Tommy Thompson - Touching Presence (Alexander Technique)

Tommys note on the cover photo :
At the top of Mount Pilatus near Lucerne in Switzerland, I witnessed a crow flying from way above us towards the outstretched hand of a man unknown to me. I just happened to capture the photo the moment the bird landed in his hand. For the reason why this is the cover photo, read the Preface.

Contents copyright 2019 Lester W. Thompson
All rights reserved. EaseofBeing and EaseofBeing Publications are trademarks of Lester W. Thompson

No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

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Publishers Cataloging-In-Publication Data

Thompson, Tommy, 1942

Touching presence [electronic resource] / Tommy Thompson ;

with Rachel Prabhakar.

Electronic monograph issued in E-Pub format.

ISBN 978-1-7334005-1-0

Also issued in print format and MOBI ebook format.

1. Alexander Technique. I. Title. II. Prabhakar,

Rachel 1970.

Library of Congress Control Number : 2019911684

First edition published in print in 2019

This EPUB ebook version published 2019 by

EaseofBeing Publications, Cambridge MA USA www.easeofbeing.com

Credits

Book and cover design by David Gorman

Photo of cover/title page by Tommy Thompson

Photo in Tommys biography by Elisabeth Schanda

Photo of Tommy with guitar by Julian Lage

Photo in Rachels biography by Matilde Barbosa

Touching Presence

by
Tommy Thompson

with
Rachel Prabhakar

Foreword How this book came to be

I had the privilege of training with Tommy in his Teacher Training Program at the Alexander Technique Center at Cambridge. As a graduation gift, I created a book for Tommy drawn from my notes on his teachings. Other students and teachers immediately said that they wanted copies of the book. In response to those requests, Tommy and I began to work together to prepare a book for more general circulation. We have swapped edits back and forth, and supplemented the original text with additional passages Tommy wrote, with material gathered by me in interviews with Tommy, and with further notes I took during workshops with Tommy. As we neared publication, David Gorman provided invaluable guidance, copy editing, and technical assistance.

For the original book, which forms the backbone of this volume, I started with my handwritten notes jotted down during lectures and discussions from my time in the training, comprising the period of September 2010 through June 2013. I tried to keep as close as possible to Tommys actual words. The notes are arranged thematically, rather than chronologically. In the training and workshops, themes and topics come up on different days, months, and years. As themes come around over time, Tommy often explores them using different language or from a different perspective, responding to the needs of the audience. Some of that variation comes through here.

I hope that you, the reader, gain as much insight and enjoyment as I have from these discussions.

Presented with deepest love, thanks, and appreciation,

Rachel Prabhakar
Brookline, Massachusetts
July 2019

Introduction

I first met Tommy Thompson in the summer of 1988. I had moved back to Boston and wanted to continue my Alexander teacher training. At the time there were several training courses in the city. I visited two or three programs. When I stepped into Tommys office, something was different. I felt seen in a way I hadnt been before. It was not alarming or disturbing in any way, it was just quite different from my previous Alexander experiences. Tommy gave me a chair lesson. Since I was a pianist recovering from tendonitis, he put a stool in front of me and had me put my hands on it like the piano. It was a variation on Hands On the Back Of The Chair . Words were said that I didnt completely grasp. But as he worked with his hands I felt a sensation in my own hands that I had never experienced before. It was as if my hands were glowing. Thats when he mentioned that was the quality he expected all his trainees to have in their hands when they graduated from his training. Well, that was all I needed to hear. I signed up for his training course soon after.

But there was something else that drew me to Tommy. It was this quality of feeling seen for who I was with complete acceptance. I had already been studying the Alexander Technique for five years, and I had worked with some remarkable teachers. But there was an element of Tommys teaching that made me feel he was working with ME. Not my body, not a generic person, but ME. I began to address aspects of myself that I had not noticed before. One might say that it took me five years to be ready to notice this and that the other teachers were doing the same. But, honestly, knowing that this is at the core of his teaching, and having witnessed it for over thirty years, I believe it is the single most distinctive element in Tommys teaching. And it is powerful. It led to my complete recovery from severe tendonitis. That happened when I asked Tommy why, after all this time studying the Technique, I still recognized the sensations of the injury when I spent just a few moments at the piano. He replied that it was all in the attitude I took to the piano. That statement led to my discovery of the identity I had created in order to feel worthy of piano playing. Its a long story. But it was Tommys insight into ME that allowed me to find ME and heal ME via the change and acceptance I was ready to embrace.

Shortly after I graduated from Tommys training in 1992 I began to assist him in the program. It was a privilege that I still appreciate to this day. Attending the training as a graduate allowed me to experience and re-experience his words, his teaching, his evolution. I was able to hear the words written in this book as though for the first time. And I was able to receive them from a new perspective. Over the last 27 years of teaching I have deepened my understanding of the work, of Tommys teaching, and of the possibilities for growth in all of us. I always tell my students that I am teaching the Alexander Technique to heal the world by freeing one neck at a time. And since I couldnt reach enough necks I decided to train teachers. This yearning to heal the world, and seeing the Alexander Technique as having a potential role in that, is something I learned from being in Tommys presence. His ability to see beauty and good in everyone is clear in the words that he has always shared and that he shares here.

This book is a gem. It brings to the Alexander world the language and thinking of a master teacher one who never tires of exploring the principles of Alexanders discoveries, and who seeks to teach them in the clearest and most honest way possible. The influence of Tommys time spent with Frank Pierce Jones also shows up here. There is specificity in Tommys work that manifests at the same time as the open-ended space for new possibilities. And there is a gentleness and support that makes facing ourselves as easy as it can be.

Tommy tells stories in his training course that are profound. They are stories from his life that have clarified his understanding of Alexanders teaching. This book offers the wisdom that has come from living the stories. From Withholding Definition as an explanation for Alexanders Inhibition to Seeing the Beauty of the Person you are teaching, you are about to enter an Alexander world of beauty, gentleness, insight, acceptance and change. I expect youll enjoy the ride!