Alexander Technique Berlin

What is the Alexander Technique?

The Alexander Technique is a re-education method that helps you break deeply embedded habits. Through this technique you learn how to recognize habits; how to pause; and help create new neural pathways in the use of your body and mind.

Who is the Alexander Technique for?

Everybody! Although this technique is more well known among dancers and actors it is definitely not limited to the arts. This technique benefits everybody who wishes to learn new ways to use their body in a more harmonic and efficient way. It benefits people with chronic pain; employees who work long hours at their desks; people whose jobs require repetitive movements such as builders, cleaners and gardeners; people who study or are still in school; and even yoga teachers! Speaking from an Alexander Technique perspective: it is not about what you do in life, but how you do it that matters.

How does a lesson work?

Alexander Technique lessons are usually one to one lessons. The lesson lasts 45 minutes. A typical lesson can include table work, chair work, walking and exploring simple movements such as bending over, lifting the arms and bringing oneself to the tips of the toes.

During table work, you lay down on a massage table in the semi supine pose while I use gentle movements of my hands to help release undue tension held in your body.

During chair work we work together to explore ways of sitting and standing from the chair. We uncover your habitual patterns of use and work on re-educating the system to form new patterns.

In the first sessions, the lessons explore simple everyday movements such as sitting, standing, walking, etc. Once you learn new ways of doing these simple movements, you can then start to apply them to more complex movements of life. The technique can be adapted to individual specific wishes such as how to hold a music instrument in a more efficient and healthy way or looking at specific movements that affect your life personally.

How many Alexander Technique classes do I need to start noticing a difference:

Because everyone has different levels of physical awareness, transforming our habits takes different amounts of time. From the first class, you will be given some tools to address the most obvious habits. However, one thing is to mentally know something, another thing is for your nervous system to choose that new pathway. Habits sometimes function in the same way as onion layers, as each one falls away, you get closer to your core. With the first layer gone you will feel lighter and experience a different use of yourself. To begin this work, I recommend a minimum of ten classes.

Pricing scheme:

All prices have a 19% VAT included. If you need an invoice, Smart_Eg will provide one.

Introductory session/ a single class65€
An onion layer (ten classes) 520€
Half an onion layer (five classes)300€

Book a lesson:

You can book a class by filling out one of these forms: single class, half onion layer, an onion layer.

Once you filled the form out, contact me and I will send you your logins on momoyoga so that you can choose the times that work for you. Most classes are on Tuesday afternoons and Wednesday mornings.

Contact me at:

pinelopi (at) englishyogaberlin (dot) com

To find out more about my work and background click here.

Testimonial from Azzurra:

Thanks to my Alexander Technique sessions with Pinelopi and Jörg, I have discovered a liberating sense of freedom and effortlessness. Within just a couple of months, Alexander Technique opened the door to a new “me”: I am more relaxed, agile, and self-reliant in my day-to-day life and my perception of how my body works and what I can do with it has changed dramatically. The best part? Thanks to both the sessions with Pinelopi and Jörg and my daily practice on my own, my body awareness is still evolving every single day in a very exciting way. In the past, I used to tense up and put my body under great pressure without even realizing it, and yet now I can notice pretty fast when it happens, correct my “course of action” letting go of my “old” habits, and take advantage of the healthier habits that became available thanks to Alexander Technique. Depending on what my body needs in a specific situation, I now have plenty of options to choose from and every single day is a new opportunity to get to know my body a little bit better and to improve my flexibility.

Azzurra Camoglio – life coach

Testimonial from Chris L.

We did not learn how to read today! said six year old me after the first day of school. I thought things done in kindergarden (like holding a pencil and sitting in front of a desk for a while) were all the skills needed to soon read each book of the library.

Walking up to the fifth class of AT felt similar to that day. My first lessons of AT had been eye-opening and I saw myself as nearly finished. After double the time, it feels more like I know the basics and have an idea of what is ahead.

Quite like the first years in school and reading for fun. Being able to read, I had seen that some books can actually be the door to endless worlds.

