Returning to Bend

Published 4:00 am Friday, December 7, 2012

In 1996, Cathy Pollock left Bend for Salt Lake City, taking her physical movement education business with her. In August, more than 15 years later, she returned with her company, Alexander Technique of Central Oregon.

“We go off in search of something; we go in all of these directions, just to realize what we originally wanted, we already had,” she said, referring to her move back to Bend.

Pollock, 56, teaches the Alexander Technique, a more than 100-year-old method of teaching people how to perform everyday activities, like washing dishes and turning off lights, in ways that reduce tension in the body that can lead to pain.

Pollock said chronic pain prompts most of her clients to seek her out. Athletes, singers and others also turn to the technique to improve their performance and to feel more connected to their bodies.

“If we were born with a user manual, it would have been more helpful to figure out ‘what’s the best way to use myself when I’m riding a horse or playing my violin?’” she said. “We can use ourselves poorly and create tension or pain, or use ourselves well and have comfort and balance.”

While living in Salt Lake City, she continued teaching the Alexander Technique on her own and at the University of Utah’s theater department. She also went back to school to be a radiologic technologist.

After working in the field, however, Pollock said she realized that wasn’t her calling. And when she moved back to Bend, she decided to focus on her Alexander business.

“I’ve been settling in and reorganizing everything, doing workshops for vocalists in the community, offering free lectures (and) trying to establish myself again on so many levels,” she said.

Ironically, she said, she’s ended up right where she was when she left: working out of her home in northwest Bend.

Pollock charges $75 an hour, and recommends students meet with her once a week for a total of 10 lessons.

Since her return to Bend, she’s noticed people seem busier and move faster than they did 16 years ago. That usually leads to more stress. But, she said, she has also seen an increase in businesses that help people develop healthy ways of dealing with stress, such as chiropractic clinics and yoga studios.

“I think Alexander Technique is gaining popularity as complementary health care,” she said. “There’s more awareness, acceptance and looking to it instead of regular medicine.”

Federal agencies consider the Alexander Technique a complementary and alternative medicine, similar to acupuncture, biofeedback and others. However, it’s been a featured topic in a Mayo Clinic podcast.

To be certified by the American Society for the Alexander Technique, a teacher must perform 1,600 hours of training over a 3-year period through an approved course, Pollock said.

In 1995, Pollock was the only certified Alexander Technique teacher in Central Oregon, and one of seven in the state, according to The Bulletin’s archives. Now, the number has doubled, with two certified instructors in the region and about 15 in the state, according to the website for the American Society for the Alexander Technique.

While the Alexander Technique may be considered a complementary activity like yoga, Pilates or massage, she said, it’s not considered a therapy or relaxation technique, but an educational process.

“I’m not working on someone,” she said. “I’m facilitating their learning process.”

She said a lot of that facilitation is done through touch, that helps guides her students’ bodies.

“The purpose of that touch is to inform and educate both their physical sensory self … but also that the mind is recognizing, ‘Oh, that feels different than my usual way of carrying myself …’” she said. “We’re trying to give options to people through touch, through sensory choices on how to organize the way they use themselves.”

The root problem of pain is often too much or not enough tension, she said. Pollock strives to teach people the right amount of tension for the activity they are doing.

“My goal as a teacher is not to keep people coming back for years and years, but to pass on skills so that they become self-sufficient with the information and they can use for the rest of their lives,” she said. “This is a long-term thing.”