Twelve Fundamentals
Book Study Club
with Penelope Easten
If you're reading my book
this club is for you
For teachers and students of:
Alexander technique, yoga, Pilates, Feldenkrais,
movement therapies, tai chi and martial arts,
runners, swimmers and athletes, riders, golfers, skiers,
sports and fitness people,
musicians and singers, actors, performers and dancers,
somatic therapists, massage therapists and physios,
and anyone who wants optimal movement patterns.
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This is more than just another book! There are seven bold new concepts that underlie truly integrated movement
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This book gives you new tools to explore and understand them - take your experience of movement to a different level
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Don't just read about these revolutionary techniques. Learn to live them and teach them to others
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The club gives you ongoing support as you absorb and explore the book
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Attain greater expertise, a strong springy body and calm, confident presence
Deepen your understanding
Learn to live the Alexander technique
Develop your self-work and authentic voice
Refine your teaching
FREE ONLINE SEMINAR
The importance of eyes in Alexander’s work
Thursday 19th March 2026
This has now happened, but you can still ask for the recording.
Email Brenda at [email protected]
3 minute video about the Book Study Club
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The Book Study Club is now split into three phases:
Phase 1 (months 1-6): Quiet aliveness for integrated responsive movement.
Phase 2 (months 7-11): Responsive touching, embodied speaking
Phase 3 (year 2): Finding tone, strength and power
Each phase brings new insights, deepens your understanding, and integrates the Alexander Technique more fully into your life.
Scroll down for more details
Phase 2 (months 7-11): Responsive touching, embodied speaking
Phase 3 (year 2): Finding tone, strength and power
Each phase brings new insights, deepens your understanding, and integrates the Alexander Technique more fully into your life.
Scroll down for more details
Regular seminars
with Penelope
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Live seminar every two weeks to support your learning
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Ask all your questions, discuss the ideas and clarify your understanding
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Work through the explorations live in the seminars with Penelope
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Get practical guidance and coaching on doing or teaching the explorations
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Connect with other readers and explorers
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All sessions are recorded on a secure link, sent to all club members
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Attend in person or watch the recording later
Group members can
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Be matched with a study buddy to work through the explorations together
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Improve your functional anatomy knowledge
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Assess your understanding of each chapter with quizzes and questionnaires
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Join the private Facebook group for sharing and questions
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Share in Penelope's latest discoveries, thoughts and tips
“The book club is a great way of focusing on the material and putting it into practice in a more disciplined way. Penelope always takes time to answer all questions and untangles any misunderstandings in a kind and precise manner. Love being part of this book club and would recommend it to everyone who has bought the book!” Marja Bennett, Sweden
You will discover
How to find your quiet presence to enable deep change.
Find your natural breathing - brilliant for opening tight spines and accessing muscles that have gone off-line.
How to find direct access to the self-organising power of the nervous system
- to free up muscles and joints
- to stay toned and strong
- to regain innate movement patterns
Learn how to unlock your own habitually tight muscles
Plus discover how not to get drawn into your computer!
For teachers and therapists:
Discover and practice a new way of working with your students or clients
The book is a toolbox of proven techniques that work, in person and online, with individuals and groups. Use it to form the basis of a whole course of study for your students, or a wealth of tips to draw on for specific issues.
By mastering these techniques for yourself, you can confidently deliver to your paying clients. You will hone your skills by working with your study buddy and practice students. This gives an opportunity to play with the techniques and find your own way of using them.
Using these skills you can discover a deeper resonance with students and clients, making sessions more satisfying for you both.
“I’ve been trying various experiments almost every day, particularly playing with noticing my own tension and leaving it as it is, while telling myself that I can do less. Playing an instrument requires a certain amount of energy. I feel that by using only what is appropriate and stopping the unnecessary use of energy, things begin to change.
“I have also been trying out many of the ideas and experiments from your book with my flute students. Each student has been gaining a sense of ease or finding their breathing easier. When I shared another idea in my recorder class, I was surprised to hear how much the sound resonance improved.” ” Sachiko Shibayama, flautist and AT teacher, Japan
AT teachers and trainees
Deepen your understanding of the core principles behind hands-on and hands-off work
Learn to guide others through these self-help procedures – invaluable for hands-off work with individuals or groups
Your pupils will finish each lesson understanding what they have learnt and able to apply it for themselves
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Have more tools and procedures at your fingertips
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Learn better observation skills
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Increase your clarity of intent of what is needed in any moment
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Improve your verbal guidance skills
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Find your embodied voice for better communication and trust
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Enhance your ability to stay present and deeply connected to the pupil
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Develop your dialogue with pupils enabling them to discover the technique for themselves
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Option to work towards a certificate in this way of working.
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Exclusive opportunity to purchase video series of Penelope teaching these techniques to pupils.
The new 3 phase programme
Phase 1 (months 1-6) Quiet aliveness for integrated responsive movement.
In the first few months, we’ll discover what it means to live from an expanded field of awareness in full embodiment, with a calm nervous system that can move responsively into life.
This is work I learnt from Miss Goldie:
to stay present to myself and my surroundings, from which movement self-organises and I can make discoveries about the work. Conscious guidance and control emerges from an ongoing state of awareness, and brings me into balance - physically, emotionally, mentally.
We’ll also explore Alexander’s earliest work on breathing. We'll discover how breathing organises and supports the torso; and why for Alexander breathing and inhibition were the cornerstones of his work.
This first phase will take around six months and covers Part 1 of the book.
Phase 2 (months 7-11) Responsive touching, embodied speaking
For those who wish to go further, we then dive deeper into the heart of the technique. We'll explore:
- A deeper understanding of tonic inhibition, and how it enables coordination. We’ll explore inhibition not as something you “do” occasionally, but as a continuous state that allows you to make clear choices and live more decisively.
