Ealing, London

Carmen Barral

Carmen was born in 1958 in Galicia, Spain and came to the UK after graduating in Psychology from the University of Santiago de Compostela. She has been living and working in West London for the last 40 years. She is now a grandmother but has no plans to retire anytime soon.

Carmen had been interested in the somatic nature of emotions, ever since she was at university. She was curious as to why we develop habits of tension in the absence of external physical demands. Following a long spell of chronic back pain, she found the Alexander Technique (AT) to be very helpful. She decided to enrol on the 3 years training to become an AT teacher, graduating in 2005.

During the 20 years she’s been teaching the AT, she’s seen many people who come with chronic tension and musculoskeletal problems. She’s noticed that, in a significant number of cases, the root cause of chronic tension and pain, has a strong emotional component, all be it unconscious.

When in 2011 she came across the Rosen Method, she knew she had found the missing link between psychophysical re-education and psychotherapy. She began her training to become a Rosen Method Practitioner in 2012. In 2014 she started working as a Rosen Method Intern until 2018 when she became a fully Registered Rosen Method Practitioner.

From the very beginning, Carmen found Rosen to be the most inspiring, profound and direct approach to understanding and healing emotional and physical pain. It was, and is, a journey in self-awareness, not in a descriptive or conceptual manner (with which she was very familiar) but through the felt sense in her body, of the whole of herself in the present moment.

Carmen has a practice in London W7 and W5.