The Awakening Musician

Part I: An Introduction to The Awakening Musician Approach

We’ll begin the workshop with a short opening activity to help us get centered and tuned in to our whole selves. Then, I’ll share parts of my own story — how pain and struggle set me on a path of healing and awakening to my natural wholeness and freedom (still a work in progress!). I’ll also introduce some of the discoveries of F.M. Alexander, creator of the Alexander Technique, whose work has strongly influenced my life and teaching over the past 25 years.

Alexander wrote, “The most valuable knowledge we can possess is that of the use and functioning self.” In other words, we do best when we understand how our whole body-mind-spirit self works best. We’ll explore the practical meaning of this idea through a series of guided group experiments built around three key questions: Who? Why? How?

As time permits, we’ll also learn about:

• Head-spine coordination – how this key part of our design plays a crucial role in human movement.

• Constructive thinking – consciously aligning our thoughts with how things actually work (including us).

• Freedom of choice – how the act of choosing awakens confidence, trust, and agency.

• Sound movement – exploring the deepest, unconscious layer of our sensorimotor movement system.

• Ecosystems – how our communities and environments can support or interfere with our awakening process.

• Tortoise work – recognizing that deep, lasting change takes time, unfolding slowly like our musical development.

Part II: Reimagining How We Learn, Heal & Create

Building on the core ideas from the first half, the second part of the workshop focuses on reimagining how we approach learning, healing, and creating.

Learning Reimagined
We’ll ask: How can we become more fluent and skillful musicians through self-awareness instead of self-sacrifice? I’ll share how I’ve been shifting from a learning and teaching style based on “force and fear” to one rooted in “poise and grace.” We’ll explore how the simple act of paying attention can build rapport with ourselves and our music work, and how learning becomes deeper when we invite safety, play, and self-compassion into the process.

Healing Reimagined
Physical pain and performance anxiety are two common challenges musicians face. Drawing from modern pain science, performance research, and wisdom traditions, we’ll explore a hopeful and lasting approach to healing these two conditions, one that honors our system's natural ability to restore itself to wholeness. I’ll share hopeful experiences from my life and teaching on how healing is made more possible as we move away from an identity based in brokenness to one based in wholeness. 

Creating Reimagined
As performers, composers, and leaders, our is as boundless as our capacity to learn and heal. Together we'll ask: How do we open up to that vast creative potential? How do we get out of our own way so the music can flow through us freely? And a thought-provoking inquiry: Are learning, healing, and creating simply different expressions of the same process?

We’ll close the workshop by reviewing the key ideas, sharing integration tips, taking time for Q&A, and looking at future learning opportunities—including courses, retreats, and book events—for those who wish to explore this work more deeply.