Why I Teach

For as long as I can remember, I have always wanted to understand what we are about. At first, I looked into this by studying the mechanisms of life, acquiring a B.A. in biochemistry at the College of Arts & Sciences, Cornell University, Phi Beta Kappa, and a Ph.D. In microbiology from the University of Chicago in the process. After postdoctoral fellowships in molecular biology, I returned to Cornell for a D.V.M. to learn about the body as a whole. For 30 years I have been putting this knowledge into practice at North Castle Veterinary Hospital, which I founded in Armonk, NY.

But there was still a missing piece, and I sought it in the arts, exploring many media but staying with classical singing (for years in the Juilliard Evening Division) and calligraphic art (exhibiting locally, nationally, and internationally). Especially in these two disciplines I found a resonance between artist and spectator, a part of the other that you reached when you fleetingly touched that part of yourself that you hadn't known was there.

Then, through the study of voice, I discovered the Alexander Technique and found it to be a reliable way into that place. It was in the Technique that the scientific and artistic/philosophical aspects of my interests and background finally came together. I saw that it was a practical and biologically-based means of harnessing the mind's influence on the body for their mutual benefit. This was a systematic method for accessing much more of our intrinsic capacities by eliminating unconscious, habitual, self-imposed constraints. And so I underwent the teacher training at ATNYC to become AmSAT Certified to teach the Alexander Technique, because, in the end, to help others keep from pulling themselves down is what we are about.