Alexander Technique News

PAAT teachers involved in successful European bid for research funding from European University for Well-Being, EUniWell: StudentWell research project

We are pleased to announce that PAAT teachers are involved in a successful bid for seed funding granted by EUniWell. The research project will be undertaken jointly by four EUniWell universities. PAAT teachers are part of the StudentWell team at Birmingham University and will be providing the Alexander Technique intervention. You can find more details here.

Four different psychophysical health supportive interventions will be piloted, one at each university. All of the interventions are intended to support students to develop health and well-being practices, and are as follows:

Birmingham University, UK – Alexander Technique.
Florence University, Italy – Body and Mind awareness.
Semmelweis University, Hungary – Autogenic Training.
Linnaeus University, Sweden – Forest Bathing.

Delivery of the interventions will begin in September 2022 and will consist of in-person or blended learning, depending on the intervention. Online e-learning tools will also be tested for effectiveness. A validated multidimensional well-being scale will be used to assess outcomes for students.

This is a pilot project and will involve a one-day concluding seminar, production of an Open Access Publication Paper, and identifying funding for future developments.

Update on StudentWell research project:

PAAT teachers to visit Florence for the concluding seminar of the research project

We are pleased to report the successful delivery of the Alexander Technique intervention at the University of Birmingham for the StudentWell research project. The project is now in the data analysis phase. Participants anonymously completed a multidimensional well-being scale at the beginning, mid-point and end of the Alexander Technique and other interventions. Data from Birmingham, Florence, Semmelweis and Linnaeus is currently being analysed by the team in Florence, led by Professor Francesca Chiesi.

Two PAAT members of the research team at Birmingham will be travelling to Florence for the one-day concluding seminar at the end of May. There they will finally have the opportunity to meet, in person, with partner researchers from the other three universities. The day-long seminar will be interspersed with ‘taster’ sessions of the interventions included in the StudentWell project. The Birmingham team will be providing an Alexander Technique session for students attending the University of Florence on the theme of ‘How to deal with exam anxiety’.

PAAT Alexander Technique News