In this episode, we discuss the benefits of the Alexander technique (AT). We discuss how subtle shifts in posture and awareness can impact breathing, and explore the concept of air hunger, its effects on the nervous system, and why some breath practices might be unsafe for certain clients. Simon shares his personal journey with breathing issues, the transformative power of the Alexander technique, and practical strategies for therapists to integrate breath and somatic awareness into their sessions. They also go into the importance of gentle approaches and mindfulness in breathwork, especially for clients with a history of trauma.

• Simon Spire's journey with the Alexander Technique (AT)
• Understanding air hunger and its impact
• The Alexander Technique in therapy
• Practical applications and practices

MEET Simon Spire 

Simon Spire is a Licensed Psychotherapist, Contemplative Teacher, and Founder of Liberating the Natural Breath, a program that helps people with dysfunctional breathing and Air Hunger restore their easeful, Natural Breathing.

Find out more at Liberating the Natural Breath, Soulcentric Psychotherapy and connect with Simon at Simon Spire

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We'll explore the impact of air hunger on the nervous system, how to recognize when certain breath practices may be unsafe, and gentle ways to invite awareness and softening that help clients reconnect with themselves. Take a moment for yourself. Get comfy and tune in for this episode on Yoga The Therapy Room Podcast.

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Welcome to the yoga. In the Therapy Room podcast, the non-traditional therapist guide to Integrating yoga into your therapy practice. I'm your host, Chris McDonald. In today's episode, it's called Healing Through Breath and Body, the Alexander Technique. We explore the powerful connection between breath awareness and the nervous system.

Here to guide us on this journey is Simon Spire, licensed psychotherapist, contemplative teacher and founder of Liberating the Natural Breath. A program that helps people with dysfunctional breathing and air hunger, restore their easeful natural breathing. We'll look at how the Alexander technique, a gentle practice of awareness and reeducation of the body, can help clients release old patterns, create new pathways of breath and presence, and reconnect with themselves in a safe and embodied way.

We'll explore how it mirrors many yoga practices as well as considerations. Bringing breath practices into sessions and what to keep in mind for clients who may struggle with air hunger. So let's step in the therapy room together, discover what's possible when we integrate yoga, breath, and somatic awareness into our sessions.

Welcome to the Yoga in the Therapy Room podcast. Simon.

Simon Spire: Thanks so much for having me, Chris. It's so great to be here with you today.

Simon Spire: Yeah, sure. They probably arose at different times. So first I encountered the Alexander technique.

There was discomfort there. There was something that just didn't feel aligned, and I wanted to understand more about that. And I wanted to understand how to allow myself to breathe more freely, sing more freely, play more freely, perform, all that kind of thing. And so I just had kind of general postural confusion that led me to it, but.

And so, so that's what motivated me to seek something out. And the reason why I ended up landing with the Alexander technique was because I had a couple of experiences with it, with teachers or people who had done a little bit here and there when they would. Put their hands on me and, and guide me in a certain way.

I just felt freer than I'd ever felt. Wow. And I felt more at ease in my body. Yeah. And it was an experience I didn't have anywhere else. And so I knew there was more for me to discover there. And I kind of went into it not knowing exactly what that was, but it led me on a big journey.

Chris McDonald: Yeah. So what was that like when you had the breathing issues?

Not that I don't think it was visible from the outside, but. Inside. It kind of felt like I was suffocating, perpetually. I went to doctors about it. I went to conventional doctors, specialists, alternative health practitioners, breathing specialists, physical therapists, everything I had surgery on in the end on my sinuses because I was told that could help, but nothing worked in the end.

So I, I had this, you know, really. Distracting and distressing state for about three or four years. About four years. Really. And that's a

Chris McDonald: long time. Yeah, yeah.

To function in, in an easeful way. Um, so I was still busy and driven and everything, but that was just a constant presence. And so I did kind of discover one tool to get through the worst of that. At the time, by the way, I was, this was in New Zealand, so I'm from New Zealand. I was still living there at the time when I was, um, yeah, as I said, between.

