I left University
with an honours degree in Philosophy and an interest in the theatre. I worked
in Repertory theatre and Theatre in Education and then became one of the founder
members of the popular fringe theatre company, Red Ladder, and worked with
this company for eight years. In my mid-thirties I left the theatre and began
training in the Alexander Technique.
Fairly early on in my training I began to see auras and energy and was advised
to train in psychic development in order to gain an understanding of what
I was experiencing. I trained in England and then in California, at the same
time as completing my training as an Alexander Teacher. Together these were
my first steps on a journey of spiritual development.
I found the two
disciplines worked very well together; in fact it was common for students
of the Alexander Technique to find their intuition and psychic abilities developing
as a result of the muscular releases brought about by the Technique. This
prompted me to write my first book The Art of
Changing, in which I give a thorough explanation of the Alexander Technique
in Part I. In Part 2, I show how
it relates to an understanding of the aura and the chakras, and the human
being as an energy system, and how we can work with our emotional and mental
patterns as well as our physical habits. This
body centred work combined with meditation has formed the basis of my spiritual
practice.
I now call my work Psychophysical
Integration because I work with the physical, emotional, mental
and spiritual aspects of the Self. I base my work on the Alexander Technique
and on a philosophy of the chakras in which they represent the developmental
unfolding of consciousness from the infant, through the child, to the adult
and beyond, with different stages of consciousness developing at each stage
of life. I teach this work both individually, using hands-on, and to groups
in a workshop situation.
In my hands-on work I facilitate a lot of muscular releasing with the student/client
lying fully clothed on the table, as well as working in movement (sitting
and standing, walking, playing an instrument etc.) I 'listen' with my hands,
and together we explore how to release the mental, emotional and physical
aspects of the tensions that surface. I help to balance the energies of the
chakras, in addition to working with the Alexander Technique. Psychophysical
Integration, which has developed out of the Alexander Technique and Chakra
Balancing, in addition to offering many practical benefits, has become a powerful
vehicle for personal and spiritual growth.
In my workshops I teach the developmental model of the Chakras, using experiential
techniques. Participants gain a psychophysical understanding of how their
consciousness develops, from the instinctual survival-oriented consciousness
of a tiny baby, through the sensory and conventional learning of a child into
the more independent thinking of an adult, and how all these parts of their
consciousness are still available to enrich themselves and their lives. Moreover
we can develop consciousness further into more advanced states and in so doing
we are participating in the evolutionary development of our species.
I am based in Devon, and have run workshops all over the world. Recently I
have returned to my interest in theatre and performance, and run several workshops
working with actors and drama students. In my work with actors, in addition
to working upon themselves as performers, they can apply the principles to
working with character in improvisation and scripted plays. I have been involved
in a pilot study working with Performing Arts students at the University of
Chester. More recently still I have begun offering my work to psychotherapists
as a way of working with touch.