Sue Barclay
Alexander Technique Teacher and Yoga Teacher
Alexander Technique Teaching
Sue qualified as an Alexander Technique with the Interactive Teaching Method Association in 2016. Since completing her four year training she has enjoyed teaching the Technique to people of all ages in one to one lessons and group workshops, and she currently teaches the Alexander Technique modules at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
Sue believes that at at any stage of life the Alexander Technique can offer us practical skills for living life with more freedom and ease, and that is is also a powerful tool for change and self-development; if difficulties we are experiencing in our lives are in some way being caused by things we are doing to ourselves the Alexander Technique provides an effective tool for dealing with these kinds of habits and change, unlike any other Sue has come across. In practical terms the work is also surprisingly simple and can be applied to all activities of life.
Benefits can be experienced after your first lesson as you learn practical new skills and basic principles which you can continue to work with when the lesson ends.
One to one and private small group yoga lessons
Sue was was attracted to yoga early in life and went to her first yoga class as a teenager. When she moved to London in her early twenties she studied for 5 years with Ernest Coates, the founder of ‘The School for Living Yoga. Later she became interested in Vanda Scaravelli’s approach to Yoga and she attended a workshop with Sophy Hoare who was one of Vanda’s students. Sophy became Sue’s main teacher for a number of years. When Sue started having Alexander Technique lessons in 2007 she found she was moving more freely and finding more ease in her yoga practice, and Sophy also noticed the change.
Sue is a Yoga alliance certified teacher. She enjoys sharing what she has learnt and teaches Yoga part-time in one to one lessons and small groups working with people of all ages and abilities. She tailors her approach to each individual, encouraging them to find a way of practicing that is suited to their own personal needs and life style. Sue’s knowledge of the Alexander Technique informs her yoga teaching, providing her with a deeper understanding of how to help people develop their practice and move with more ease.
Licensed Dynamic Emotional Integration® Trainer and Consultant
Dynamic Emotional Integration® (also known as D.E.I.) is a leading-edge approach to emotions which is based on the work of award-winning author and pioneering researcher Karla McLaren, M.Ed. In 2017 Sue read Karla’s book, ‘The Language of Emotions - What Your Emotions are Trying to Tell You’. This changed the way Sue related to her emotions and in 2019 she started a year of training with Karla McLaren at the end of which she became a licensed D.E.I. trainer and consultant.
In her work teaching the Alexander Technique Sue often notices how suppressed and ignored emotions are held in our bodies through patterns of muscular contraction and excess tension. In her D.E.I. workshops Sue uses simple artistic practices to help people access and work with their feelings and emotions,
Sue’s background is in fine art; she has a B.A. degree in drawing and painting from Edinburgh College of Art, and has had a successful career as a professional artist. In 2016 when she completed her Alexander Technique training she focused her attention more towards her teaching practice.
With an immediate focus on the Alexander Technique & Dynamic Emotional Integration, book an appointemnts and further understand the benefits in which people often experience, these include:
- Easing of back and neck pain
- Relief from tension and stiffness
- Improved co-ordination and ease of movement
- Enhanced performance and prevention of injury
- Help with rehabilitation after operations, injury or illness
- A more positive mental outlook
- Better awareness of how one uses one's body