Alexander
Technique Teachers
The CNHC Register and
the Alexander Technique
The Case for
STAT to Remain Independent
Mike Rawlinson
At the end of the 1996 International Congress Marjory Barlow recalled in her closing address the formation of STAT by twelve teachers, and expressed her delight that the Alexander Technique had become such a worldwide success with a network of thousands of teachers.
Over the years many of us have had pupils as a result of recommendations from GPs, consultants, nurses and physios.
The list of celebrities who endorse our work includes singers, actors,
athletes, dancers, musicians, comedians - the list is endless, and everyone has something good to say about
the Technique. There are frequent articles in newspapers extolling its virtues. Most music and drama colleges have had the Technique on the curriculum for decades. We have been the lead article, and on the front cover of the British Medical Journal. The BMJ has also produced two
short videos
which are very positive about the Technique. Professor Ernst of Exeter University spends his entire time (and doubtless a fair chunk of pharmaceutical company cash) discrediting alternative therapies, but even he speaks positively about our work.
No therapy or other Alexander organisation has anywhere near this degree of mainstream credibility or recognition. Yet we are
allowing ourselves to be led towards a disastrous association with dubious therapies and organisations
in order to sign up with the CNHC.
Does it not worry anyone that CNHC is a quango set up by a government that fixes the education system by making exams easier, and shortens NHS waiting lists by preventing people from getting on to them? We are
in danger of being regulated by occupational standards that are not only meaningless target driven waffle, but are contrary to the principles of the Alexander Technique.
And has anyone noticed the CNHC logo? It's a box with a tick in it!
We seem prepared to sacrifice our incredible success for what exactly? A faint hope that we may be given work in the NHS? Of course they would say that. CNHC people are employed to make as many therapists sign up to their register as possible. If there is any work going in the NHS it is likely it will be done by doctors and
physiotherapistss, if not by other Alexander Technique associations whose standards and concepts of the Technique are very different from ours.
The CNHC is an organisation with many detractors and few friends, no track record, and little credibility.
(Type ’Ofquack’ into Google and the CNHC website comes out top!). And
it has already been publicly accused of
dishonesty. We, on the other hand, are a well-established professional
body, with very high standards of
training, and ethical standards, that far exceed anything Ofquack has to offer. Why should we lower ourselves to the level of an end-gaining, target-driven appendage of a disreputable government?
Some teachers have been disparaging the professionalism of STAT and have talked us down, as if we are an amateurish bunch of people with no knowledge of the “real” world. We should instead celebrate and acknowledge the enormous success that the Technique has become and will continue to be, so long as we remain independent of government and organisations with standards that fall
so far short of our own.
We face a stark choice – either we remain independent and build upon the extraordinary success that the Alexander Technique has been so far, or we commit professional suicide by associating ourselves with the CNHC and everything which that entails.
It is time to say Stop!
One of several parodies of the CNHC logo
Free Your Neck and
Watch a Video!
Our premise is that we are a professional
society and to see what we mean, you can watch the videos on The Alexander
Technique produced by the British Medical Association by clicking the links.
You might even see someone you know!
And Just for good measure here is a STAT Master
class
Say YES to a
Professional Society, say NO to
|
home |