Alexander Technique Sampler Workshop at RIAT

Description

Are you curious to find out more about the Alexander Technique? Join us for this Alexander Technique Sampler Event at Riverside Initiative for the Alexander Technique (RIAT) on West 27th. You will have the opportunity to meet 3 different teachers and hear their stories, as well as to attend their mini workshops designed around themes that they work with: Chronic Pain, Resilience, and Breathing. You are invited to attend all 3 mini workshops — there is no need to choose just one! Stay around after the workshop for refreshments.

Resilience in a busy world
Ariel Carson, m.AmSAT, SEP
Resilience is required to thrive in today’s world, and it is cultivated through conscious embodiment. Learn how to work with your intentions, musculoskeletal system, breath, and nervous system regulation to cultivate greater psycho-physical bouncebackability. Let’s get springy together!


Ariel Carson, m.AmSAT, SEP, is an associate director and faculty member at RIAT. She received her AmSAT teaching certification through Alexander Technique New York City (ATNYC), headed by teachers Nan Walsh and John Nicholls. Ariel is also a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, and SE training assistant. She has assisted at The Juilliard School, and guest taught at Boston University where she earned her BFA. She has also been a guest teacher at The Colburn School, and Saint Ann’s School. Ariel previously worked as a teaching artist for the Leadership Program, teaching leadership skills through the arts to under-served students in New York City public schools. She is the organizer of the Healing for Activists NYC chapter. From her work with U.S. veterans, to performers, to activists, to the LGBTQ+ community, Ariel is most interested in teaching the Alexander Technique as part of a holistic and multifaceted approach to cultivating greater sustainability, vitality, and freedom in the body-minds of her current and future clients.


Living and working with Chronic Pain
Steven Borzykowski, m.AmSAT,
Chronic pain takes a toll on the neuromuscular system by depleting our energy, narrowing our kinesthetic awareness and interfering with freedom in thought and movement. Learn how to use Alexander Technique principles to interrupt your pain response patterns and redirect into a psycho-physical state that’s expansive, lively, and easeful.

Steven Borzykowski, m.AmSAT, is anAlexander Technique teacher in Westchester, NY. He completed his three-year, 1600 hour certification at RIAT under the Direction of Nanette Walsh, and currently teaches on its faculty. Having personally battled unexplained increased brain and spinal pressure for over 25 years—undergoing multiple brain surgeries, conventional medical treatments, and alternative therapies—he found his training in and application of the Alexander Technique to be profound, restorative and life changing. He has studied privately with Judy Stern and Joan Frost, and is interested in increasing awareness of the technique among medical professionals and people of all ages with movement or musculoskeletal challenges that interfere with daily living. He has a BA in Music from Skidmore College, where he studied piano and composition.

The Breathing Paradox from a Trumpeter’s Experience
Dr. Stephen McLean
We all understand how important our breath and breathing are to our health. As a musician playing trumpet, having a good breathing system couldn’t be more important. However, it’s often true that the more we try to “take a deep breath” or “breathe deeply” the more stress and less air we have. This mini workshop will help you make friends with your breathing and understand how by finding ease and balance the natural full movement of breathing is activated.

Dr. Stephen McLean completed his 1600-hour Alexander Technique training at the Riverside Initiative for the Alexander Technique under the direction of Nannette Walsh. He is a musician, educator, and Alexander Technique teacher based in the Westchester and New York City area who works with people of all backgrounds to move with greater ease and less unnecessary tension. A doctoral-level trumpet player with experience as a pianist and band director, he has performed and taught in classical, jazz, gospel, and contemporary settings, and draws on both his performing background and Alexander Technique training to help improve coordination, posture, breathing, and overall body awareness so movement and performance can feel more natural and efficient.