Alexander Technique Inner West

About Penelope Carr

Penelope Carr has over 35 years Alexander Technique teaching experience helping people from diverse walks of life and age groups find ways to improve their posture, mobility and fitness. Penelope has trained Alexander Technique teachers in training schools over 25 years, and was Assistant Director of the Sydney Training School between 1997 - 2007. She is currently an assessor at the Canberra Alexander School. Penelope also teaches weekly Gigong classes online (see separate Natural Therapy Pages page) blending Tai Chi and Alexander Technique. She is a member of the Australian Society of Teachers of the Alexander Technique (AUSTAT). AUSTAT membership is your guarantee that your teacher is professionally qualified.

Penelope spent 15 years as a ceramic artist during which time she suffered from chronic neck and shoulder pain and general heaviness in movement. The Alexander Technique gave Penelope self-knowledge and an awareness of how she thought and its relationship with the tension she experienced in her body. Penelope applied the Alexander Technique and overcame her overuse injuries.  The Technique is still of enormous value in her life.

What is The Alexander Technique?

The Alexander Technique helps students to recover flexibility and physical coordination by relearning the best way to balance, move and restore posture. 

Penelope uses a combination of verbal instruction and gentle hands-on guidance to re-educate the body's natural reflex responses so gravity works in one's favour instead of causing collapse, struggle and pain. 

The Alexander Technique gives us a choice to feel whole and balanced in movement. It s a powerful method of personal transformation. It is a skill for living a better life.

Who Can It Help?

The Alexander Technique is for health-conscious individuals wanting to increase their awareness of, and improve, their everyday use of themselves. The Technique helps with:

- stress, strain and overuse issues from prolonged sitting, using computers/devices, playing instruments and manual work.
- voice or body strain experienced by people in the peforming arts. 
- people who want to improve fitness and avoid injury.
- adolescents experiencing discomfort from growth phases.
- depression, anxiety, breathing issues. 

Penelope has a particular interest in helping people retain their vitality as they age. 

Who was F M Alexander?

F M Alexander was a Tasmanian reciter and actor who developed a disabling voice problem that threatened to end his on-stage career in the 1890s. Through his own research he discovered that his voice problem was caused by tension throughout his body. He taught himself to let go of tension in his head, neck, arms, legs and torso, after which he returned to the stage. From 1930 his Technique became popular and he had a thriving practice in London. Subsequently he trained many students to teach his Technique which is now taught around the world. 

Testimonials

'It's 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 what's 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

Penelope is a wonderful teacher of this 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 stimulate specific organs of the body. Each of Penelope's classes is carefully structured and one emerges feeling calm and lighter. The classes are suitable for all ages to develop bodily flexibility. I 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 reinforces 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)

Well Known Students of Alexander Technique

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.

'Ends and Means' by Aldous Huxley