I have spent many a Pilates session teaching clients with severe back pain how to stand, sit, and walk. In these sessions, I have borrowed elements from the Alexander Technique. Learning basic body mechanics while unlearning bad postural habits seemed to help these clients out of pain, and now I have science backing me up on this.
New research from the UK found that patients with chronic back pain treated with the Alexander Technique had many more pain-free days than back patients treated with pain medication or massage.
Alexander patients experienced just three days of back pain a month compared to 14 days a month of pain experienced by patients who received massage, or 21 days of pain experience by patients using pain medication. The Alexander patients had 24 sessions to create this reduction in back pain, but retraining your body does come at a price. Private Alexander sessions come at a high price, upward of $80 for an hour lesson.
If you are interested in trying Alexander, you can find a teacher here. If you are in chronic pain, it might be worth investigating. Some practitioners offer group classes, which are considerably less expensive, or you can buy packages of classes for a reduced price.
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I took Alexander Technique for a semester in college and was completely amazed by the difference it makes. It's mostly subtle changes to how you move and think about moving, but it really helped relieve some of my back and joint pain. I still have my books, this reminded me to go back and read up on it again!