Dr Penelope Jones
Dr Penelope Jones practiced in an Endodontic Practice in Sydney for over 25 years after having been in General Practice in Sydney, Leeton and London for some years. In 1992 she completed 4 years of training to become a Feldenkrais Practitioner and Teacher at La Trobe University’s Lincoln Institute of Health Sciences in Melbourne. Her dental experience taught her what trials and difficulties Dentists and their staff can suffer. In the early days of practicing Dentistry she experienced serious ongoing pain herself almost to the point of having to retire. The Feldenkrais Method became a tool for her to help herself and to begin to understand why Dentists and other seated workers have so many problems. The Method is excellent for addressing the fact that many of our problems come from bad postural habits. Most of us know this but have no way to change it After completing her course Dr Jones then set about creating a series of workshops to address the problems of her colleagues. Mentors such as Beryl Kennedy, Prof Stuart McGill from Canada, Norman Doige who spread the word on neuroplasticity that she learned from Moshe Feldenkrais, have allowed Dr Jones to incorporate into her program a sophisticated functional understanding of core muscles and the use of spiral movement in core strength and flexibility. This is the foundation of strength with flexibility needed for sitting to work. In the mid 1990s Dr Jones began teaching various workshops for the Dental Faculty’s Continuing Education. She taught “Back and Body Care', “the Well Balanced Dentist', “Are you Fit to Sit' and others. In 2001 after a serious car accident Dr Jones had to give up practice and taught basic sciences for some years in the Medical and Dental Faculties of Sydney University. She also used her WorkingPosture and Feldenkrais skills to rehabilitate serious chronic pain issues after the accident. During 2006 she created the “Working Posture' program and began formally teaching it to the Dental students. The program has been very popular with the students and various visitors to the school who were not aware of the program being taught in the school have commented on how good the students posture is.
