Alexander Technique Balmain

About Us

Penelope Carr has been a practitioner of the Alexander Technique at her Rozelle clinic for the past 35 years, working with people of all ages and from all walks of life to help them achieve more with reduced effort.

We always have a choice, either to be whole and well-integrated, or to be thrown off balance and wrestle with life. Tapping into our natural reflex responses we get back into balance instead of collapsing into a heap. Gravity no longer drags us down but becomes our friend and ally.

What is it?

The Alexander Technique is a natural method that can be learned by anyone interested in recovering the flexibility and physical coordination they enjoyed as children. It is a way of becoming more aware of balance, posture and movement in everyday activities.

The technique is taught through dialogue and gentle manual guidance. All that is required is a willingness to change and to pay attention to the innate intelligence of our bodies.

Recognised as one of the most powerful methods of personal transformation, this re-education technique is a skill for living life better.

Who is it for?

Do you favour one leg over the other? Do you suffer from depression? Do you have difficulty breathing? Do you hold your head to one side? Do you experience headaches, back or neck pain, problems with joints? Do you pull your shoulders up towards your ears? Do you suffer from stress and anxiety?

If you answered 'yes' to any of these questions, you will benefit from the Alexander Technique. It is for health-conscious individuals wanting to increase their awareness of, and improve, their everyday use of themselves.

Actors, musicians, singers, public speakers, athletes, health professionals, teachers, tradespeople, computer operators. People of all ages and from all walks of life, including fast-growing adolescents, benefit from acquiring this skill for life.

Who was Alexander?

F.M. Alexander was born in Tasmania in 1869. He was a successful reciter and actor until a disabling voice problem threatened his career.

After consulting doctors and voice teachers he found they were unable to help him. He then set out to discover the cause of his problem. Over many years of patient observation he was able to free his voice and change his thinking, freeing his whole body including his head, neck, arms and legs.

He returned to the stage and in London in 1930 he began to train students as Alexander teachers. Today there are many Alexander teachers practising and teaching throughout the world.

Penelope Carr

I have been practising in my Balmain clinic for the past 35 years, after 15 years as a ceramic artist. As an artist and a practitioner of Qigong, I was aware that what I did with my body and how I thought about moving, directly affected the way I felt. I suffered from chronic neck and shoulder pain and general heaviness in all my movements. For me, the Alexander Technique gave me self-knowledge and an awareness that is of enormous value in my life now.

As well as running a successful private practice, working with people of all ages and from all walks of life, I have trained new teachers of the Alexander Technique for 25 years at Balmain, Artarmon, Surry Hills and St Leonards. I am now teaching at Cabarita.

I also run two weekly Qigong classes, blending Tai Chi and Alexander Technique.

I was appointed one of the first moderators in Australia. I have previously moderated the School for FM Alexander Studies in Melbourne and the Canberra Alexander School.

In all of my sessions I draw on my extensive personal experience in music and voice training, yoga, qi gong, positional release, jin shin jyutsu and psychodrama.

I am a member of the Australian Society of Teachers of the Alexander Technique (AUSTAT). AUSTAT membership is your guarantee that your teacher is professionally qualified.

I continually update my skills through postgraduate study with leading international teachers.

Testimonials

What people have said about the Alexander Technique

Its hard to find an Alexander teacher, or person of any kind, with the type of patience and expertise Penelope has. She cleverly combines the three major schools of Alexander thought with very gentle instructions. Her caring personality is a great addition to whats already a model for others to follow.

Clarinetist, Sydney

I have been learning Alexander Technique for 18 months and my body now feels like a well-oiled machine, not the stiff, tired old thing it was before. My physical awareness has increased significantly, as has my emotional and mental awareness, giving me a more centred and grounded feeling than I have enjoyed for many years. Surprisingly, my diabetes has also improved my HbA1c levels have decreased, possibly due to better organ function as a result of greatly improved posture and perhaps through reduced stress as well. I am using less physical effort to move than I used to because I have better posture and I am more aware of moving with less effort. I am much calmer and I am not operating in overdrive like I used to, and I am still learning.

Sales and Marketing Director, Sydney

I recommend the Alexander Technique as an extremely sophisticated form of rehabilitationmany types of underperformance, and even ailments, both mental and physical, can be alleviated, sometimes to a surprising extent, by teaching the body musculature to function differently.

Professor Nikolas Tinbergen, 1973 Nobel Prize recipient for physiology/medicine, Science, July 1974

I have been learning Alexander Technique for over a year now and its the first time in my life I felt that my spine was longer than my legs. I have always known my spine was longer but it had never felt like it was.

Nurse, 49 years young

You translate everything, whether physical, mental or spiritual, into muscular tension.
F.M. Alexander

The hardest thing to attend to is that which is closest to ourselves, that which is most constant and familiar, this closest something being precisely ourselvesIn the Alexander Technique, a means is at hand whereby this task may be successfully accomplished.

Professor John Dewey

The Alexander Technique gives us all the things we have been looking for in a system of physical education relief from strain due to maladjustment and consequent improvement in physical and mental health and, along with this, a heightening of consciousness on all levels. We cannot ask more of any system; nor, if we seriously desire to alter human beings in a desirable direction, can we ask any less.

From Ends and Means by Aldous Huxley

Penelope is a wonderful teacher of this ancient form of exercise. She demonstrates the movements very precisely and is attentive to the needs of individual students and open to questions. Qigong is a gentle discipline of movement with an ancient tradition and the movements are aligned to stimulating specific organs of the body. Each of Penelopes classes is carefully structured and one emerges feeling calm and lighter. The classes are suitable for all ages and they develop bodily flexibility. We highly recommend Penelopes classes.

Joan (retired academic)

Penelope is a qigong teacher par excellence. Her teaching style is informative and relaxed and she communicates the importance of strength in gentleness through her demonstration of the movements. Penelope makes subtle adjustments to participants postures that reinforce where alignment is required therefore enhancing the qigong experience. Penelope has a great ability to impart her knowledge and experience of qi in the movements and sequences of qigong. I would encourage anyone curious about qigong to learn from Penelope.

Julie (student)