London, October 2010: “I did a workshop here in London last weekend with Tommy Thompson which I found very inspiring and related in part to forming of habits.  He talked about our habits being our identity.  What we feel we need to do to be us.  Sounds obvious, but it really got me thinking.  He also said that what we do with our hands is disperse the thinking in that pupil that says they need to be a certain way to be them.  My whole system has benefited so much from the workshop. “  – Susanna Scouller

Bristol, England 2009 Workshop

(BATTSA) Workshop for Trainees, October 5,  2009

The general feeling was that we had thoroughly enjoyed Tommy’s time with us and loved the slightly less orthodox approach to the Technique.

The following comments were made by one or more individual trainees:

Absolutely riveted, there probably wasn’t enough time for more activities;

I wish we’d videoed it;

Tommy is a great narrator;

Liked the way he took his time, especially in answering questions, he seemed comfortable with himself; Very clear.

Embodied Alexander-confident and happy for us to know that;

Seemed very wise, having experienced so much and there was a sense of him being self taught;

Incredible charisma- vulnerability without weakness;

Extraordinary to (happily) sit and listen to an AT teacher for so long!

Great intellectual pleasure;

More of a spiritual teacher than an AT teacher;

We loved “use” being determined by what we need to be in the moment; Or by our approach to another person;

Amazing touch!

Liked the way he wouldn’t nail anything down;

Liked his idea that our name is often “called”.

Japan 2009 Workshop

What I was impressed by in Tommy’s work is finding the deeper level of my heart I have never felt. I could see my bare nature. -Yumi Takahashi

Amsterdam 2009 Workshop

I found some things very helpful for myself and my teaching, e.g. that he told me to ‘just be with the experience’ even if I or the student was uncomfortable. Also, that by just being with the person and withholding definition / judgement, more information can come to you; this has proven to be working for me! And what helped me a lot too, is that he said that life is a flow of experiences and that by not defining them all the time you can keep the flow going, whereas by judging yourself  or others or situations, usually change becomes very much more difficult. Because you don‘t see the possibilities any more. So : I LOVED IT! Although I would like to see him again and have him work with us (maybe in smaller groups) so we can actually try all this in hands-on. -Doris Hochscheid

I honestly can say that I am not the person anymore I have been, but the one i have become. There were so many diamonds to find in this workshop, that a lot of my teaching changed but even more important the way i look at my family and my friends and at myself. with this little exercise ” I never want to know you but I always long to see you” I do experience the world differently, softer, more real it seems. Two other exercises were giving me, and still do so, a lot of insights: the first one is “withhold definition so that other information may show up”. This became a new meaning for inhibition for me and the other one is to feel so clearly the difference between kinesthetic awareness, intentional awareness and the attentive awareness. The last state is, what I always knew, the way of being, but to experience it so clearly in my teaching feels like I can finally take my “personal hands” of and let the “hands of god” play, to bring things back into its natural balance.

I found it an inspiring and educational weekend. He was not telling totally new things but gave his own colours to the principles of the AT. His stories, drawn from his own life gave much clarity. However, I would have liked somewhat fewer stories so that there was room for more practical work. The game with kinesthetic, intentional and attentional awareness worked well. Although you can’t separate different types of awareness from each other, this simple analysis gave clarity to the fields in which we work. Some parts I found especially interesting were the story about the kayak, the one about the dogs, the demonstration with the matches…and the opening game about how we are continually changing…and the observation that you usually give people what they expect instead of who you have become……..

On Saturday morning I found Tommy’s stories inspiring – he is a wonderful storyteller. It was a shame for me personally that he carried on in the afternoon in a similar way because I became very tired – listening to English for so long was one reason and the other was so much sitting. But the Sunday made up for everything – it was good because we were busy with practical work and it was all in all a fine AT weekend. Especially, “Let new information come in, withhold definition” was very useful for me.

The dreadful thing is that I have already forgotten a lot, but not that is was really wonderful. In the private lesson there was attention for the lip, and so was there in the workshop. I hope that that was not too boring to you all. For me it was special as I could allow myself to just accept whatever came out as what there was, without trying to manipulate the sound in any way! Well that already is a comment in itself! I also experienced the group as being more `whole` than it sometimes seemed to be, and that too was a good experience.

“You look at the quality of attention”, I remember this statement of Tommy Thompson quite well. It seemed to me that this is essential in his approach to the Alexander work. I was touched by his stories, the tenderness and the humour and the messages they carried concerning human encounter and quality of attention. I liked his aversion against dogmatism within the technique and the examples he gave to underline his opinion.  (For example the story about the woman who lost her brother and when she started to cry the only response of some Alexander colleagues was to say the divine words of the primary directions instead of giving her a hug) Also I’d liked that he emphasized the importance of individuality within the work and that this demands a high quality of attention in the teacher -pupil relationship. But somehow and funny enough when he started to do some practical stuff he lost a bit of that clearness and it felt to me as if he was searching for the right thing to do. The atmosphere changed and there was a bit of tension in the air because it was too much of a demonstration and too little of an exchange or a meeting with a high quality of attention. It looked like we where going to do more practical work with each other, cause he kept mentioning it,  but in the end we didn’t do much.  I didn’t mind but I think the word lecture would have served the purpose better than the word workshop. It was nice to meet him, it was interesting and I got good and valuable information but I probably would not do another workshop with him.

First of all I really enjoyed the workshop and learned quite a few things. I was really impressed with his authenticity and integrity. He was who he was. What did I learn? Well looking back I think that the central theme of the workshop was expressed by his three levels of awareness. Kinesthetic awareness (being aware of what is going on inside of us e.g. are we pulling down), the intentional awareness (what is it we want from our student or what result are we looking for) and attentional awareness (bringing the other two together in a brighter burning). I also liked his idea of with-holding definition as a way of describing inhibition it allows us to move to attentional awareness, allowing more information to come in. Another way that he expressed this was in the quote from Rumi “I will never try to know you but I will always long to see you.” Another way this was expressed was the idea that we don‘t allow ourselves to be touched when we touch. Touching, being touched, communication, relationship, an open intimacy. I see all of these filling in the idea of the attentional awareness. I should also mention hat the level of the workshop connected to the level of myself as a teacher by that I mean it was more of a graduate workshop then a beginners workshop.

Don’t reduce your attention to the intentional or kinesthetic level. Expand your awareness and notice how the intention and more happens – so much more than you expect. He showed us that contact with the student is really the most important thing. To really see someone and to allow yourself to be touched by the student, creates a two way contact instead of a one sided transfer from teacher to student, and in this way, as a teacher, you are allowed to once more become a student and then you will be amazed at how everything happens by itself.