- Our embodied voice. This allows us to speak without disturbing our 'use', and also discovers the voice that communicates safety and presence - crucial for AT teachers and therapists.
- We'll explore the neurological roots of movement. We'll discover how to move in response to life; as animals do, rather than from fixed ideas and preformed patterns - however efficient!
- Exploring touch: using hands responsively in life, rather than reactively. We'll explore this further for playing instruments / tool use / computer work
- Then for putting hands on AT students and clients, or children and animals
This work covers Part 3 of the book, and much of Chapter 9.
Phase 3 (year 2) Finding tone, strength and power
In the second year, we'll explore antagonistic action; the oppositions or “pulls” that allow full mechanical advantage.
Working always from a calm, embodied place, we explore tone, strength and power as Miss Goldie showed me, with every movement supported by the principles established in the first phase.
We’ll take this into movement in each session, making links to yoga, Pilates, fitness and everyday activity.
This part of the work covers Part 2 of the book, and will include my newer discoveries about the pulls which have become much gentler and more responsive to the whole psychophysical system.
Facilitator
Penelope Easten
Penelope’s story.
I initially read zoology at Cambridge university. I took my first lessons in 1983 and qualified in 1989 from the North London Alexander School (Misha Magidov). After training, my use fell apart, as no-one had taught me to work on myself. This took me to Miss Goldie, who stripped away everything I had learnt, and rebuilt it as she saw the technique should be - a scary process! I worked with her for four years, and that began a thirty-year journey to understand the differences and power of Miss Goldie’s amazing work. It has taken me to many other teachers – including Erika Whittaker, John Hunter, and Jeando Masoero, and to many avenues of exploration and understanding – both scientific and alternative. From age seventeen, I also battled with another 30-year journey - with chronic fatigue syndrome. This is now sorted, but after it I needed to rebuild tone and strength, and increased calm and resilience, which this work has enabled. I have been teaching workshops on Miss Goldie’s work since the Oxford Congress in 2004, in UK, Ireland (including the Limerick Congress), Germany and America. My book: The Alexander technique. The twelve fundamentals of integrated movement was published by Handspring Publishing in March 2021. After 19 years in the West of Ireland, I now live in Edinburgh with my husband and dog, and nearby to my daughter and small grandchildren. I am passionate to share this work that can bring us such renewed vigour, sense of youthful springiness and calm presence.
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“Penelope Easten’s book is brilliantly conceived and presented and I have found the ideas in it to be transformative, allowing me personally to make sense of the Alexander Technique in exciting new ways. If her book resonates with you, I cannot recommend her online book study group highly enough. Penelope runs the sessions superbly and always with her characteristic warmth, good nature and keen listening skills, answering any and all questions, whether they are about concepts from the book or teaching her approach to our students.” Larry Young, USA
FAQs
Q: When can I next join a group?
A: The next group session is on Monday 13th April 2026
Q: When will seminars happen for this group?
A. On alternate Mondays at 2pm UK time
Q. How do I sign up?
A. Email p[email protected] to register your place, then you will be prompted to sign up in early March.
Q: Do I need to be there in person?
A: You can attend in person or watch the recording after.
Q. How long will seminars go on for?
A. Each seminar is 90 minutes long. So for UK time, they will be 2.00-3.30pm
Q. What times will this be in other time zones?
- Central Europe: 3pm
- Eastern Europe: 4pm
- South Africa: 3pm
- USA - EST: 9am
- USA CST: 8am
- USA - PST: 6am
- Japan / Korea: 10pm
Q: Are there fixed hours to do the course?
A: Not at all. The only set times will be the online seminars (on zoom ) but those will be recorded for those who cannot attend in person.
Q: What time commitment is required?
A: Every two weeks you'll need:
- Time to watch the seminar - live or by the recording - 90 minutes
- Read and work on yourself - around an hour
- Work with your study buddy - if you choose to do this: one hour
Total: Around 1-2 hours a week.
Q: Can people join the course at any time?
A: In general, each study group begins together, though it is possible to join within a few weeks of the group's first seminar and catch up. In general, new study groups will form twice a year, in September/October and January/February. Please email Penelope to register interest in the next group forming.
Q: Do I get access to all the club curriculum at once?
A: The learning support is on a drip schedule of two or three weeks for each chapter so the material becomes successively available to you. This is to encourage you to explore each chapter fully and take time to play with it with your study buddy and practice pupil before moving on.
Q: What happens if I get behind? Now life is opening up again it has become much busier.
A: As long as you are subscribed to the club you have access to the material. So if you slip behind this schedule you can work through the material in your own time. If you store the seminar recording links there is no time limit to this.
Q: What happens if I do not understand something?
A: Bring all your questions to the seminars to discuss them with Penelope and the other participants. If you need support between seminars you can ask questions in the private Facebook group which often results in a lively discussion. Where needed for a private matter you can email Penelope directly. You can also post videos of yourself doing a procedure on the Facebook group for constructive comments and help.
Q: Will it run every other Monday all year round?
A: We will take a two week break in early August and two weeks at Christmas.
Loving your Book club! So well organised and with wonderful resources and support! Thank you for sharing your in-depth studies and experience. You are a wonderful listener and are able to communicate and help people whatever is thrown at you... and with no judgement... really admirable! Kay Cady
"As a participant in Penelope Easten's book study group I have found the systematic work-through and discussion of her seminal book The Alexander Technique: Twelve Fundamentals of Integrated Movement invaluable for both my understanding and teaching of this transformational work. The insights of all the participants in the book group have helped me over pedagogical hurdles, offered the support of community endeavor, and been the occasion for laughter and learning. More please!" Victoria Cole, USA