Ease into Length: An Alexander Approach to Stretching with Tom Truss

Description

Stretching is often sought as a path to health and mobility, yet it is frequently approached with end-gaining, force, or misconceptions about alignment. In this 90-minute workshop, we will reframe stretching not as muscular effort but as an invitation to wait and release, benefiting both personal practice and teaching. Through experiential work, participants will examine skeletal and muscular relationships, apply mechanical advantage to stretching, and investigate how whole-system direction and non-doing allow for lengthening to arise naturally. Yoga-inspired postures and stretches tailored for individual participants will serve as laboratories for observation, experimentation, and teaching application. Together, we will ask: What psycho-physical patterns might interfere with stretching? What does it mean to lengthen without narrowing, compressing, or pulling? How can we guide students toward greater mobility? Participants will gain tools to integrate stretching into your own practice and into your AT lessons in ways that increase range of motion and ease. Tom Truss is an actor, choreographer, and certified Alexander Technique teacher with over 30 years of experience in dance, teaching, and creative practice. He has taught internationally, working with artists, healthcare professionals, and diverse communities. Tom combines somatic awareness with playful inquiry, helping students discover ease, balance, and freedom of movement. His teaching emphasizes curiosity, whole-system direction, and the transformative potential of awareness in motion. He is also a Level 2 certified practitioner of Internal Family Systems which he incorporates into his Alexander Technique sessions.