Lucy teaches in Sheffield and Manchester. Please contact her for more information or to set up your appointment stating which city you are in.
Do you experience aches and pains? Do these limit what you are able to do in any day?
Would you love to move more freely, with less pain, and more enjoyment? Read on because there is information here to help you release unwanted tension so that you can rest, sit, walk and play with more fluidity and ease.
What I offer
- An initial Consultation Session to see if we are a good fit to work together. Talk to me and we can see if a two part Consultation Lesson would be the next step to discover how this work can help support your health and well-being. The initial first hour and a half is £75, then 50 minute second part for £55 = £130
- I offer one to one, Individual Lessons £55 to address your particular challenges and concerns. This work is done using a variety of activities to offer training in these important life skills. Sheffield and Manchester.
- There is an Alexander Technique Posture & Everyday Movement Class Group in Sheffield S11 on Wednesday afternoons for everyone who wants to work in a group putting these ideas and principles into daily use. Booking essential, places limited to 6.
- I share monthly themed Workshops for small groups at the Therapy Room Sheffield – Breathing for Vitality, Calm Presence and Are You Sitting Comfortably? Booking essential, small group.
- I’m happy to give Talks to a group of people – University of 3rd Age, Women’s Institute, church group, Meditation Sangha, book club, etc please invite me.
- I offer nourishing quarterly weekend workshops for colleagues as CPD training for Teachers of the Alexander Technique.
- I am Founder and Director of the Yorkshire AT Teachers’ Summer School in Sheffield since 2015 for qualified STAT Teachers and committed practitioners.
Call me on 0114 230 7980 and 07949 522 655 or email lucyascham@hotmail.com to get started.
What’s in it for You?
- Your spine can regain its full natural length, with ease, and also when moving
- Your head can find its own delicate balance, from moment to moment, reducing tension
- You can learn how you may interfere with your natural balance and coordination (Habits – know thyself!)
- You can learn to undo this interference for more freedom of movement
- Your breathing can be easier, so you’ll have enough fuel for what you are doing
- You may find calm where there was previously stress
- Learn something about yourself you didn’t even know you didn’t know
- Meet your emotions, body and self in a fuller and kinder way
- When things get difficult, learn to slow down, to savour the moment and experience yourself fully and with better coordination and less background tension.
A 5 minute video tour of me and my Teaching Room in Sheffield. Here you can see the space you could come and work in, some of the equipment I use and get a chance to meet me in action.
If you are one of the many people who is looking to take more responsibility for your health – get in touch and take the next step and learn these self-care skills.
Call me on 0114 230 7980 and 07949 522 655 or email lucyascham@hotmail.com to get started.
The discoveries of FM Alexander, now known as the Alexander Technique, are over 100 years old and been used by musicians, actors and sports people to improve their coordination and ability to function at their best even under performance conditions. You too can learn how you are meant to operate – part of this is our evolutionary process, our hardwiring. And our brains have evolved so much that we can learn and change and grow – our software and how we operate. Working with Lucy you can discover some simple anatomy that you didn’t learn at school (professional doctors learn how to use the text book knowledge and apply it to themselves for natural healthy movement).
Knowing about our anatomy, our joints and healthy movement of our heads and spines, shows how we are designed and how to use this design. We can rediscover the way nature intended us to think and move, which can help you sit more comfortably for longer, walk in your shoes more lightly or play your instrument more sustainably.
The choice of activity is yours – the principles remain the same.
The way you use yourself, affects the way you function. So if you are misusing yourself, you will experience aches and pains and stressed joints. It is entirely possible to relearn your movement habits, to make them conscious and move with much better range, balance and enjoyment in everyday life.
Lucy came across the work as a music student in 1989 and was inspired to train as a teacher a decade later. It helped her transform performance anxiety and changed it into excitement and presence. You don’t need to be an athlete or musician to benefit – this is for everyone who has a head and a spine!
My goal is to inspire you so you don’t settle for being smaller or less than you really are. We are all needed here to be exactly who we are and take up our full authentic space. I can help you reclaim your space, and to move more freely in your whole self.
As Shunryu Suzuki (Author of Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind) says “Each of you is perfect the way you are…. and you could use a little improvement.”
The Work, if you wish to do it, it to use your awareness through all your senses, to stop inadvertently interfering with your general coordination and to stay relaxed and free in everyday movements.
I have a box of tissues in my work room as its not uncommon (though not compulsory!) for tears to come as tension in the muscles is released, emotions are free to flow. Sometimes they come with a story, a memory, and sometimes just a flood of feeling, sensation and some water from the eyes.
AT can support you to heal, to gain clarity, courage and voice. I am proud to be a part of this journey of self discovery and do all I can to be there with people, to support and witness the experience, not to fix. I help point out possibilities, to help you become aware of your blind spots, and importantly how to change your thinking to change your movements. There is great potential for healing in this process, but we do not push for a particular outcome, the work helps support the nervous system integrate past experiences, come down from the all too pervasive Fight and Flight mode, and to accompany you each step as fully as possible.
The benefits can be small or huge – incremental and ongoing. Often people experience themselves in a new way, which can be fun or challenging and occasionally a bit weird. When the background tension is released I hear people say – “my arm is longer”, “its not my leg”, or “I don’t know how to stand up!” When we meet ourselves in a new way, the sensations can be remarkable – and we need to find new words to express these new sensations.
People love things which are familiar, so by looking at our thoughts in a new way, we do come to the edge of our comfort zone. With a helping hand and guide, you can find your body’s own wisdom and release out of fight-flight mode a little bit more and more as you meet each situation with freshness, a new mind-set and more freedom to choose how you respond.
I look forward to sharing these and other ideas about this work and more of the unfolding benefits.
Bring your questions, curiosity and your presence.
For every body wishing to increase their self-knowledge and ability to respond and look after themselves, I offer workshops and individual sessions.
For Certified AT Teachers I am offering a series of Ongoing Workshops in Sheffield, every few months, see AT Teachers Programme and in 2015 I established an Intensive 3 Day Summer School which I am the Founder and Director of.
Come on your own, bring a friend or invite me over to your group.
I love to share the beauty of this work with people who are ready to take more responsibility for their health and trust that I can help you learn something about yourself which will make movement easier and more enjoyable.
Now is a good time to call me on 0114 230 7980 / 07949 522 655 or email lucyascham@hotmail.com
I look forward to working with you
Lucy Ascham, WithPoise