To free up and to restore in my body and my breathing.

Chris McDonald: Yeah, I imagine so. Mm-hmm. That had to put your nervous system in that sympathetic state, I'm sure for that long too, if you feel like you're suffocating.

Part of the cause. I think they probably contributed to the onset of that whole issue, nervous system dysregulation to some degree, and kind of being just busy and rushed and stressed. And then I think for sure, as you said, it was really perpetuated and exacerbated by that breathing distress. Yeah.

Chris McDonald: And I know you mentioned in some of your videos I watched today about air hunger.

Can you talk a little more clearly what that means?

Simon Spire: Well, um, yeah, I'm glad you brought up the term. I'm so used to, I'm so you, to living in that world now, helping people with it that I forget to name what it's actually called. Yes. So, yes. I'm glad you brought me back today. Air hunger. Yes. That is the catchall phrase for that kind of.

That then spirals through attempts to compensate for that disrupted natural breathing spirals into kind of a compulsive pattern of trying to reach for an artificial sense of a full breath using the chest. So that's typically how it looks. So it's so we go from natural breath, you know, normal breathing, which is what most people do, which is.

Develops over time. So through kind of habitual misuse of the body, you know, postural habits, that kind of thing, through accumulated tension and restriction in the body, and also through nervous system disruption and dysregulation, the breathing, the natural breathing gets kind of constricted and disrupted.

And because of that, we instinctually try to compensate by working harder with our breathing, putting in more efforts, struggling more. And at first it feels good. Because it feels like we're getting more air as we really start reaching with our chest and working hard to get more air, but then it hits a ceiling because all that effort and struggle just disrupts our natural breathing even more.

And desperation expressing suicidal ideation so that all those things are not uncommon. And they, people often go to doctors and all kinds of specialists, but can't really find an answer to their question because as far as the medical professionals can see, there's nothing actually wrong with them. So, so they typically get told that it's anxiety.

Chris McDonald: Hmm. Okay.

Simon Spire: But then that doesn't really solve it because there's also a important physical component to it. Needs attention in order to, for most people in order to restore their more normal breathing. So yeah, so that's what I was suffering from. I got through after four years, but I was still kind of in between with, I don't know, kind of messed up but not severe breathing problems.

Chris McDonald: What can the negative impact of this, when people are in that state over time, what can happen physically and emotionally?

I don't know that it directly creates a lot of issues beyond what the nervous system dysregulation itself and the stress and the anxiety creates. So I think that's probably the main physical consequence of it. And I think that's a good thing too, because hopefully it provides hope that people can restore themselves somewhat easily once they understand what's going on.

But, but the psychological impacts of it are usually pretty serious. And of course it's a range for different, it's, you know, it's quite a range depending on the individual, but. Almost everyone who has it really does experience quite a bit of anxiety and distress because of it.

Chris McDonald: Yeah, I imagine so. Because that's just scary.

Simon Spire: Yeah, right. Yeah, exactly. And yeah, the breath is so, you know, it's such a visceral experience. It's so tied to our sense of survival that when it's compromised in that way and we. Continue to feel like we're not breathing properly. I think it's, yeah, there's just, uh, an ongoing underlying sense of fear and anxiety and distress.

Chris McDonald: So what is the Alexander technique?

And so now I would say I would describe the technique as an approach to restoring. The natural ease and efficiency of the body in its movement and its alignment. So it's a kind of an educational approach, but it is experiential as well. It's pretty much about your own experience and observation and, and your, and developing a sensitivity with the help of a teacher to know how you are interfering with your bodies.

Natural coordination and movement.

Chris McDonald: Is this something you bring in therapy sessions?

Simon Spire: That's a good question. It's always there in the back of my mind and, and so you asked me about somatic therapy earlier and the embodied sense and the felt experience has always been really central to my own path and my own growth and healing and development.

