Childhood Trauma and Music Through the Lens of the Alexander Technique

Alexander Technique teacher Cathy Sommer invites you to a free lecture-seminar at Pärnu Town Hall

The lecture will cover the connections between music and trauma. Any trauma leaves a mark on the nervous system. Music has the potential to be strongly healing and supportive, yet many emerge from music studies feeling broken, both physically and mentally. Fortunately, healing can be aided by re-regulating the nervous system. Music itself has this power.

Surveys conducted among musicians have shown that more than half of the respondents experienced pain while playing in the past year, with a third of them feeling pain more frequently than once a week. Musicians themselves associate these health issues with heavy workloads, complex repertoires, and stress resulting from an unstable and nonstandard lifestyle.

What is the journey to becoming a musician and how does childhood influence it? Is it possible to create art through physical pain? What would the world be like if music were taught to children through a systematically trauma-informed and psychophysically holistic approach? How to be an aware listener of music? We will look at the process from an angle that brings the musician on stage closer to the listener.

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Cathy Sommer is a STAT-certified Alexander Technique teacher in Estonia, the UK, and online. She received her training from 2017-2021 at three schools in New York (The Dimon Institute) and London (The Constructive Teaching Centre, The Alexander Teacher Training School). Her special interest, specific skills, and unique experience have brought results in various nerve damage and neurological issues. In her private practice, she works with anxiety, stress symptoms, muscle tension, and overuse injuries, as well as focal dystonia (musician's cramp), stroke rehabilitation, spinal cord injuries, Parkinson's disease, tremor, chronic pain, ADHD, and dysautonomia symptoms. In her work, she helps clients restore their body's natural ability for self-regulation and healing, and her methods are strongly trauma-informed.

Read more: https://www.bodymindintegrity.com/