The Alexander technique was developed by Frederick Matthias Alexander, and Australian actor whose acting career was threatened by voice problems as he projected his voice on the stage. After trying a number of treatments, and finding that nothing helped to recover his voice except for not using it for a period of time (hardly a solution for an actor) he reasoned that there must be something that he was doing with himself in the process of projecting his voice which was causing the problem.Working with mirrors, Alexander identified a certain pattern of "misuse" of himself whilst using his voice, and he discovered that by improving his use of himself he took the pressure off his larynx which was causing his hoarseness.

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People come to the Alexander technique both to improve their voice for performance (singers, actors, public speakers etc.) and to deal with specific voice problems and disorders. These problems include stuttering, hoarseness, nodules on the vocal folds, lack of projection, lack of clarity whilst speaking, dysphonia, muscle tension dysphonia and spasmodic dysphonia.

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As Alexander technique noted when recording the work he had done with a stutterer, a stutterer stutters with his whole body. The voice is not isolated from the rest of our physical and emotional self. In Alexander lessons the whole "psycho-physical" process of voice production is attended to. This includes dealing with our immediate reaction to using our voice, and the underlying physical restrictions throughout the whole body which contribute to less than optimal performance.