Because I think it has to do with settings in which there is a natural tendency or a natural movement toward integration or toward coherence and ways in which we unconsciously interfere with that. So, so I think therapy is very much like that. And that's, yeah. Yeah, because I, I think, you know, that's my philosophy is such that I always see the individual as inherently moving toward growth and integration and development.

Yeah, that sounds like it. Yeah.

Chris McDonald: Because we do tend to get in our own way,

Simon Spire: Uhhuh. Right.

Chris McDonald: Right. Yeah. Quite often. Yeah. And finding our way through and, and our clients as well. It can be a struggle.

Simon Spire: Yeah. Well, exactly. I think you, um, I think you pointed out there that it's relevant for, for both parties in the therapy room for me and for the client.

Chris McDonald: Exactly. So bringing that mindfulness component too, of what we're doing and what our behaviors are, I think is, is really key. So is this different than pranayama practice in yoga?

Simon Spire: Yeah, that's a, that's a interesting topic to talk about. Yes. I, so I think it is different in that my understanding is that many breathing practices usually have to do with engaging the breath in a certain way to produce a certain result.

Instead, it's more just trying to restore, trying to unwind the interference with the body's natural movement and restore it to how it would optimally want to be. And so when people ask us about breathing practices. In the program or elsewhere? I usually like to say that I, I think many breathing practices have really good uses and when used well can produce really good results when the people with air hunger and chronic breathing tension, that's the other word I use for chronic breathing tension.

So we usually say to them first, restore your breathing. You know, first get it to a place where it's working well on its own, and then go and do breathing practices. For whatever reason you want to do them. If it's breath work for emotional somatic shifts or changes, or if it's pranayama for energetic or spiritual reasons, then go and do it for those reasons, but first tend to the disruption in your breathing.

So that's, yeah, that's how we tend to think about it.

Chris McDonald: So that's important for therapists listening who might wanna bring breath work practice in with clients, that there could be clients that are struggling. So I guess, is there some signs that therapists should be aware of that their client may be experiencing air hunger?

And so that's one thing I would really like to offer to other therapists is the knowledge around how to recognize when someone's struggling in this way and what to do with it. So I would say when someone is reporting that they're struggling to breathe, they can't get a full breath, and maybe they're feeling that they're chest breathing a lot and they.

A feeling, maybe they're, they feel like they're dying, they feel like they're suffocating. If they've already been to the doctor and had everything checked out medically, and they've come back clear, then I would say the the best thing to do is to invite them to start to feel their whole body and start to recognize any additional tension that they're bringing into their body.

So that's the kind of direction I would suggest guiding people. Rather than trying to prescribe a breathing practice for them to do on a regular basis. So we have sequences that we like to give to clients to help them reset their breathing and come back to normal breathing. And I think we're gonna get into that at some point.

Chris McDonald: and they may not be in that place, like you said, that their body's ready for that.

Exactly. Yeah. And especially with trauma, that not everybody's ready for a breath work practice.

Simon Spire: Yes. Yeah.

Chris McDonald: Yeah. That's a really good point. It can really, really shift the breathing patterns. Exactly.

Simon Spire: Yeah. I, yeah, I think you're right. Trauma is, yeah, an important factor to be aware of when we're prescribing breathing practices, and I think this is another one to be aware of.

Air hunger, chronic breathing tension, that when someone's in that cycle, trying to impose a particular way of breathing from the outside can make it more difficult. Make it worse. So I think the other direction we can go in is helping them to recognize the extra effort and struggle they're bringing to their breathing and seeing if you can soften that, seeing if, if you can ease off of it a little and allow the natural breathing to gradually take over again.

Simon Spire: key word,

Chris McDonald: therapist. Are you wanting to bring yoga into your therapy room?

But feel unsure what is allowed, what really works, and you wonder where to start. I hear you. I've put together a free guide just for you. The top 10 FAQs are frequently. Ask questions on integrating yoga into therapy, what every therapist needs to know. Inside, you'll find clear, practical answers to the most common questions therapists have, so you can feel more confident, grounded, and intentional in offering yoga informed care.