On a physical plane, AT lessons grounded me more securely by rooting my feet better to the ground. The lessons gave my spirit a calmer home to live in by clearing up the ribcage´s mechanisms for better breathing. My head lifts and connects better to the spine and body. The repositioned skull gives my eyes a new perspective to see clearer and even farther. The position feels more optimal because there is less squinting of the eyes and the turning of the head feels more fluid.

Chris L. – at first tentative then positively surprised tester student of Pinelopi for AT – Alexander Technique

Testimonial from Avital Yomdin:

When coming to the course, I did not know what to expect but I trusted Pinelopi completely from years of knowing her as my yoga teacher. Already in the third session, I found a way of dealing with a problem I thought could not be solved: my knees used to crack with every step I took. With a few small adjustments, I now know how to walk in a way that is healthier and easier – and no more cracks!

This continued with every session – in each one a tiny alteration in the way I do the most repetitive movements solved a problem I had or gave me a new way of moving that took so much less effort.

For the last five years, I have been suffering from sudden and very strong pains in my knees – now that I changed how I go up the stairs- they are gone! It sounds like magic, I know. It is not. It is a lot f mindfulness in moments when we are usually on auto-pilot. The results are both subtle and mind blowing simultaneously.

Pinelopi has a way of leading your body in the most gentle, attentive and intuitive way. Her touch alone felt healing, and when combined with her knowledge and intuition, I could not believe the progress me and my body made. I recommend this technique with Pinelopi’s guidance from the bottom of my heart. Give yourself this gift, it is so worth it!

Avital Yomdin – Berlin artist

Second testimonial from Avital Yomdin:

I had written a review shortly after having my 10 sessions with Pinelopi. I was already so impressed, but now that more time has passed, I feel like I have to write again. In the past few days, I have felt several times a day how these sessions affect me. When I’m in pain, I go into the semi-supine pose without thinking of it. My body remembers the impulses and corrections Pinelopi gave me, and I find myself melting into the floor. Normally, that is all it takes to release the painful tension. But yesterday, something happened that shocked me completely: I found myself running, and I really needed to catch a bus. My body tensed up so much and was hurting all over within seconds, but I had to catch that bus. Suddenly, while running, I started to gently send notes to my body – like the ones I do when I want to find the balanced standing pose: find the center of the feet, soften the knees, release hip joints , back like a sail, shoulders to the side, and the neck free. The pain dissolved. MID-RUN. For me, this feels almost like science fiction. It’s not – it’s Pinelopi’s guidance. I truly cannot recommend this amazing teacher more.

Testimonial from Katherine Spingarn:

I have learned to love Alexander Technique through Pinelopi.  I started to take lessons with her because I was suffering from lower-back pain exacerbated by my work in preschools.  The lessons began as traditional Alexander Technique lessons, but when I told her that I really never sit in chairs for adults, she immediately began to think up movements specific to my life that we could explore and add to the lessons.  She is always excited to hear about what I discover about my body between lessons and how the lessons have begun to become present in my daily movements.  Pinelopi has a very clear and confident touch and asks for consent to touch you, both of which make it easy for me to trust her with my body and my boundaries. 

The repetition of Alexander Technique has really worked for me.  After 10+ lessons in Alexander Technique and Pinelopi’s Yoga and Alexander Technique classes, I notice how the sayings in AT are so routine now that they are accessible to me during my crazy work days.  When I sit at the rowdy lunch table with a bunch of kids, I can think “back is back” and release my lower back and am almost to the point that I can think of the space above my head as I repeatedly sit down and stand up from my child-sized chair to refill dishes of food.  This is big for me, as my body and my physical needs are the last things I think about during my work day.  I notice that through my new awareness of my movement patterns and the AT tools to divert those movements to new ones, my back and stomach have gotten much stronger and my pain much less frequent.  AT is not a quick fix for a problem, but rather a technique that becomes slowly integrated into your life and pops up more and more frequently as you begin to become more aware of your body. These classes feel like an investment in my current and future health.

Katherine Spingarn- Pre-school teacher

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