Please contact me to discuss whether Alexander Technique is right for you, and to book an initial lesson.
Please contact me to discuss whether Alexander Technique is right for you, and to book an initial lesson.
MA Cantab. mSTAT, ISATT, Dip. ION
Born in North Wales, Penelope’s first love was the natural world, and she studied Biological Sciences at Cambridge university. She came to the Alexander technique in 1983, when she became very stressed and tense while doing PhD field work. The technique helped immediately, and she left science to train, qualifying in 1989. After London, she lived in Sheffield for 14 years, teaching the technique and running a natural health centre, then moved to County Clare in Ireland in May 2005 with her husband and daughter. She now divides her busy private practice between her beautiful studio in Ogonnelloe, overlooking Loch Derg, and a clinic in Clarecastle near Ennis.
Penelope’s work crosses a lot of boundaries. She struggled with ME (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) for thirty years, from which she is now fully recovered. Her return to health has involved exploring many health directions, physical, physiological, psychological and spiritual. She is trained in Reiki, nutrition training (dip. ION) and some Craniosacral therapy and Somato Emotional Release. She has also developed methods of her own, to integrate emotional work and Alexander work, particularly to do with emotional clearing and nurturing, better boundaries and grounding. She will often look for the emotional root behind physical pain, and uses fast methods to clear it. As she works, she always asks the question: what does this individual need right now to move forwards?
She taught in London for two years, and studied further with Miss Margaret Goldie, who had worked alongside Alexander for thirty years, and was probably the closest person to him. Miss Goldie completely revolutionised her understanding of the technique, particularly learning to come to quiet from which the technique can come about naturally in daily life, for stress reduction & clear choice making, and for natural breathing for freedom, and body strength. She also teaches Miss Goldie’s understanding to Alexander technique teachers worldwide.
Stringed instrument playing (she plays violin and guitar, also piano, recorder and sings classical and folk); with pregnancy and childbirth; with vision work (which she sees as fundamental to Alexander technique). She was a dancer and model, and now enjoys yoga, swimming, walking, gardening and running, and applies the technique to each of them.
Penelope has written a longer book about Miss Goldie’s work (published Dec. 2020), and is currently teaching Alexander technique teachers internationally online with this work. She is always developing the Emotions Toolbox work, and will be developing more workshops locally once current restrictions lift. And always waiting for the next challenge to emerge.