That's TOP, the number 10 questions@hcpodcast.org slash top 10 questions. It's also in the show notes. Get your guide today. So I wondered with. These practices? 'cause I'm not as familiar with this method. Is it bringing awareness to like the parts of the breath? I'm just wondering with like the ribs, I know you mentioned the ribs, the chest.

So can you talk a little bit about that with, is there practices with awareness?

Simon Spire: Yeah, there are guess a few different stages we go through when we lead people through our program to recover their, to restore their natural breeding. So, so perhaps the first stage is. Starting to recognize all the fixing that's going on in your breathing.

So people with this condition are usually doing all of those things. So lessening the struggle is the first part. And then we go into, we go into different, I, I guess I would say we go into different levels of that. Different levels of trying to recognize the interference and the fixing we are bringing to our breathing.

And that is when we start to get more embodied. So I like to say, if I'm gonna really distill it down, that we begin by. Giving up the fixing of our breathing and beginning to befriend our breath and then beginning to inhabit our bodies more so simply becoming more embodied is what allows us to then sense, just as you were saying, to sense more of the unconscious interference that is going on.

So that's when we have to start moving in into the territory that you're talking about, which is sensing the body more, sensing our breathing. FM Alexander, the founder of the technique, used to talk about debauched kinesthesia, by which he meant our distorted sense of perception of what we're doing with our body and that with years of habit.

Years of misalignment. What we think is normal is actually often like quite different from what's natural. And so, so that's part of this process too, is starting to restore our ability to sense. What's happening in our body? So one practice that is useful from the Alexander technique for this is called constructive rest, and this is where the individual is lying down and basically doing nothing but sensing and allowing.

And that's not how we run our program online because it's. It's meant to be available to everyone around the world. 'cause people have their hunger all around and they can't, they often can't find solutions. So we've had to adapt that in our program and guide people without having hands on them. But the Alexander technique, since.

The pandemic has also become more prevalent online. That's true. Even for teachers.

Chris McDonald: Yeah. So I guess you've had to adapt.

Simon Spire: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. While I'm an enthusiastic student of the technique, and I love the philosophy and it's, and it forms the basis of the program that we run online, my wife is actually.

Chris McDonald: Yeah, and helping

Simon Spire: people through it.

But she's the official El Alexander teacher.

Chris McDonald: Gotcha. Well, I know, I just wanna circle back to you said constructive rest. It just reminded me of Shavasana with yoga. I was like, yeah. Ooh. Right. I do see like alignment with yoga practices, with a lot, with this and, and what you're sharing today. Yeah. Because being able just to settle, well, you said do nothing.

It it is still doing something. Right. Right, right. Yeah. It's allowing yourself just to, to be present and notice.

Simon Spire: Yes. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah, and that's, I think that's a good distinction to make when I, I think, yeah. When I say do nothing, I, I mean giving up all of your interference.

Chris McDonald: Yes. I mean,

Simon Spire: no longer interfering.

Doing is so often a habitual doing that is kind of being, being, I guess, yeah. What is in phrased with Yeah, exactly. Being, yeah.

Simon Spire: That was also what drew me to the Alexander technique to begin with too, was it's. Compatibility with, with spiritual perspectives and, um, non-dual perspectives that have to do with recognizing one's own doing and recognizing one's own habitual, for example, identification and that kind of thing.

And it's not something you can push against or correct. It's only something that you can let go of or surrender. And it's the same in Alexander, in the Alexander technique. It's not about fixing. Or doing something differently. It's about recognizing the doing that you're already engaging, engaging in, that's getting in the way.

And so it, in that sense, it's very, there are really strong parallels with understandings of surrender, allowing, and all the principles that would. Ordinarily come into those aspects of the spiritual journey.

