Our Story
About us
Together we’ve dedicated our lives to exploring the Alexander Technique and assisting others to benefit from our enquiry.
Michael and Jane Shellshear met through their mutual interest in the Alexander Technique. Both have been teaching Alexander Technique since the early 1990’s.
The Technique offers people a reasonable way to overcome damaging habits and reconnect with our natural design for ease. Working from their purpose built studio in Leura NSW, Michael and Jane have created a special learning facility set within magnificent gardens.
Our synergy
Jane has always been a musician first and foremost. She has Bachelor and Post Grad qualifications in music. Alexander and then Body Mapping qualifications have put her on course to becoming Australia’s premiere specialist on musician’s movement issues. She lectures widely in Australia and overseas about how musicians move for a living.
As well as teaching Alexander Technique to thousands of people in Australia, Michael has looked at the question of how adults learn. He gained qualifications in vocational education, business and health and safety. Michael wrote the Alexander Technique Teacher Training Standard, Training Assessment and Assessor Training material. For many years he taught the certificate IV in Training and Assessment. He is uniquely qualified to develop professional standard eLearning for Alexander Technique Training.
Together we provide an informed and evolving Alexander Technique practice based around the needs of our clients.
Our Mission and Core Values
We are dedicated to learner autonomy, flexibility, and modern educational methods providing training of exceptional quality.
Although there is much of value in the ritualised Alexander Technique Teacher Trainings that have been passed down over many years, we wish to innovate in a mindful and constructive way.
Our eLearning is part of a evolution towards cognitive-somatic teaching. While skills are acquired through somatic experience, knowledge and understanding are acquired through thought, experience and the senses.
FM Alexander exhorts us to become consciously aware and to direct our thought to integrate all human functioning. This holds the possibility of becoming a constant influence for good. Through our work with the general public and with trainee teachers, we wish to create a constant influence for wellbeing and embodied health.
eLearning is only part of the learning experience that we offer
For our trainee Alexander Technique teachers, eLearning is only one part of the immersive learning experience that we offer.
Face to face learning
Our trainee teachers develop their Alexander Technique skills to an advanced level through practical hands-on guidance. Through careful supervision, experiment and experience they begin to learn the art of using their hands and voice to provide professional assistance to a range of people.
Online learning
Online instruction allows for the development of supervised and self-guided experiments in applying Alexander principles in a variety of contexts. The terrible constraint of the Covid lockdowns showed how valuable online teaching could be. Our trainees learn powerful strategies for extending their teaching practice online.
eLearning and self-guided research
There’s a lot to learn to become a professional Alexander Technique teacher. Our BMAT eLearning underpins our face to face learning with the knowledge and understanding through sequenced information streams designed for adult learners.
We offer our eLearning courses to anyone interested in Alexander Technique and its potential. Although our trainee teachers do all the courses, you can choose to do one or several and benefit from the self-guided instruction that you’ll receive.
This is a great avenue for professionals wishing to complete CPD or for current Alexander Technique teachers seeking a refresher training.
Join our community of Alexander Technique learners today
Powerful ideas, experiments and knowledge for life change.