching with Shawn for personal support

• A practice library with short audios and printable pages

• Group performance labs to apply the work in music and teaching

• Optional retreats and an online community space for steady encouragement

• Time needed is about four to five hours each month

What you can expect by the end

• A steady way to settle when stress rises

• Clear and accurate body maps that reduce excess effort

• A personal practice that you can keep doing on your own

• More ease and clarity in music making, teaching, and daily life

• Readiness to enter the guided practicum in Year Two