Simon Spire: Yeah, yeah, sure. So I think the first one I'd like to share is one of the. One of the basic principles of our whole program, a program's called Liberating the Natural Breath, by the way, and the community itself is called the Air Hunger Help Community. And you know, I, after what we've been talking about, I think you'll recognize the relevance of liberating the natural breath.

We are freeing what's already natural by getting out of the way. And so this. Little witness release and allow sequence that we weave through the program is really one of the foundational principles. And I would say it's also a foundational principle of the Alexander technique, but not by, not in this particular formulation.

It's simply about noticing the habit that's coming up. So it's a, it's a. Basic mindfulness practice of noticing what's arising without following the impulse. And so that's witnessed. And the second part of it is release, which in this instance is releasing the effort. Releasing, you could say, releasing the interference, releasing the struggle.

Uh, basically comes back to releasing the effort that's fueling the interference. So with the breathing, we, you know. People with air hunger will typically be struggling a lot to try and get a big breath. So first they'll need to witness that habit and get used to noticing it as a habit, as a habit of interference, then releasing the effort that they put into it.

And then the third step is allowing, and when it comes to breathing, allowing is simply allowing the, the natural movement of your breathing allow your body to breathe. And it, and a larger sense allowing, is allowing what I would say the inherent movement of life toward greater coherence. Whether that's in our own awareness, in our own self, or whether it's in our breathing or body.

If we. Recognize the interference and release the extra effort we're putting into it. Then there's a little space for the system to move toward greater integration. I appreciate you sharing that. So that's one simple thing to come back to and you know, we could go into that a lot further in the program We do.

A really good sequence to go through for people who are struggling with their breathing. Um, and it also comes with a PDF, so I'll just go through it very briefly. The first step is about bringing awareness to the whole body because typically when people are struggling with breathing, they get really fixated on the chest, the neck, the shoulders, and their abdomen.

Like they get really. Tense and focused on the problem areas. So instead, we want to release some of the focus and tension there and come back to inhabiting more of the whole body. And then we want to invite those area, those areas to soften and relax. Even just a little, so the chest, shoulders, the jaw, we can invite them to soften and relax.

And then finally, we like to encourage people to then just see what it's like to allow. Their body to breathe. So allowing the breath to come in through the nose, if possible a little bit. It's also actually not a problem for it to come into the through the mouth, if that's all that's available or comfortable at the time.

Those are two practices I've would love to share with other therapists for, for any clients who might be struggling with breathing. And as I said, you can find those on our website. You can get a nice in depth lead through of that longest sequence I just gave through, um, joining the mailing list and then accessing the video and the pdf.

Chris McDonald: And what's the link for that?

Simon Spire: It's air hunger help.com. So a IR Air Hunger help. Dot com.

Chris McDonald: Yeah, and it sounds like a lot of those cues would be helpful for a lot of people, even if you don't struggle from that. I, I really like your description of that too, because I think that in yoga too, we like to really notice the breath, not just in the chest or in shoulders, but the whole body experience and bringing that introception into the body, I think is so beneficial for clients.

Wonderful.

Chris McDonald: Well, thank you so much for coming on the podcast today, Simon. This has been great. Thanks so much for having me, Chris. Really great to be with you. And that wraps up another episode. Thank you, listeners, for joining us today. I've got something special for you. I've created a brand new free guide just for therapists who are curious about bringing yoga into the therapy room, but are unsure what's allowed and how to get it started.

It's called Top 10 FAQs, integrating Yoga into Therapy, what every Therapist needs to know. Inside you'll find clear, practical answers to the most common questions so you can feel more confident, ethical, and grounded as you begin weaving yoga into your sessions. This guide is designed to support your growth and help you ensure that you're offering yoga informed care with intention.

It's given with the understanding that neither the hosts. The publisher or the guests are giving legal, medical, psychological, or any other kind of professional advice. We are not responsible for any losses, damages, or liabilities that may arise from the use of this podcast. Yoga is not recommended for everyone and is not safe under certain medical conditions.

Always check with your doctor to see if it's safe for you. If you need a professional, please find the right one for you.