Finding Quiet Strength

Professor Judith Kleinman AGSM MSTAT, trained as a musician at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama going on to play the double bass with the LSO, English National Opera and CLS. She went on to train to be an Alexander teacher with Patrick Macdonald and Shoshanna Kaminitz qualifying in 1989. Judith is one of the Alexander team at the Royal College of Music and head of department at the Junior Royal Academy of Music. She is also Assistant Head of Training at the London Centre for Alexander Technique and Training (LCATT). Judith wrote Alexander in Secondary and Tertiary Education, co-wrote The Alexander Technique for Musicians with Peter Buckoke, published by Bloomsbury 2014, and recently co-wrote The Alexander Technique for Young Musicians, a handbook for 11–13-year-olds.Judith has sat on the Society of Teachers of Alexander Technique (STAT) council and coordinated the STAT Education Special Interest group. She has produced five short films on different aspects of Alexander in Education and collaborated to create the Education section of the STAT website. She regularly writes articles, gives workshops and talks on Alexander in Education in Europe, USA and Gt Britain to the public and the Education world. Judith also teaches Yoga and Tai Chi and lives in London with her partner Peter Buckoke.

'When societal expectations encourage our girls to make themselves smaller to fit in and be accepted, we need to show them how to stand tall and own their space. We need to help them to feel at home in their bodies, to feel confident in who they are. We need to guide them towards finding quiet strength. Only when we allow this shift to happen can we move closer to a more gender equal society.' Abi Wright, founder of She Stands and co-founder of Festival of The Girl: 'I learned a lot from working with Judith Kleinman. She was able to locate in me a stillness and equilibrium I didn't know I had, and that has stood me in good stead for all the vicissitudes of work and domestic life.' Nick Hornby - Author : 'I love Judith's work. The drawings, words and thoughts are just lovely - their message is as calming as it is bursting with positive ideas. Easy to dip into yet rewarding to read, there are some great tools for life in this book.' Arabella Weir - Actor, comedian and writer : 'Her natural facility and fluid figurative lines express movement in the body but also the feelings inside. Some drawings feature unusual and unexpected balancing acts absorbed by quiet strength. Sometimes funny and at times autobiographical but always positive with a message of well-being.' Michelle Franklin - Artist : 'This work has taught me over the years that the very first, and by no means easy task is to notice what's going on inside the body/mind rather than rushing to change anything. This is a profound principle, which counteracts the rather ferocious demand to change our age-old bad habits. As a psychotherapist I get excited every time patients discover for themselves that being able to pay attention to unhelpful patterns is already a sign of change. This work and psychoanalysis have in common that both make us aware of our embodied self in its spatial and temporal dimensions, which connects us to our fellow humans and the world around us. In other words, moving and being moved physically and emotionally starts from a place of stillness. So, this is also a grateful testimony to Judith Kleinman, my teacher of many years, who has taught me - in more than one way - to 'sit well' with myself and my patients.' Lotte Bredt, MBACP counsellor and psychotherapist

• Contents Foreword 4 Who this book is for 9 Introduction and welcome 11 Calm: The embodied mind 19 Confidence: Structure and breath 41 Coordinated movement: The embodied sense of movement and ease 87 Curiosity: Integrating our senses 123 Creativity and purpose: Empowering our energy 147 Courage and conclusion: A quiet revolution 155