Graduation Year
2019
Document Type
Open Access Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Dance
Second Department
Biology
Reader 1
Gail Abrams
Reader 2
Jenna Monroy
Terms of Use & License Information
Abstract
The following thesis posits training in the Alexander Technique as a possible solution to address the comorbidities of poor body image and reduced feelings of efficacy in patients treated for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS). Both literature and personal accounts of AIS highlight that current conservative methods of treating AIS offered by the Western medical sphere, including observation, bracing, and physical therapy, do not adequately address, and may actually exacerbate, negative mental health symptoms. Patients are often represented as their external orthopedic diagnosis and receive limited emotional guidance in exploring their internal feelings about their body and its capabilities. Alexander Technique offers an approach to body work in which the mind and body are undeniably interrelated; therefore, it could combat the negative mental health symptoms brought on by the physical diagnosis and treatment of AIS. To test this hypothesis, an experiment is proposed to compare the holistic health outcomes of observation, bracing, and Alexander Technique in patients with AIS.
Recommended Citation
Nishioka, Ana, "Integrating Alexander Technique into Treatment of Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis to Improve Patient Quality of Life" (2019). Scripps Senior Theses. 1524.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/1524
Included in
Alternative and Complementary Medicine Commons, Dance Movement Therapy Commons, Movement and Mind-Body Therapies Commons, Musculoskeletal System Commons, Therapeutics Commons
