Frederick Matthias Alexander (1869-1955) was an Australian actor whose career became threatened by voice problems he experienced when performing.

Alexander would rest for periods of time to see if that would help his tension and loss of his voice. He also payed many visits to the doctor. After consulting with doctors who could find no physical cause for his hoarseness, he came to the realization that perhaps he was contributing to his own physical symptoms.

Alexander came to the realization that he was using unnecessary and excessive muscular tension, which affected his whole system and did not allow him to use his voice freely.

Through his daliy and countless observations in the mirror, Alexander was able to develop a method for allowing the natural coordination of body and mind to work together.

As a result of this new coordination, Alexander found that his breathing improved, and his voice problems disappeared. Alexander soon realized that his discoveries could help people improve both physical and emotional health issues.

After working extensively with actors and musicians in New Zealand and Australia, F.M opened a training course in London. Since then the work has been passed on through generations of teachers and is now a worldwide technique.

The Alexander Technique has helped many athletes, musicians, performers and people suffering from muscular skeletal problems, and repetative strain injury.

Educator, John Dewey was a huge proponent of the Technique as well as actors such as John Cleese, William Hurt, and Kevin Cline.