Penelope Easten

Working emotional and physical issues together, I look to bring people out of pain and imbalance, however this may be manifesting. My aim is always to empower people in their own lives; to help them find a more satisfactory relationship with people around them, with family, and with themselves. I see the three cornerstones of healing as rooted in our habits of posture and movement, our emotional habits, and our nutritional patterns. I feel that therapeutic change will rarely be complete if the client does not take ownership of these three aspects of health for themselves. For this reason I have always been drawn to methods that teach people how to look after themselves, and to be able to help themselves long after finishing with a therapist.

I have been an AT teacher since 1989, a method that enables students to change their postural and movement patterns. Our habits are held in the brain and body intelligence. Using thinking and conscious embodied awareness, I teach people to step out of habitual patterning and allow the body’s innate knowledge of posture and movement to emerge. By working on our alignment and movement habits directly where they are held in the nervous system, profound change can happen quickly. My particular approach to this is described in my book The Alexander technique, twelve fundamentals of integrated movement. (Publ. Singing Dragon 2021.)

However, I quickly found that people’s physical habits are often bound up in emotional issues. The AT work involves expansion out of our habitually contracted states, and people who do not feel safe will resist this, or not hold the change. So for twenty years or more I’ve been incorporating various methods of emotional clearance in my work to bring deeper, more lasting change. I am delighted to have found Havening, as it gives even more power and simplicity to this crucial work. I love that Havening also addresses change directly in its neurological roots in the brain.

As people relax during the Havening process, they become increasingly embodied. I see embodiment as another key factor in recovery from any imbalance or trauma.  I have studied the Embodied Present Process work of Philip Shepherd and completed his training in Radical Wholeness. Breath is another crucial aspect of embodiment with which I work extensively. I have also studied Reiki healing. I do nutrition counselling with existing clients when they are ready to address this aspect of their health.

Testimonial: Our last session together was really amazing for me.  I have visited different psychologists in the last 20 years looking to address the same problem, but I never could reach the feelings in myself about my mother as I did with you and the Havening method. I do the Havening touch every day and I am much better now. Thank you Penelope! Krisztina, Budapest