The Alexander Technique Centre

Gabriella Minnes Brandes Ph.D. graduated from a three year Teacher Training course in 1988 in Haifa, Israel. Her teachers include Rivka Cohen and Nilly Bassan, in Israel, Patrick MacDonald and Marjorie Barlow in England. She is a member of the Society of Teachers of the Alexander Technique (England), and CANSTAT (Canada). Gaby is also the co-director of The Vancouver School of the Alexander Technique, a CANSTAT certified, three year, teacher training course.

Gaby has maintained an active private practice since 1988 and has also taught the Technique in elementary and secondary schools. She has worked extensively with musicians, singers, actors and horseback riders. She has collaborated closely with orthopedic surgeons, rheumatologists, chiropractors, and neurologists who referred patients for Alexander Technique lessons. She has taught courses in the Alexander Technique at post-secondary institutions (University of British Columbia Faculty of Education, Capilano University Theatre Department and Jazz Studies). She conducts workshops in Israel, the US, and Canada.

Gaby has presented in various professional conferences, where she ran workshops in Alexander Technique and singing with opera singer, Sandra Head, or discussed issues related to teaching the Alexander Technique. She participated in booths that promote the Technique with other colleagues in different wellness shows and exhibitions and was interviewed about the Alexander Technique in a wellness radio show and on CTV news. She has published numerous papers about the Alexander Technique and its applications (see links below). When the CANSTAT Executive was based in Vancouver she served as the secretary of the Council, and she has sat on the Professional Development Committee and the Teacher Training Committee of CANSTAT.

One of the most important elements in her work has been on-going professional development. She sees continuous exploration of her own practice as an essential and integral part of her work in the Technique. Gaby is currently conducting three research projects looking at Alexander teaching training, musicians and creativity, and working with actors using the Alexander Technique. She has worked with Alexander teachers in Vancouver, Israel, the USA and UK. She has also had the opportunity to be a guest instructor in Alexander teacher training programs in Boston, Toronto, Cincinnati, and Haifa.

Gaby also holds a BA in Hebrew and English Literature, an MA in Education and a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction. She taught for twenty years in the Faculty of Education at UBC and currently teaches Alexander Technique in the Theatre Department at Capilano University.